Day 23: Liverpool, City of Beatle Pride (duh)

I went on a guided tour of John Lennon's childhood home, Mendips, where he lived for eighteen years, and Paul McCartney's childhood home, 20 Forthins Road, where he spent maybe ten years after his mother died. Both have been restored to their original 50's glory, as accurate as possible to John and Paul's homes. A neat old couple, both of whom know Yoko and Paul personally (who donated the houses), guided the tours. It was fascinating comparing the stories and anecdotes they shared with the movie Nowhere Boy (excellent movie, by the way) about John's teenage years. Though they got some stuff wrong (where were the students Mimi boarded in their house to supplement her husband's meager income?) the vibe of the place definitely came through in the movie. It made me laugh to look through the passport John used as the Beatles started traveling and seeing a young rebel with Elvis hair staring back challengingly - that part the actor portrayed perfectly. It was also neat to see the memorabilia: John's school reports (often "shows promise but lacking in effort"), a photograph from the 60s legitimately signed by all four of them, and photographs taken by the (enormously talented) brother of Paul, Michael, of their family and home life, which made me really want to get my vintage cameras working. I stood in all the places John, Paul, and George would rehearse and write in on Sunday afternoons (hm, that reminds me of someone... :-P) : Paul's living room, John's parlor, and John's bedroom, the room in which, as he told Yoko, he "did his dreaming in" as a boy. Overall, a very neat tour, but I couldn't take pictures of the inside.

The rest of my day was pretty simple: wandered, wondered what to do, got food, wandered, ended up at the Cavern Club, watched some music, wandered, got lost, went back to the room, got bored, wondered what to do, wandered, got food, ended up at the Cavern Club, watched music, came home. Now I'm exhausted, even though that doesn't sound like much, it's a lot of walking. The Cavern is not really near my hostel at all. But that's pretty much it.

Day 11: Prague, City of Music and Sunlight (and also tourists)

Yeah, just ignore my poor numbering skills. It's hard to do this when I'm half asleep!

My goodness, today's post is going to be hard to write! We did so much - pretty much all the big Prague things tourists are supposed to do - in one day. I am exhausted and sunburned (which is an unfortunate miracle when you consider how wet the weather has been so far), but I wasn't robbed! :) Looking on the bright side.

Anyway, today we left our hotel (which is in a magnificent communist-era copy of a university in Moscow, built especially for Stalin, though he died before he came here) and headed to the metro, but before we got there we came upon a beautiful farmer's market - easily ten times the size of the respectable market in Denton - and full of locally made bread, cheese, sausage, olives, fish, flowers, and produce. It was magnificent. So after lots of confusion with changing money - Euros to Krons (Kč), about 1€/20Kč - we bought an herbed wheat baguette, some kalamata and green olives, and some cheese to eat for lunch later. Sitting in a riverside park looking out over the city, it was a truly fantastic lunch, indeed!

But I am getting ahead of myself. First, we went down to the famous Charles Bridge, which starts under this huge tower flying what I assume are the Czech colors and continues across the Vlata (?) river between thirty-one statues of religious icons. Along the way there are certain pieces of these statues that it is good luck to touch or wish upon, including a girl, a dog, and a picture of Saint Wenceslaus. I touched the dog, because I thought it was adorable. :) but perhaps the most striking thing about Charles Bridge was the awesome atmosphere. I mean sure, everyone there is a tourist, but the art stalls and (really quite talented) street performers give it a unique vibe. We saw an adorable blues band, a guy playing on of those windup accordions with a fake monkey, a generic Czech band, a guy playing the normal accordion, and a man with the most extensive one-man-band instrument I've ever seen (or heard of, or imagined).

In fact, Prague is an incredibly musical city, I've noticed. There has rarely been a moment when music couldn't be heard being performed or played in restaurants, stores, cars, parks, and roads. There were always concerts at the cathedrals and music halls and setting up in the parks, and our hotel rooms were playing us music when we walked into them. Oh, and there's a wall - the John Lennon Wall - that was covered in peace and anti-conformist graffiti in honor of John when he died; every time it was repainted by the angry owners, the youth of Prague came back with a mischievous vengeance and covered it again. Today, it is a colorful, ever-changing work of rebellious but wise art, championing such philosophies as:

"Live life as if you will die tomorrow; dream as if you will live forever."

"If they don't let us dream--Then we don't let them sleep."

"Love is the greatest refreshment in life."

It's absolutely awesome.

Anyway, after the Bridge we hiked up to the castle/cathedral thing that stares over the city and took a brief look inside. The modern stained glass windows are veritable kaleidoscopes of color and the outside is covered in detailed carvings.

Next we went bookstore hopping to find Czech Harry Potter, which we finally did in the freaking enormous bookshop on Wenceslaus Square, but I did not end up buying it because it was heavy and hard back and expensive and had the same cover as the American ones and Czech's just not worth it (sorry, Czech).

Anyway, then we went into the Old Town and found the Astronomical Click. It's a massive clock given to the Czechs in the 15th century and is somehow supposed to tell time, though between the many moving circles, way-too-fancy-to-read text, and the fact that the numbers don't start or end where you'd expect them to, it's pretty much useless as a time piece today. But every hour it does a cute little show, where Death rings a bell, the apostles nod at you one by one from little windows at the top, and a cock crows before the bells ring. Apparently you can also tell the zodiac and sunset time from this clock, but yeah. Mostly it's just a fancy novelty, but quite a pretty one!

After that came the boat ride, where we saw Prague from the water. Though i had lots of trouble understanding our guide through his thick Czech accent, it was very interesting and pretty. Also, there were baby swans. Four of them. Which, despite the Ugly Duckling who was really a baby swan, are not ugly at all. So that was great. :)

Then we went to dinner by the John Lennon wall (and my water was twice the cost of my grandparent's beer). And then we came home, by this time worn out and uncomfortable.

And tomorrow, basically our last city stop: Vienna!