this weekend

hi there,
well, lots of stuff has been going on this weekend. on friday everybody moved out of my room in the hostel, which gave me a beautiful peaceful night's sleep all alone in a big empty room. then 6.15am saturday morning heralded the arrival of my roommates, one of whom is now affectionately known as The Vomiting Belgian, for reasons i needn't go into... aaaah youth hostels. divine.

anyway, i eventually got up and went downstairs for breakfast. i must say i'm very much enjoying mooching around the hostel - in such freezing cold weather (yup - still snowin' it up outside) - a welcoming, warm atmosphere is a beautiful thing.

yesterday (saturday) i wandered around the marketplace before going in to the city to meet neil and his friend dan to go to a Jan Saudek exhibition. the market at Delnicka is interesting. it makes me feel quite uneasy. it borders on the most notorious red-light district in the city. at many of the stalls you can purchase a red lace g-string, AND a nice shiny pair of brass knuckles. the people are gruff, and there is certainly a menacing, inhospitable feeling to the place, even though objectively there's really nothing wrong with it, it's safe, and i'm probably just being precious. but frankly, whenever i go there i can't leave fast enough.

anyway, i was late to meet neil in old town square because my watch stopped. strange. but i got there, and we went to see this exhibition by this famous czech artist called jan saudek. his work is very full on, not a lot of clothing to be seen, but it was really beautiful. very confronting, quite twisted, but really, really, beautiful. google him. it's worth it. but he's strange.

then we went to neil's apartment. it is brilliant! 144 steps up to the top of this big yellow building, into their loft apartment. it's ramshackle and a bit falling apart, but has a lot of character and is comfortable and homey. but any mother (mine, his, anyone's!) would not find it such a treasure. a renovator's delight, indeed. :)

then we went for a few drinks at this underground pub, where the dutch barman, punk, did a lot of throwing-bottles-around tricks. it was quite cool. i'm quickly learning that going out in prague is an exercise in avoiding the ex-pat and american student communities. it's pretty damn difficult though - they're everywhere!

then we went to another bar (it was 2am by this stage), where on the door there was a sign advertising 'anglo-american collage party downstairs', so of course we were forced to make lots of jokes about wet newspaper and glue. hehe. anyway, it was a bit tragic (in a semi-nude 19 year old american college student let loose in a country where drinking is legal kind of way) but fun, then at 3am i came home and went to bed.

the most exciting thing i've done today is wash my hair. says a lot. oh - and i bought kurt vonnegut's 'breakfast of champions' at this little cafe where neil and ben and i had brunch. fun.

will's arriving tonight, which will be fun. cheerio!

j x