The rest of the week with Molly!

Ok, I posted some pictures from Molly's time here, and some of the places we saw. On Monday, we woke up early, before my first class at 2, and headed out to do some sight-seeing. First, we went to Charles Bridge, and walked from one side to the other...which I had never done. Then, on the other side we found our way to the John Lennon Wall. According to Wikipedia, the Lennon Wall used to be a normal wall up until 1988. In 1988, the wall was a source of irritation for the then communist regime of Gustav Husak. Young Czechs would write grievances on the wall and in a report of the time this led to a clash between hundreds of students and security police on the nearby Charles Bridge. The movement these students followed was described ironically as "Lennonism" and Czech authorities described these people variously as alcoholics, mentally deranged, sociopathic, and agents of Western capitalism. The wall continuously undergoes change and the original portrait of Lennon is long lost under layers of new paint. Even when the wall was repainted by some authorities, on the second day it was again full of poems and flowers. Today, the wall represents a symbol of youth ideals such as love and peace. It is full of John Lennon-inspired graffiti, and pieces of Beatles songs. Then we went up to the castle, and walked around inside the cathedral, and watch the changing of the guard...which was actually really cool! Then I had to go to class, so I took Molly to the Palladium, which is our five story mall, where we planned to meet up after my class. Molly, being ingenious as always, found her way to the National Museum, and took a tour. She said it was really cool, and I plan on going there sometime while I am here. Then we went home, so that I could do some homework...soooo lame! On Tuesday, we both left at the same time, but I was going to class, and Molly was going back to the castle. She totally impressed me by how well she got around on her own. I don't think I would have been that brave. And, it took me like two weeks to figure out how to get around, and she did it in two days!! After class, we met up and went to the Dancing House...which might actually be my favorite thing that I have seen since I have been in Prague. It was way more impressive in person than in the photos! This might be a weird thing to say, but it was really emotional to look at. Not in the sense that it made you emotional, but that I really felt drawn to it in a kinda inexplicable way...I don't know how to explain it. But then we went exploring around that area a little bit, but most of the old places we came across were closed. So, then we went to the National Theatre, which is one of the coolest/oldest buildings in Prague. But, Molly just wanted to take pictures of it, so we didn't stay there very long. Then we had to head back to the dorm because later that night we were going to see Czech theatre performance...meaning the whole performance would be in Czech. It was required for my Theatre analysis class, and Molly wanted to tag along. It was a three hour long, dialogue-heavy play. So for three hours I had no idea what was going on, minus the fact that there was some pretty hilarious physical comedy. Molly slept through most of it :) Then we went back to the dorm cause I had to write a two page paper analysis on the play for class the next day.

Wednesday, I went with Molly, and showed her around the Jewish quarter a bit. While I was in class , she went into one of the more elaborately decorated synagogues, and did some shopping for the folks back home. We had coffee and cake...which is a really popular afternoon event here...at the Grand Cafe Orient. The cafe is particularly famous because it is decorated in the cubist style from the early 1900's. It was really nice, and I hope to go back before I leave. Then we went back to the dorm. Our plan was to go out later that night, so that Molly could check out some of the clubs. Before that however, she used my suitemate's ticket to go see a ballet in the National Theatre...and I think she really enjoyed it. So when she got back from that, we got all dressed up and went out. The night turned into the biggest epic fail ever, with one exception. As we were walking from place to place, trying to find some place that wasn't totally lame, we were asked to join five separate groups of guys and party with them. Thinking the night would turn out better, we denied them all, but I am thinking in retrospect maybe we should have said yes to one of the less sketchy ones. We got back around 2 am, and just went to bed since Molly was leaving early the next morning. We got up at 7:30 and finished packing her up. I walked her to the bus station (I couldn't go all the way to the airport, cause I had class again), and waited with her till the bus came, and we said our goodbyes. I was so happy that she was here, but totally exhausted when she left. However, I wouldn't trade our 7 days together in Prague for anything!!

More posts shortly to come, after all, I have been to Poland and back!