Friday, February 12, 2010

It's snowing AGAIN!

I know.  I know.
I'm lucky to be here.
Fine.

But the idea of having to be intimate with a snow shovel just doesn't work for me.  They need this stuff in Vancouver at the moment.  Not Vienna.  Not Alabama.
Certainly not Texas.
What's going on with that?
I had this idea that "going south"  for the winter meant getting somewhere warmer.  Apparently heading to B.C. in the winter months should be a consideration.

Either that or just hibernate.

Certainly more cost effective.


Winters can sometimes be unpredictable,  but I do scrunch my face up just a bit when I see the meteorologists from such outfits as the Weather Channel (American all the way)  talking about how it's going to rain in Vancouver for the opening ceremonies.   It's Vancouver ya retards,  it rains.  There won't be any skiing in the lower mainland,  so who cares?
They didn't even bother to put Vancouver on their "map".  Such great coverage.

OK,  I'll get down off my soapbox now.

So what can I tell you about Prague?

For the most part I guess I found it quite compact,  from a getting around point of view.  The tour we took of the old city covered not much more than a five block radius?  I'm just guessing here.
 You don't need to be too much of a history buff and really,  you only need to be semi-concious to be aware of all the "stuff"  that's been going on there over the last say,  1000 years?   There was the foundation of a chapel they found on the site of the Prague castle going back to the ninth century.
There's the notion that the Catholic Religion actually came from the east,  from the Greeks.  There's the answer to the question as to why the Czechs are using the Latin alphabet and not the Cyrillic alphabet.
Many questions were answered.


On the other end of the time line,  Wenceslas Square,  as seen in the photo above,  was where the Russians came in with their tanks back in 1968.  Seems Dubcek was making the Soviets nervous.
Too many liberties were being taking with censorship and the press.  The commies couldn't have that.
This theme of not wanting to be repressed has shown itself throughout Czech history,  since there's a whole list of artists and musicians who ended up in Prague at some time or other to be able to work freely without interference from either the State or Nobility.

Mozart comes to mind.





You could figure that out,  right?

Well,  apart from being a bloody genius,  Wolfgang was a bit of last minute kind of guy,  who wrote out the overture to Don Giovanni on October 29, 1787.   If you happen to watch the movie Amadeus,  there's a scene in there where a messanger is running copies of the overture from Mozart's apartment to the Opera House.   And yes,  it was filmed on location.  No need for a big elaborate set.   Just go to Prague.

The Opera House still looks the same....





Sorry about the objects in front.  Didn't know whom to ask to have them moved.

The apartment was directly behind me.  Didn't get a picture.  Sorry.  Apparently though,  it's for rent.

The only real "problem" I had with Prague,  was trying to fit all the history into my pea-brain.  Even when I was much younger and well,  a bit smarter,  I always had issues with keeping historical facts straight. 
I'm now thankful for the Internet,  since at least now I can look stuff up.  I might not remember it for more than five minutes,  but still....

Now,  if you're somehow desperate for more pictures from Prague,  I've put some on Facebook.  It's OK,  you needn't be a "friend"  to see them here.
It's a public link.

Go crazy.

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Well, I've been getting too many spam comments showing up. Just a drag, so we'll go another route and hope that helps. So, we won't be hearing anything more from Mr. Nony Moose.
I guess I'll just have to do without that Gucci purse.