1266. Pruchazky po Praze (Prague Perambulations)

Even before we had left the US to fly out for another recent trip through central Europe, our Czech program director had told us that Czechs have what he had labeled a "specific humor". Not sure just how that "specific humor" might manifest itself, we did find, after spending quite a few days perambulating through Czechia, what might be considered several examples of it.

One such example might be the sculptures of giant babies that our Prague guide had told us could be seen even at quite a distance crawling up and down the large Zizkov TV tower on a nearby hill, although their faces could not be seen from that far away. Imagine our surprise, then, when we were off wandering around on our own on our last day in Prague, crossed the iconic Karluv Most (Charles Bridge) one last time to the Mala Strana (Lesser Town) western side, and headed south under the bridge onto Kampa Island, only to find three more of those giant babies crawling around on the ground near the southern end of the park there! Their butts were shiny from people sitting on them to pose for pictures or use them as slides, while their faces really have to be seen to get the full impact of the statement they seem to be making about how technology is imprinting even the youngest of babies these days!

Whatever you make of their faces, however, simply turn your back on the shiniest one of their butts and perambulate diagonally northwest across the sidewalk and grass about a hundred steps or so to get to what appears to be a twisted yew with three or four long skinny fingers reaching out to get you like Baba Yaga. The branch stretching out lowest to the ground has a flat stump seat on its far end, so, if you manage to get a perfect opportunity with no one else around, just put your butt on that stump seat and you will be sitting right on top of where we left this "travelin' light letterbox"! It's just a tiny light grey 1 and 1/2 inch oval stone with a glued pink rubber stamp carved with "Praha" on its backside, but we left it well tucked into the butt crack of that stump seat under another slightly larger and darker gray stone that blended in very well with the color of the wood, with both upper and lower stones sprinkled with a smattering of yew needles, rendering the crack almost invisible. So, if anyone is fortunate enough to go perambulating through Prague and manages to find this stamp, please take care to replace it in exactly this same manner! Thanks, and hope you enjoy the Czech "specific humor"!

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