January 1st, 2008. Hurrah!

---

Hi Friends and Family,

I woke up at the ungodly hour of 09:00 ‘cos the coach was going to pick us all up at 10:30. My room mates were still sleeping so I staggered to the bathroom and had what can only be described as the shower of all showers. There was glitter and confetti strings in my hair, glitter on my cheeks and glitter goodness knows where else. All well and good in the throngs of a festive night, but in the harsh light of day looked distinctly pathetic!

Breakfast was a buffet of Czech bread, ham, sausages and cheese which I went back and forth for, quite a few times. The meal was manageable but the tea was tepid and no matter how long I left the teabag to brew, the tea just didn’t come through. I was so desperate for a good cuppa!

Anyway, the coach came by, my room-mates left it to the very last moment before they pierced their eyes open and jumped into the bus while dragging and flinging their stuff into the luggage compartment of our coach. We were miles from town as you know, so the driver dropped some of us off (including myself) into the city centre before going to Prague Castle and a brewery in another suburb nearby.

I was determined to have a last lovely leisurely day and wanted to go to another of my favourite places “The Globe”. “The globe” is a café and bookstore that provides an intimate and comfortable atmosphere in the highest tradition of independent bookshops in which you can find photos of famous writers, poets, film- and theatre directors and exhibitions of pictures or photos of young artists or art students. It has a relaxed and open café style with a special Brunch menu served Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. I went there and they weren’t serving. In fact, they were closed!

What to do? I had a whole day to kill and no where to go for a good brunch. I was dying for a good cup of tea and so I went back to Jame hoping that nobody would recognise me from the night before. Unsurprisingly, I used the time, to read the papers and concentrate on doing some writing. The restaurant was quiet and the day was lovely. I had the “Mexican breakfast” which consisted of Mexican beans, sour cream, green and red peppers, tortilla, etc and most importantly, two wonderful cups of tea……..and two Czech beers. You’ve got to have the beers!

I dragged out my time there until they put the “reserved” sign on my table. Time to go! I wandered around the city streets, taking in the air, strolling along, people watching and generally having a relaxing time. Prague isn’t that big and short of drinking more beer, not much to do being the 1st of January so I decided to go to a new cinema called “Slovansky dum” that I found inside a beauty shopping plaza on the square called Namesti Republiky. I watched, “The Golden Compass” and then went to Charles Bridge, the Old Town Square and window shopping in favourite old haunts. At 19:30, it was time to go back to the “Mustek” area for the black light production of FAUST at the All Colours Theatre.

The history of black light theatre is pretty impressive and contrasts the game of light and dark with visual effects of the most characteristic elements of the performance of FAUST and gets inspiration not merely from the Goethe classical text but also from the poetical traditions of Czech puppet productions. The production utilizes the confirmed methods of black light theatre and enriches it with state of the art equipment, musicals and dance resources. Very influential.

At least it would have been if I had actually got to see it. The production was booked for 20:00 and started at 18:30 instead! Suffice to say I said Goodbye to €20,00 and Hello to the beginning of a slow evening of nothing much to do.

Well, well. The evening was getting longer and longer and was far too late to go to another production elsewhere and so I decided to have an “early dinner" at “Café Louvre”. The “Café Louvre” is a Parisian style café and billiard hall old establishment, founded in 1902. It still continues the old tradition of being at the top of Prague’s’ coffee-houses and the cultural life centre since the beginning of last century, with prided visits from prominent personalities of world renown like Franz Kafka, Karel Capek, Albert Einstein and many others.

In 1948, the Louvre - as a "bourgeois" institution - was forcibly closed as the communists took hold in Prague. It served a variety of administrative purposes before liberation led to its revival in 1992.

The Restaurant serves traditional Czech cuisine and so I had a hot steaming bowl of large “potato two-colour cream with mushroom soup” with a basket of assorted Czech bread, warm apple strudel with vanilla sauce and whipped cream for dessert and glasses of chilled white Ryzlink Rýnský wine to while the evening away whilst I continued to read the papers, take photos and generally smile at all and sundry!

It was a shame that I wasn’t able to go to the theatre after all, but having a leisurely dinner on a chilly evening in a lovely place such as it was, wasn’t so bad either. Café Louvre is a superb place and I stayed there until 23:30 whereby I had to catch up with our coach at the Main Train Station once again.

Shortly before midnight, it was time to go back to Berlin.

See ya!





.

---

Photos

At The most famous Cafe Louvre
Really classy.

At The most famous Cafe Louvre
Its been there for more than a 100 years I understand. I did change its name over the years then went right back to Cafe Louvre!