Greetings from a very hot and stuffy wifi cafe where I have come to update this blog (and wade through more Czech e-bureaucracy).
Today I decided I'd had enough of sleeping, studying Czech and buying stuff for the flat, and decided to go on a hike. Well, a 'city-hike'. With my camera strapped to my rucksack strap, just like a professional tourist.
I left the flat at about 9.45am and it was already roasting hot outside. Seemed to spend most of the morning going up hills... and then back down them again... and then up more hills... and sometimes along the top of the hills but then pretty quickly back down once more... you get the picture. By the time I got home, about 1pm, I was exhausted.
The hike did however confirm what I had suspected - that Prague is an incredibly green city, really. Within the bustle of the city, the rumbing tramlines and the downright frightening traffic, there are parks, gardens, grassy areas, hills, vineyards and many other peaceful green spaces which always make me feel more relaxed when I take the time to wander through them. Today I found the vineyards not 15 mins walk away from my place in a lovely hillside park. There was a cafe bar place perched high above the vineyards, which I did not visit today but have definitely earmarked it for another time. This is the third picture you can see above.
The other two pictures (grapes, and the church) were taken up at Vysehrad area, the site of the ancient 'original' Prague citadel. Walking up to the top was quite hard work in this heat, but the views were definitely reward enough. I spent some quiet time wandering the impressive cemetery and finding Dvorak's grave. After some much needed rest in the shade of SS Peter and Paul Church, I made my way home via the centre of the city just to wake myself up after all that greenery!
Apart from wandering, the last few days have mostly involved studying Czech. I feel I am making some small form of progress, managing as I have to ask for stamps at the post office in perfect Czech, and to buy some new shoes without resorting to English (and feeling smug when some others in the shop tried to use the International Language of Loud American, and failed when the shop lady flatly refused to speak anything other than Czech). But keep in mind that any amount of progress is always ridiculously small, where learning Czech is concerned, and that just when you think you're getting some way towards being able to use numbers, you will be confronted in a shop with a price that doesn't sound like any Czech number you've ever heard of.
But thanks to good old 'Czech step by step' and a few hours at the desk, I can now tell you in my best Czech that I like swimming (which is true) and that my mother is ill (which, at this point in time, happens also to be true) . Tomorrow's lesson - saying what you like to eat and drink. Now that sounds more useful!
Love to all x
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