Prague Reflections

 

On our first morning in Prague, Polar and I required sustenance. Caffeine. Protein. Carbs. Everything. Something. And now, please. We walked to Café Louvre, known historical hangout of Kafka and Einstein, and proceeded to breakfast and shake off our jet lag.

 

Polar's Czech Breakfast came with all the bells and whistles, or just the basics, depending on how you look at it. Cheese, meat, egg, pickle, which as far as I can tell are the four basic food groups in the Czech Republic. Not pictured: huge cake slice. Okay, so there are five food groups. The cake was inhaled before I could snap a photo.

As our blood sugar began to rise and caffeine levels returned to acceptable levels, the feeling of being in Prague began to sink in. This city makes baes happy.

 

It was a rainy day, but not uncomfortable. We walked around in the drizzle and came upon an awesome motorized Kafka head, and of course stopped to take photos in its reflection. It reminds me of the Bean/Cloud Gate in Chicago. Only, you know, it's Kafka. In Prague. And motorized. Well, they are both big and metal and shiny, anyway.  

 

It started to rain a bit harder so we began pondering indoor activities. We walked passed a place that looked a little hokey, yet also quite charming, called the Imaginarium. $4 admission? Sold.

 

The inside had an old-timey amusement park/circus/carnival feel to it, but it wasn't overly impressive. At first. 

"Bae, I want to do the mirror maze!" 

"Okay but we have to put on these plastic gloves apparently." 

A few moments later we were suited up and headed into the maze.

 

It's hard to describe how disorienting and fun this maze is. Mirrors are aligned at angles, and kept clean thanks to the gloves, so that you can't tell if the path in front of you is a reflection or the true way forward. There is a lot of awkward bumping around and confused noises coming from both you and the other people in the maze. Kids were running around. People were cursing. One guy had a beer. 

Once you get used to the disorientation, the giggles set in. And then you create the MultiBae.

 

The Imaginarium is FULL of very entertaining, good, clean family fun. All of the concepts are simple and straightforward, but really succeed in getting you out of your normal brainspace - you start to play around and enjoy things the same way you did as a kid. Like this face collage contraption; it is just a series of mirror slats. Put your bae on the other side from you and you get Blend-a-Bae.

 

There is a huge interactive musical contraption that allows you to change a live track by starting and stopping loops of sound, playing on a keyboard, changing echos and beats. It sounded as amazing as it looks. 

 

The Visual Echo room consists of a large flat screen tv that displays video of whatever is in the room (i.e. you) with crazy delay trails.

Thoroughly satisfied, we walked back out into the rain and did what may actually be our favorite activity here: sitting at a cafe or restaurant, relaxing, and drinking beer. Even I drink beer here. And the beer is good. 

 

We sat and stared at the people and at the buildings (that all look like petite fours by the way. This city is beautiful and I want to eat it.) and geared up for dinner. The Dinner. The one I've been waiting for for weeks. I couldn't wait.