St'astny novy rok!

It is now 2007, and I rang in the new year wandering the streets of Prague with some expat journalists from the Prague Post. We went to the outlook of Petrin hill (I think) to watch the gloriously anarchic display of fireworks. From midnight on, people all over the city were setting off fireworks, unorganized and unsanctioned by the city. They lit up the skyline at random, and it really was a very cool thing to see. The fireworks were followed by a long stroll through the city and a bit of an accidental dip in the Vltava river.

Earlier in the weekend, my friend and I went to the main train station, the functioning parts of which are partly underground and were built during communism. Upstairs, the original train station (much more of an architectural gem than its utilitarian replacement) sits in delapidated, poorly-lit grunge. A really vast second hand store caters to the homeless population -- all items sell for either 30 or 60 Kc (That's either $1.50 or $3 in Canadian terms.) Very cool, but kind of a sad use of what was once obviously a grand space. Also, the tall french doors that lead to the old station are no longer in use. The communists built a huge highway type thing across the city that blocked off street access of the old train station, necessitating the subterranean grey structure that replaced it.

But really, Prague is very very beautiful. And very well behaved dogs walk off leash and hang out in bars and restaurants.

Na shledanou (that means goodbye).