Prague Vacation Photos

Today I chose to ignore my work and instead scanned some of the photos I took from my vacation in Prague. Hope you like them...

A view of the lovely city itself, including the Charles Bridge and the Vltava river:

My gracious hosts, Matthew Trafford (left) and Linda Besner (right), and fellow freeloader Katie Bryniak (back), as we dine by candlelight on the "table" (actually an old broken door that Matt and Linda salvaged):

The most elaborate clock I've ever seen, built in the 15th century and located in the Old Town Square:

Linda with an unidentified tree in the old town:

Prague has got some seriously wonderful churches:

All kinds of architectural adventures, from gothic ...

to modern:

I found a store which sold nothing but babushka dolls. Some serious cultural collisions in this shot--see if you can spot the Britney Spears or Osama Bin Laden dolls:

Prague is also famous for its puppets ...

and random sculptures:

This is a stained glass window made in the 1940s, advertising the communist "Tesla" radio station:

The old Jewish cemetery:

When I first arrived, Trafford and Besner had no light bulbs in the kitchen, so this is me making veggie burritos with a head lamp. 'Nuff said:

We also celebrated Easter while I was in Prague, so Linda and I painted a bunch of eggs. Linda made some nice eggs, while my proudest contribution was the "Easter Bunny Robot of Doom" egg (see below):

The city has some nice graffiti tucked away on the side streets:

A karaoke bar, Czech-style. Live band, no tv screens, western pop tunes sung in Czech, a ceiling that rolled back during set breaks to let the cloud of cigarette smoke drift away. Plus a seriously inebriated karaoke enthusiast (bottom right) we refered to as "tie-dye guy":

A bonfire at the edge of town on the Vltava river, courtesy of my hosts' friend Johnathan Shef. We drank fire-warmed medovina (honey wine, not unlike mead), made 'smores and told stories:

Thanks a bunch to Matthew and Linda for a great time. And if any of you are interested in coming to Scotland for your vacation, don't be shy--I feel like I'm due for another one already...

Posted by matt at May 14, 2004 02:26 PM