Chimney Climbing part II

The other night, in an impromptu light snow--Prague by far the coldest this week--I climbed up a chimney at a hospital overlooking the tram-line. I can't tell you how peaceful it is up there, surrounded by dark wind and dry bits of snow. There is a strange fog here in the winter, a soft ghost-blanket, and that night the lights in the city were like dull gold pearls, beaded all around.

M.I.X. and Klára took me up the Komín on Monday, both originally from Prague. "You have to have a respect of the heights, not a fear," says M.I.X. "It's fucking tall."

M.I.X. photography

photo by M.I.X. : Klára

Masarykovo Nádraží

Train stations in the Czech Republic are relics of another era. It's beginning to change--Hlavní Nádraží, or Prague's Main Station, is being renovated by an Italian company, and it's first stage boasts a Burger King and plenty of coffee to go--but many other hubs, like Masarykovo, built 1845, where you can take a train east to one of the outlying villages, is like a collage of old and older. Little squalid Tabacconist windows advertise liquor and cigarettes, the men and woman inside watch tiny televisions, their hands yellow with smoke. A copper bust of Czechoslovakian founder Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk is pinned to a dark wall, where no one can see him, and the Vietnamese market bustles with bananas, pistachios and these overgrown grapefruits called Palmelos. You can buy a pastry for about 25 cents, and sit on a cold bench as the foggy winter light eases across dirty tiles, and watch as an old man drinks a beer at the station casino a few yards away. Wikipedia reports that the city would like to get rid of the place, and make a shopping mall instead, but right now it still services too many Prague commuters to close its doors.

New Year 2010

Czech youngsters traditionally hole up in a cottage somewhere in the mountains for New Years, and not wanting to be left out of the tradition, Michal, Katie and I joined Robert and David at David's mom's place near Klatovy. We played Horse Races and Bets, a Czech version of Monopoly, and watched the hillside light up at midnight, when all the pyrotechnics come out to play.