Blogue

I see why people love this city.

 

I went on a short adventure today to try to find a cheap microphone to use with Skype.  Unfortunately, I didn't come across any electronics stores, but I happened upon a cheap Supermarket called Norma.  Norma is the perfect name for this place, in that it's not quite "Normal".

 

The weirdest part was just the pace of the store.  Everyone seemed to be in slow motion.  I supposed I'm used to the frantic style of grocery shopping that happens at home, but really, I think the people I saw must all still studying the labels on soup cans.  Curiously, most of the people there were only buying one or two items, but they were using jumbo-sized shopping carts to wheel them around in.  Also inexplicable was that I didn't see anyone in the store under 50, except for the employees. 

 

I ended up buying 5 bottles of Czech beer and enough good food (including an avocado and some nice cheese) to last me for the next few days, which cost me around six dollars.

 

That's not to say that everything here is ridiculously cheap-- If you buy the brands you're familiar with, you end up spending about the same as you would in the US of A (I think Coca Cola is a good metric- A two liter bottle costs about a dollar and half, roughly the same as the states).  It's just that the cheap alternatives are very cheap.

 

As I was walking back to the hostel, I saw that there was a small cliff on the other side of the river, overlooking the northern part of the city.  I put my food in the fridge and decided to trek up it.  I had to illegally cross a trains-only bridge on foot, but nobody said anything so I assume that sort of thing is common.  Also, there was no path up to the top-- I just scrambled up the side as best I could.  I'm so glad I made it to the top, though.  Right as I got there, the clouds broke for about 10 minutes.  I could see all of Prague (including the Prague Castle, my hostel, and that weird monument that I don't understand yet) from where I was standing. 

 

Then I went back and made myself lunch and drank a 20-cent beer.

 

What's not to like?