Let's see, where were we? Oh yes, still at the castle. (I did most of my sightseeing that first day, since the rest of the trip was spent half in an absinthe haze and half at the conference.)

Anyhoo, this next area was known as The Golden Lane. I think there was a story about why it was painted so many bright colors, and I think it related to poverty (the servants all lived here), but I might just be thinking of the episode of the Simpsons where they go to Brazil. Anyway, at one point all of the alchemists of the kingdom lived on the Golden Lane (hence the name, I think). I also think Franz Kafka lived in one of these houses briefly (the light blue one on the left that you can barely make out).

Most of these little houses are now shops and tourist attractions (hey, I was attracted.) Some are quaint little handmade items (wooden toys, etc.) and at least one was a chain store that sold natural soaps and such (and I only know it wasn't unique because I saw the same store down by my hotel later in the trip!) Anyway, of course the one I was attracted to most was the armory.

Most of these little shops were also museums, so you could go in to look at old armor and weapons behind glass, and you could also buy some replicas (at ridiculously cheap prices). I could've gotten a horned helmet for somewhere around $45!! I just didn't think it would travel well on an airplane.

Sooooo many good helmets. I'd kill for the winged one!

The armory museum also had a few swank old dresses (I'd wear them every day if I had them):

There was also a little crossbow range inside one of the buildings! I didn't think it was safe for me to pick up a crossbow though, and frankly I suspect even the Czech have laws against me holding weapons, so I skipped this part.

This was just a little opening in a wall someplace, and it was extremely dark inside, so I could barely tell what was there. How to solve the problem? My camera flash! It turned out to be some sort of museum-y torture chamber. I think it would've been best kept in the dark. (Or maybe Vegas).

Another of the little shops was a musical instrument shop, (or more properly, a shoppe, I would imagine). Anyway, I had to avoid going too deeply inside there or my overwhelming desire to learn to play the violin would've really gotten the better of me. However, these amazingly cool old turntables looked doubly-swank all covered in dust and character.

I also stumbled upon an old jail in the castle, which was actually pretty terrifying. It was down a tiny staircase, and it was extraordinarily dark and covered in cobwebs. It didn't help that i was the only person in the area at the time, and the sun was going down soon. It definitely added to the mystique though.

There was a very crazy keyhole window cut into the random side of one of the outermost castle buildings, and it was pretty darn spiffy.

There was also a crazy cool sculpture (I think I had left the castle grounds at that point) dated sometime in the 1980s or 1990s, if I'm not mistaken. It was just entirely too dark and strange not to document.

I'm pretty sure my castle trip was the end of that first day, and I went back to my hotel and fell dead asleep even though it was still vaguely light out. I totally skipped out on dinner with the conference delegates, but I was pretty proud that I made it most of the day without falling asleep anyway. I think I woke up around 11pm local time and watched Sumo Wrestling (the words "ass-grabbing exhaustion" came to mind) and Ally McBeal in Czech (it almost makes the dialogue good!) The rest of these pictures are pretty randomly scattered throughout the next 3 days of the conference, so they aren't in any semblence of order really.

My hotel was a mere few feet away from the Charles Bridge, one of the most famous and incredibly busy tourist attractions in Prague. It's lined with statues (each of which has its own story and character, almost none of which I remember at this point), and it's also lined with local artisans and merchants selling their handmade wares, or in some cases just hanging out and playing music. (There's nothing like seeing a dixieland band on a bridge in the Czech Republic). Anyway, these are a couple of the statues and the view from the bridge. (AS much of a tourist attraction as it is, it was amazing, and I even bought a mounted photograph from one of the merchants.

Here's one of the musicians that I hung around and listened to awhile. He was amazing, and you just don't see many people playing a hurdy gurdy in this day and age.

And another view from the Bridge:

This is the bridge tower (if I had Scott's vegas panoramic camera, I would've been able to take one shot instead of 2 awkward crooked shots that i'm too lazy to fuse together!)

Prague had the cutest street signs ever! (Which I had plenty opportunity to see, repeatedly, at length, when one of the crazy Aussies that I ended up with for most of the trip got us lost around Prague! Frankly, better him than me, since I'm famous for my inabiity to navigate. At least this way I got to be lost and wandering and not have it be my fault!)

Some more amazing architecture I saw in my wanderings (although soon after this I was kidnapped by the Australians and most of what I got to see were various restaurant basements, blurrily, through the absinthe fog).

I thought this was a really cool image, as the sun was getting ready to set. If I ever had a band, I would use this as an image on my album!

And then, the sun set! (Not that you can possibly tell what it looked like from these pictures.)

Here is what I drank when I wasn't drinking delicious Staropramen Beer (which I have not found in either New Jersey or Oregon) or Pilsner Urquell (which I have indeed found here, but have discovered that it isn't terribly delicious in a bottle. Apparently, you have to have it fresh on tap, or don't have it at all!) Between those things and Absinth, my thirst was well-quenched. Diet Coke (sorry, Coke Light), was actually pretty repulsive. It was terribly sweet, and for all I know it was made with some deadly killer of a sweetener that was outlawed in the US years ago. The beer was actually the safest thing to drink. Then again, the food was pretty amusing from a vegetarian standpoint. One place had 5 potato dishes as their only available sidedishes. Another place had, as their vegetarian meal, "cheese steak in breadscrubs and fried". Czech food rocks.

This next picture is actually quite cool. You can see the Hebrew writing on the crucifix, and I believe it says something designating Jesus as the Lord and Savior. The story is that a Jewish man was arrested for defacing the statue at some point in the past, and so he was forced to pay for the addition of the Hebrew words as punishment. I bet that story was a lot better when I actually remembered it.

I did take one more excursion on my own, between dinner with the crazy Aussies (where several spiders actually dropped on us) and late nights of drinking and clubbing with all the other lunatics, and that one last excursion was to the Jewish quarter of Prague. There's a huge amount of history there spread out over several synagogues (at least one of which was built back in the 1200s) throughout the area. The most amazing thing there is the Jewish Cemetary, which is so amazing that I cried. It was used from the 1400s until about 1800, I think, and as crowded and sad as it looks, you don't even see the half of it. Or a tenth of it. There are 11 more layers underneath the top layer, containing something like 15,000 additional graves. I believe the reason was directly related to the Nazi occupation of a nearby area, but I don't know the entire story anymore. It was simply amazing.

That last gravestone is that of Rabbi Loewe, the legendary rabbi who is rumored to have raised a Golem using the true name of God and the Kabbalah, and some code which was given to him while he slept. The story was that the Jews in the area were suffering so much that Rabbi Loewe asked god for help, and received instruction to raise the very clay from the ground into the form of a Golem (which was such a big deal because only God was supposed to be able to give life). It was also rumored that when the Golem expended its usefulness, it was stored in the attic of this building (which I think was part of either the Pinkas Synagogue or the Old-New Synagogue, but I could be wrong about the name of the building - but I'm sure this is the attic!) It was said that once the attic was unsealed after many years you could see the outline on the ground of the giant golem. (I found this link to the story of the golem, but it has the rabbi's name incorrect, so who knows how accurate the rest of the story is! As a legend, I guess this is as good as any other version).

This was another building of the Jewish Museum, but I can't remember which one. It might have been the one directly connected to the cemetary, but again, it's been 5 months!

In case I didn't mention the spiders, there were too many of them. Honestly, if you sat in the outdoor cafes or courtyards, you only had to look up to see my worst nightmare. Or if you were particularly unlucky (like me) they would just lower themselves right down to visit you. It's like Oregon, only worse, if you can imagine that!

Well, there was lots more that I saw and did in Prague, but my camera stayed home for most of it. Before I left I grabbed one small group shot of some of the people I spent most of my time with (and FYI, I'm 5'10", so you can just imagine how tall those damn Aussies next to me are!!)

That said, I took one last picture to document my watery tomb (I had to shave in the bathroom sink, so my legs were a bloody mess by the end of the trip!)

And then one quick shot of the thin and one-would-imagine-uncomfortable bed from the hotel, which turned out to be the absolutely most comfortable thing I've ever slept upon. I want one for my own house. Do you see how thin that matress is?!

Then, after another 12 hour flight (luckily no rude Frenchmen this time), I landed at JFK in New York only to learn that the power was out through most of the eastern United States and no one knew why. They left us sitting on our plane for an hour or two, and then we had to be let out onto the runway since there was no way to get the little walkway thing out to the plane. We finally drove home, hours after me and my absinth came through customs, to see a lot of people walking over the brooklyn bridge and a lot of dark buildings, which you can see in these photos I swiped from various places on the internet!!

Maybe more next year!!