And the crowd goes...crap

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  Prague, Czech Republic
Sunday, June 18, 2006

That's, of course, in reference to the US draw against Italy last night, making it nearly impossible for us to advance in the next round of the World Cup. If we beat Ghana by, say 4 or 5 points, well then we'd do it, but based on Ghana massive destruction of Czech, who beat us last week, well it's hard to be optimistic. Anyway, so we watched the US match last night in the pub below our hostel, with lots of screaming Americans and booing Italian fans. It looked like we had won in the second half, till a questionable call took away a beautifully executed goal...but, I can always root for Spain I guess. But before all that, we took another easy day, as it was an overcast, lazy Saturday and Jill seemed to be feeling worse. We did go down to the old Jewish quarter and walk around, infiltrating several French tour groups on accident. They were very informative. For instance, I learned that I don't understand French at all. Huh.

cool statue near another opera house

We also saw the Czech Metronome, which for some reason is this huuge metronome perched on the hillside overlooking the North side of the Vltava, and keeping about 10 second time intervals. I think all the street accordion and washboard-spoon players use it to keep time. And, uh we just wandered around some more and admired the great barroque and gothic architecture, winding diagonal alleys and the amazing miscellany of people. And, of course, we had a couple Budvar steins--the local and original version of America's most popular beer. It's MUCH better here, as it has no preservatives and it's just closer to the source.

Today we got up pretty early, had our free breakfast, and Jon, Jill and Kelly went on a guided tour of the castle and cathedral. Having already seen them, I opted not to pay for the tour, and we were supposed to meet up at 2 at the tourist office in the Staromestka square, after I went on a mad hike to this little park on the opposite mountain from the castle, but apparently the tour went longer than expected. So I've just been beatin around the city, stopped at a little cafe and had a delicious salad--my healthiest meal in days, and am hoping they'll show up back here at the hostel before dinner. I tried to buy some athletic shoes here with better arch support than the ones I've got, but I've come to the conclusion that everybody in Europe is flat-footed. The lady at the shop spoke no English, but through a series of grunts and charade-motions seemed to get across what I wanted, and she indicated with a shake of the head and something like -Ne talcone meinkszee vieklrsk-- that she did not have any. So I said -Djekwei, and she said -Prossim and my arch is still bothering me.

Tomorrow we'll spend a few hours seeing a last little glimpse of Prague, and then we hop on a train to Vienna, where we apparently have a pretty nice place to stay, and cheap, and I think they may have satellite TV. Which probably means 20 stations of German soaps and maybe the BBC. Sweet. Well, I hope to be able to uplad photos from Vienna, as I have NO idea what the error message I keep getting at this computer means. Espero que todos vayais bien. Later.

-Matt

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

fireworks on the vltava	Golden Domed National Museum	Jon and Jill at our Favorite Prague Restaurant	Jon and Jill in front of the royal opera house
Jon in front of the Powder Tower	Jon, Jill and Kelly in Staromestka square	me and jon on charles bridge	Old Town Square (Staromestka Namesti)
one of the statues on charles bridge (karlovi most	Pikachu samples Pragues best	river boat on the vltava	sun shining through clouds on the vltava
sunset from karlovi most	The Whole CREW for once

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