Good Morning! Well, it’s morning for me. Maybe it’s still late night for you. Perhaps you are enjoying a good bit of Conan (oh wait he’s on earlier now…so Jimmy Kimmel?) or Stephen Cobert. Regardless, I’m about to brave the subway to the airport which is a little out of my 5 stop comfort zone, so we’ll see how this goes. If I make it back to America, it went well. If not, well…

Speaking of subways, this is what my (see, I’ve been here 3 days and it’s already my subway station) looks like:

It’s not as nice as the German and Austrian subway systems but way better than the T in Boston. Maybe just a step above the Metro?

So, where was I? Oh yes, I just got back to Prague from Terezin.

Well, when I got back I was exhausted. Although it didn’t seem like it at the time, it was an emotionally draining experience.

I didn’t want to be in a funk all day so I decided to check out the one museum I missed up at the Prague Castle. The Lobkowicz Museum is a small museum displaying the collection of the Lobkowicz family. The Lobkowicz Family is from the 14th century and currently still exists. In fact, when walking through the museum, there is an audioguide (!) narrated by William Lobkowicz, who is technically a prince, but currently manages his family’s estate. William grew up in Boston because his grandfather was forced to flee Czechoslovakia during WWII so he’s the first non-British audioguide I’ve had. What’s even funnier is when his mother gives a little explanation of one of the rooms in a southern drawl.

The museum wasn’t very big, but has some majorly impressive stuff, like portraits of all their ancestors wearing jewels that are also in the museum. It’s definitely history come to life. They also have some original scores written by Beethoven and an impressive collection of armor and guns. In fact, Beethoven’s Fifth was dedicated to a Lobkowicz. The museum had gotten a lot of hype so I was skeptical, but it definitely lived up to it all.

Also, I saw this picture like five times while walking through the castle. Does this guy look like Andy Samburg from SNL to anyone else??

Remember that Trdelnik I had the other day? Well this is how they are made. I had another one today, but this one was topped with sugar, vanilla, and almonds. Yum!

Then, since I didn’t want to get too upbeat today, I headed to the Museum of Communism. It’s another tiny museum, squished between a McDonald’s and a casino, but it was worth a look around.

The museum is packed with stuff from the old Communist regime. Each section describes some aspect of life in Communist Czechoslovakia from sports to food to work to school. It was an unassuming, but very interesting little place. For instance, did you know that after end of Communism in Czechoslovakia, the life expectancy almost immediately rose 5 years because they weren’t going crazy polluting and poisoning everyone? Well now you do.

After chilling with some Lenin I decided it was time for dinner. That has been one of the oddest things while traveling alone – eating alone. Like sitting down at a real restaurant and having a real meal. For lunch I’ve been doing take-away sort of things, but I figure dinner is a time to eat something proper. Luckily it’s not too proper since the past two nights I have eaten at two different restaurants which are situated across from two different black light theaters. I’m not sure what a black light theater is like, but it sounds unsavory. I guess it could be worse though. I could be eating my dinner across from the Museum of Torture or the Museum of Sex Machines. Both I have passed multiple times.

I’ve been trying to sample the local fare while I’m over here and can I just say – NO MORE GOULASH. NO MORE DUMPLINGS. NO MORE SAUSAGE. I NEED SOME GREEN STUFF. Seriously, I’ve never eaten so many brown things in my life. And Czech dumplings aren’t really dumplings. They are sliced pieces of bread.

I did have some black current juice with my dinner though. It was good, almost like a cross between cranberry juice and grape juice. I was a fan. Dinner was pretty good too though. I think I like Czech goulash better than Austrian goulash.

After dinner I decided it was time to head home and see how much of this stuff I could shove into my suitcase. Luckily, almost all of it! Also, this town has a thing for ABBA. I heard at least 5 different places playing ABBA songs just in the afternoon. Mamma Mia! Oh, and remember that bad picture I took yesterday of the museum that is my subway stop? Here’s a better one:

It’s ridiculous how beautiful this city is. Turns out this is also Wenceslas Square. Throughout history there have been lots of demonstrations, protests, and celebrations. There were many demonstrations against Communism here including an 18 year old kid named Jan Palach setting himself on fire to protest the Soviet Union take over and then the overthrow of the Communist regime 20 years later.

Just a few Communism fun facts to start your morning with. Now I’m off to breakfast and the airport. A half a day of travel ahead of me, let’s hope Lufthansa has the good rolls!