A Bell from Prague

Here is the bell I bought from a street blacksmith in Prague.  I love it!  It is my favourite purchase from that European trip because it was so cool to buy from a street blacksmith and because nearly everything else I bought that trip was more along the chotsky line.

Here is a picture of the street blacksmith's setup. 



How cool to walk along the cobblestone streets and turn a corner and see a blacksmith!  

Several years ago I was in Prague, Czech Republic for a month while I took a course to become certified to teach English as a foreign language.  It was fabulous.  The medieval buildings, cobblestone streets and Eastern European influence was fascinating.

This was my favourite building, a gothic tower.

It is a paradox to see the elaborately ornate palaces and buildings next to rundown shops with graffitti everywhere. 

The room I stayed in was another paradox compared to the enormous stone buildings around.  It was the smallest hotel room I could even imagine.  The ceiling was entirely sloped, I thanked God for my nice 4'11" height.  Some of the other normal-to-tall students had similar rooms, I'm not sure how they lasted the month!


This picture is taken laying down at the farthest corner of the bed.



This picture is taken from the bathroom door.

My favorite student, Sarka, and I hung out sometimes.  She thought Americans were stodgy because we think nudity is inappropriate.  She said she had no problem with her husband looking at pictures of naked women because it was "natural and harmless."  It made me so sad that a wife would condone such an activity.

Some favorite memories I have are watching a Czech parade celebrating the day they were freed from the Soviet regime.  Many western countries were represented in that parade but the country that was cheered the loudest was the US.  Sarka said Czech people (especially older ones) love Americans.  This was proven when one restaurant owner treated my husband and I like kings - even moving a smoking customer to another section so we wouldn't be bothered after we had insisted it was fine.  "No, no, Americans don't like smoke.  I want you to be comfortable here."

Another memory was of a young man peeing on the side walk as I walked by.  He stopped me and asked for directions, trying several different languages before he found out I spoke English.  I had seen other people pee on the edge of sidewalks in Prague before but I'd never before had someone engage me in conversation at the same time!!

By far the best memory was when my husband showed up to visit!  He was in eastern Germany and only had a 3 day weekend but he rented the cheapest car he could find (rental agencies only allow the cheapest cars into the eastern countries) and drove the five hours to see me.  He wanted it to be a complete surprise, however, and since he didn't know where I was staying he had to do some detective work to find me.  About 9 hours after he left his hotel room in Germany (2 am) and had a run-in with the Czech police (driving a western European car around Prague in the middle of the night looked suspicious, I guess!) he was knocking on my hotel door.  There is not a better surprise in the world than a husband, whom you haven't seen for a few months, standing at the door to your miniature hotel room in Prague!

The bell hangs outside our back door and everytime I see it it takes me back to the dilapidated slendor of Prague.