Tuesday, July 29, 2008 Off to Poland Today!
Good Morning everyone,Just had our lovely breakfast in the basement room of the Golden Tulip Hotel in Prague, it was an international experience...we heard Chinese, Italian, Farsi, French, German, American....Last night Dave and I walked around to the center of town and enjoyed people watching beneath the lit up buildings of the square, especially the enormous twin spires of the most goth looking cathedral...it is lit with white light, had dark grey spires that are lit from within with golden light, spheres of gold light adorn the tops...and there are two decorative buildings built PLUNK DOWN right in front of what would've been the entrance! What is that about?Anyway, it creates an eerie presence above the encrusted like a decorated cake buildings. We also walked down to the river and watched 30 white swans in the dark water. A man came up to us to motion that the spiders were coming out beneath the concrete railing (he'd been watching us, and saw me brush something from my arm). We thanked him and moved onto the bridge. A little later that same man came to us, cupping his hands, pleading for money. I gave him 50 cz piece. He looked at it and thanked me. Then he walked away, but I watched him make eye contact with a youngish lad (17 or so) wearing an ipod, baseball cap backward and light blue shirt. I watched the lad make eye contact with a security guard type guy. Then the lad followed us down the street. (We'd been closely followed the night before in the square also). We finally ditched the young guy. I noticed a different man coming toward us, then he was following us also. It was a bit creepy. I wouldn't let Dave slow down the pace till we reached the square, full of people.We read in the local paper that the theft of US passports was way up in Prague, but of other nationalities it was down. Most are stolen when entire backpacks/purses are taken, or through scams in the nightclubs with bogus policeman asking for them.Anyway, this is an exciting city, but it doesn't feel safe.