Krakow

And here are some photos from the second stop on our trip: Krakow, Poland.

Yes, it was as cold as it looks. I'm too lazy to attach captions to the photos so you'll likely have to guess what some of them have to do with anything. The photos include a picture of our hotel, the Wieliczka Salt Mine, the Dragon of Krakow, and some of the other major sights.

Ann wants me to mention that there are an "insane" number of churches here -- all Roman Catholic, of course -- and that they are in constant use. It's true. The praying and confessing Poles outnumbered the tourists in all of the churches we saw. I hope some of them are praying for better weather.

On our last night we sat near a guy at an Indian restaurant in the old town, a friendly radiologist from Detroit who was in for a conference. As he began telling us about Jainism and how it relates to vegetarianism I got the uneasy feeling that he might be proselytizing. But when the conversation naturally shifted to lost & stolen wallet stories I realized that he probably wasn't. I also noticed that nearly all of the ten to fifteen diners in the small restaurant were speaking English. Our waiter didn't even bother to respond in Polish when we tried out our practiced three or four Polish words. English speakers are fortunate in Central Europe because English has become the lingua franca.

Prague

Ann and I are in lazy Eger, Hungary after busy stops in Paris -- for a 1/2 day layover -- Prague and Krakow. Here are a few pics from our 2.5 days in Prague.

The weather was nice in Prague, something we are no longer taking for granted as the skies have been bleak and the temps cool to cold ever since we left (wait 'til you see the Krakow photos).

Some highlights:

• Managing to find veggie or veggie-friendly places to eat. This can be tough in this part of the world.
• Stumbling on the Wallenstein garden, adjacent to the Czech senate building, which was not highlighted in our guidebooks. Ann spotted it on the long walk down from the castle (check out the drippy, gray wall slash art installation).
• The Mucha stained glass window in St. Vitus Cathedral.
• Our meal at Lehka Hlava ("clear head"), a funky place in the old town.

Prague was difficult to navigate, in a mostly-fun way. Even with the best map we could find we got turned around. But there was always a nearby trail of tourists you could follow back to a landmark. Prague is plagued with tourists -- I had more than one "I feel like I'm at Epcot" moment. But it was a really nice section of Epcot!

Czech hockey

Ann and I saw a Czech Extraliga hockey game last night at the O2 Arena in Prague. This is the same arena where two regular season NHL games will be played this year between the Rangers and the Lightning.

The game was a first-division contest between HC Slava Praha (one of two Prague pro teams) and BK Mlada Boleslav. Here are some pictures I took at the game. I have some video too but I'll probably have to upload that when we get home. The home team posted pics on its website too.

Some comments on the game:

• The most expensive ticket was $15 and the place was maybe 1/3 full. No idea why. It might be because the Prague team is playing in a large venue.
• No anthems. Instead, they played a full-length version of Queen's "We are the Champions" while they slowly raised last year's championship banner.
  
• The style of play here is definitely different. No fighting, of course. Much more fluid and less contact. The defensive play was lousy overall, perhaps due to the lack of physical contact in the European game. Defensemen were poke checking and getting burned alot. Made for some exciting set-ups though and a ton more chances. The goalies had to be good.
• Saw lots of nifty stickhandling. Dribbling the puck in the skates was common. I'm sure NHL players can do that but are told not to because of the risk of losing the puck.
• The players in the Czech league can be docked 10% of their wages -- which probably aren't that high to begin with -- for diving and faking. The decision is based on post-game video review of any such penalties. Welcome to Europe.
• The fans who showed up were great. No hooligans here and lots of kids having fun.
• As you can see from the signage on the concession stands, English is spoken everwhere.
• Ads everywhere, even on the officials' rear ends (how a company can be convinced to place ads there is beyond me). But there were oddly no ads on the zamboni machines.

For those of you who are checking my blog for traditional travel pics, I'll post some when I get a chance.