Pragurkreece: The Jet-Lag Recovery Edition

Double disclaimer: this blogragge will be sort of hilter-jilter and I'll try to keep it to one post per city but some things deserve a post all their own (I'm looking at you, Turkish bath).  And then also, our camera began to death-rattle the day we got to Prague and died in over-exposurey glory in Ephesus, so many of the following photos are Mike and Leah's.  Thanks, guys.

Ok so.  Late in July I went camping and Joel wrote the USMLE and then we both went camping which I will tell you about some day because we borrowed a dog and it was awesome, and then we threw some things in a suitcase and went to Prague.  Via Heathrow.  Where I thought we had a 2-hour layover but where we actually only had about 45 minutes and Heathrow?  Is really big.  We took a metro to make our connection and we weren't even leaving the terminal.

We left Vancouver at 8 pm and got to Prague at 6 pm the next day, because Prague is both far away and in the future.  Also, it is full of dogs.  And not full of random feral dogs like Thailand is full of dogs, but full of people's dogs.  People bring their dogs into the restaurant and the waiter brings it a dish of water and it sits under the table and this is amazing.

H'anyvays.  Mike and Leah picked us up from the airport and showed us their place of employment and made us dinner and plied us with beers and basically tried to keep us awake until a reasonable hour to counter the jet lag.  I slept a full nine hours, but when I woke up at 9 am it was midnight on my body clock and I felt like I should hunker down for another night's sleep.

Instead we went adventuring.  On the one hand, Prague is exactly how it looked in my mind, which is to say old, and cobbled, and almost fakey-looking because it is so pretty.

On the other hand, it is full of random shit.  Like these penguins.

Or the John Lennon wall.

Or, and this was my favorite because we had just walked over Charles Bridge (which is heavily be-statued with saints and shit) or something else historicky and then Leah is like, Brace yourself coming around this corner, and then we come around the corner and Hey!  Enormous iron babies.

The hell, right?  David Černý, you have a crazy brain.

Visiting a city with people who know the city is lovely, because you get to see all the things.  Prague is full of things, and we have a great many pictures like this:

And this:

And while you are seeing all the things, you make a List of Things you want to do when you have more than one day in Prague.  Like flaming absinthe shots.  And then, after you have seen all the things, you still have time to go shopping for a Turkey-propriate maxi dress and come up empty-handed (because even though it's late-July, it's fall for all retail intents and purposes) and pause to take in the unexpected Folklore Festival with its various Folk and their impromptu dancing and then go for dinner and roll into bed at a reasonable hour because you are going to Turkey the next day.