prosím - please (czech)

sara says "sýr" on the charles bridge

i am switching languages for a moment in honor of our trip to prague. sara and i had a wonderful time. the buildings are all so ornate, and the streets have beautiful designs in the cobblestones, even on the small side streets. we climbed the steps up to prague castle. we watched the glockenspiel in the old town square. we explored the preserved jewish quarter. and we shopped in wenceslas square in honor of the site of the revolution that brought free-market economy to the czech republic.

we also learned a few important phrases while we were there:
ano - yes
ne - no
děkuji vám - thank you
mluvíte anglicky? - do you speak english?

the last phrase was really not necessary, as people always spoke english to us right off the bat. all the signs are in english as well. while we found it comforting to be able to read things and talk to people, we felt like we were feeding the tourism machine. we had never been to a formerly communist country, i guess with the exception of east germany, so we were surprised to see that there was really no transition from communist town to tourist trap. all of the beautiful buildings lining the cobblestone streets now house tchotchky shops and hotels. but we can't complain. we were part of the reason the touristy junk is there.

so - our overall impression was mixed but definitely on the positive end. i will try to describe certain things we saw in better detail in another blog - including how we discovered that dan is related to a famous rabbi... how's that for a cliffhanger?