PRAGUE
I left by train on April 1st to Prague, where I would meet up with my best friend from high school who was flying in from Turkey. Before I was to leave, however, several things were to happen. One, running to catch my bus, I would arrive just in time only to discover that they had sold my ticket for not being there 5 minutes earlier. So, with the image of my friend stranded in the Prague airport wondering where the hell I was screaming in my head, I burst into tears right then and there. It was important because it had been the first time I cried since my first day in Brno when I was, then just as I was now, boarding a bus. At any rate, I never want to ride the bus again, if I can help it.
The train was a thousand times better and only 100 crowns more. It was the first time I've left Brno since I got here in February, and I'm always amazed at how similar everything is. Everywhere, grass grows. Everywhere, people talk about nothing. Everywhere, there are comings and goings and shadows and sunsets. There are houses and stretches of land and houses again. This could be Pennsylvania. This world speeding outside my window isn't so unfamiliar. I wonder why I ever expected it to be...
Prague itself was lovely, but not quite as romantic as it might seem. I've never really been a city person though I do like Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco - Prague was nice but infested with the same old New York City commercialism among history - the same tugging along of full-wallets and screaming children. Billboards and shop windows. Art and junk all crushed together like the crowds stomping along the cobblestone streets in their inappropriate shoes. We too shopped. We ate. I's first request was for bacon - anything bacon. We slept in a hostel and we talked and we smoked. We visited the Museum of Communism and The Mucha Museum. It was a good time, a nice time. But when we got on that train back to Brno, that's when the fun really began.
I stayed the week and I brought her to most of my favorite places. The tea room. To my class. The Hobbit pub. The pub with the trains that chug around the bar and bring your drinks to your table. We smoked with Lord Firecrotch and played pub quiz and watched a Czech interpretation of a western. We talked about her Dad and her love interests and Turkey, Turkey, Turkey. She met my friends and drank the beer and the week was soon over and back again to Prague and she was gone. She's never gone though - there is a thread between our hearts that I think can never be broken. I know this now more than ever.
It was the longest time - the first time - we've hung out and not gotten into a fight. Maybe we're growing. Maybe B was right - travel does change you. It puts something new inside of you - a sort of rock or stone that keeps you in balance when life's little miseries would normally knock you sideways.
She's worrying me though - my I. I won't write much about it here because I'm learning the art of restraint. All I will say is that I really hope one day she will have the home she deserves.
Berlin?
First I was supposed to go to Olomouc this weekend. Then I was supposed to go to Vienna. Now, the goal is to rent a car and head to Berlin, meeting up with another good friend there. I love love love to drive and I've dreamed of driving on the Autobahnen since I realized what a gas pedal can do to your soul. I'm sure it will be a logistical nightmare to get sorted out but I've got to try...
Poezie
I'm also getting a tattoo. I've decided to get a replica of Mucha's Poetry from the Four Arts on my arm. It's everything I want my tattoo to be - something Czech to remember my time here. Something about writing, and something beautiful. I want to wear a little bit of my soul on the outside. It's very intricate, but surely it will be easy enough to trace for a tattoo - just have to find the right artist. I'm supposed to being having it done in Olomouc with M, but no word yet on if the artist she knows there will do it or not or the cost.
Life's Vices are Spices
I've been getting headaches, feeling dizzy, a little sick. The cigarettes might be taking their toll - or it's allergies from the changing weather - who knows. My laptop broke the week before I's visit and I have no idea what to do about it. I'd rather visit some city than pay to fix it - it's just an inconvenience. When the summer fully appears, I might be thinking differently about that though - depending on where I end up. Everything is just going so well - I can't help but wonder when my luck will run out...or else burst and spill over like a balloon filled with water, soaking me in miracles. I have to say love has been on my mind. I want to be in love - even if it's in love with my own work. I feel something brewing - a story, an event - something in the air, coming. Maybe I should just lay off the smokes for a little while...
No comments:
Post a Comment