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Donny and I have a habit of getting ourselves into ridiculous situations when we're together, because there's something about putting our energies together that just invites adventure. This held true in Prague as well! She and I stayed with a man named Jakob, who is a puppeteer studying at one of the most prestigious art universities in the Czech Republic. That's right, a puppeteer. He was completely nuts, making weird noises and saying the most random things all the time, and wearing all sorts of fluorescent 90s outfits including short shorts with a pink cap. He had a moustache and a pointed beard, and his attitude (but not his looks) made me think of the magician John Paul Ziller. I kept having horrible urges to call him Ziller. Oh right, and he was obsessed with Finland! Obviously.

We arrived safely on Donny's birthday after spending the night before with Paul and Austen in London. Donny and I looked after each other, because neither of us are single girls so we stuck together and just let the boys do their thing. Their hilariously self-centred attitude hasn't changed at all though, so we barely slept because they kept us up all night laughing! Silly silly.

So Ziller (I give up with his real name) on the first day showed us around Prague a bit, and we drank heaps of beer (Czechs are like that, apparently) and ate some delicious cheeses and sausages which went great with the beer. In the evening we saw some experimental theatre, which had puppetry and modern dance and electro-punk music and was generally very strange. I really wished I could speak Czech because I had the feeling Donny and I missed loads. A few days later we also went to see some more drama, this time skits by the fourth-years during a ceremony to symbolically transfer the theatre to the 3rd years, the class that Ziller was in. There was one skit that everyone was roaring over, and Donny and I just didn't get the joke. Unfortunate. Some were still funny just from the body language though. Apparently we became local celebrities at the school, as everyone kept asking about "the Canadian girls" even though none of them would talk to us. Interesting observation: almost all Czechs have blue eyes.

Ziller didn't spend the whole time with us, so we did have a few days to ourselves to explore Prague. It was stinking hot and sooooo humid, and I definitely wasn't drinking enough water, so by the end of the day I could barely walk and was dragging myself around. I should have clued in that I needed more water but I didn't recognize the signs until someone pointed out the same thing to me in Athens days later, but hindsight is (of course) 20/20. We explored a bunch of cathedrals and walked across Charles Bridge and around the old town square, and we only saw the clock chime twice although I wanted to just sit there and watch it every hour. When it chimes, death (the skeleton) rings a little bell to remind you that life is short, and the apostles parade across the top with their symbols. The Czechs have a really dark sense of humour, so I find this clock so intriguing. It has been there since the 14th century but it still marks the movement of the heavens and the moon, the dates of the year, and of course 24 hour time. I will put a video up of it as soon as I can. We also had some time to explore the modern art museum, and the sex machines museum! Haha! The first time I went to Prague with Donny we (as 16 year olds) walked past and really wanted to see it, but couldn't because you had to be 18! So of course this time we had to go, even though the entrance fee was a bit ludicrous. It was worth it though, they had one floor which was full of old sexual items (old like Renaissance up to 1940s). They were also screening some Spanish porn from the 1920s which Donny and I both found quite explicit, especially for the 20s when most of the other nudie pictures are meant to be exciting with bare-breasted girls in exotic outfits. They also displayed some of that in the museum. And then we watched the clock chime again! At one point we were wandering around in the direction of Wenceslas Square when we passed by a beautiful lingerie store. We ogled at the window display then realized it said in English: "Beauty comes in all sizes"... so of course we went inside. The shop was run by a British woman who collects vintage dresses (but more expensive ones than me!), and she talked about how much she likes doing bra fittings because "women come in such lovely different shapes". She was so passionate about beauty in all sizes that Donny called her a gem, and I felt a bit teary-eyed. Her positive outlook really made our day that much better.

On the second to last night there (Saturday night) we had a little International party at the flat. It was quite fun, and I got to cook which made me happy, but then Steve called and we had quite a long and involved conversation so I was distracted for the rest of the night. Ziller, Donny and I, and a Finnish girl called Annika had to leave quite early because we were going to spend the night in the Czech coutryside, since Sunday Ziller and his friend (whose name I couldn't pronounce and therefore don't remember, but who was equally as crazy as Ziller himself) had to perform a few puppet shows in Moravia (the eastern part of the Czech Republic). I had no idea where we were going, but after winding through dark roads and almost hitting a few cats for about an hour we ended up at a Czech wedding taking place at a YMCA campground! It was so surreal, watching them do these traditional dances and drinking free beer with a bunch of Czechs, and Donny even talked to the father of the bride as she got us some wedding cake! Bizarre. We slept on the floor of a cabin with a bunch of snoring drunk people and had to get up at 6am (about 3 hours after we went to bed, haha) to drive to where the puppet show was. Driving was also ridiculous, Donny and I were just laughing because Ziller's friend was a maniacal driver, and they were singing along to traditional Czech music, and were rubbing each others' legs because they're close friends (Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore!) and barelling along country roads..... it was completely crazy. The puppet shows turned out to be quite cool, Ziller made all his own puppets and props and sound effects and told fairy tales. Unfortunately the children watching the puppet shows didn't enjoy it as much as we did, because sometimes he wandered from his central plot or took to long to tell a bit.... but I thought it was awesome. And the props were so believable but simple. Really cool. We had planned to go from the shows to a lake to beat the heat, but they found out that day that they had to perform twice (they had thought it was only once) so by the time they finished we had to book it back into town because I had to shower and pack and catch my flight to Athens. Donny was meant to head to Morocco but she changed her plans and was heading to Croatia the next morning, so we are both off to travel alone for 10 days. She returns to Toulouse the same day I arrive in Rome!

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