Friday, May 21st.

I'm currently at day 2.5 in Prague. My last post I mentioned I would crash immediately after, but I had no idea how tired I really was. I slept through the whole night! I only have vague memories of other folks wandering in and out the of the room, but man was that sleep necessary! I woke up feeling completely refreshed. That tends to happen to me when I'm traveling; I just go, go,l go, then the Z's hit me like a sledgehammer! I woke up at 8:30 am the next morning, and one of the other fellows staying in the same room looked at me and said (thick aussie accent): 'You had an EPIC sleep!' I think we all could use one of these from time to time!

As beautiful as Prague is, I came very close to losing my patience more than a few times. The streets in this city are an absolute maze! Also, the streets aren't clearly labeled, and while there are maps that give detailed images of the city and the street names, they can't label EVERY street. So it goes, you wander down one street, and think you're close to your destination, and it turns out you've gone in the complete opposite direction of where you should be going! Hey, I guess that's another one of the adventures of traveling! Another interesting thing about the street signs is that not all of them tell you where you are, they tell you where you are going, which is not the most helpful thing if you're trying to get your bearings! Oh well, I suppose you can't get lost if you don't know where you're going!

The architecture in Prague is amazing! You can tell it's been around for a LONG, long time. For those who don't know, Prague is one city that was not bombed at all during WWII, so there is a ton of preserved history here. There are a lot of old gothic statues around the city, especially on the Charles Bridge. Most of them are very catholic inspired, at least as far as I can tell. It's funny, if earth were to finally be visited by intelligent beings, and the only remnants of humanity were these statues, they would think that us humans were VERY unhappy!

I was very fortunate to visit some old friends from Seattle who currently live in Prague! Last night, May 20th, I had dinner at my friend Diana Aivia's flat which she shares with her boyfriend Mickey and 3 other people! It was nice having a home cooked meal for once! Diana is the daughter of one of my first bosses, Joy Huber, when I worked at the River's council of Washington in Seattle. She is working as an english teacher, as well as teaching and singing opera! http://www.dianaaaivia.com/ She performs quite a bit in Prague, and tomorrow I will watch a performance at Galerie Scarabeus. They were so generous to welcome me into their home and show me a bit of the city!

One of my oldest friends from high school is also in Prague, and has been for the past 12 years. Lucien Zell is his name, but those in the know from Seattle will remember him as Jody Zell. ( If you're reading this, Lucien, I apologize, but I have to make a point of reference!) He's got a fairly well known band in Prague called The Wavemen, and they will be releasing their first CD in a month. http://www.thewavemen.com/ He also is a well-known poet, and I purchased a book of his poetry in the tea shop we met at. It turns out since both are singers, Diana and Lucien know each other fairly well, and only by mentioning the name to Diana were we able to hook up with Lucien! Really glad we did! It's wonderful to see old friends for the first time in 12 years! What's even better are that the same traits you knew way back in high school are still with the person!

All for now! As always, take good care of yourselves!