Almost Homeless!

me at Lucerna Mall by the statue of Duke Wenceslaus riding an upside down horse, hanging from the ceiling.  David Czerny did the statue, and many other famous ones around Prague that we can't wait to see (moving Kafka Head, Pissing Men, Pink Russian Tank, Babies Crawling up a Tower.  He liked to provoke controversy.  Oy.

The panic has begun.  Our student housing apartment contract ends May 20, and we haven't found a new place to live.  We checked out a place way out of town yesterday, but it was on the 4th floor again, no elevator, and road construction going on out the window, so no tram, just a crammed, stinky bus.  No thanks.  Plus the living room couch didn't fold out into a bed for company.

Every day we've been trying to see some new sight.  Yesterday it was the Old Town Square.  There is a very famous Astronomical Clock there, but it is under scaffolding for repair work right now.  We admired the statue in the middle of Jan Huss, who started the Hussite movement, breaking off from Catholic problems with inequality and greed before Martin Luther did.  Then we had a tour of St. Nicholas, the Hussite Church on the square.  It is supposed to have awesome acoustics, and there are classical music concerts there at 5 and 8 pm most days.

We tried grocery shopping.  I wanted crackers to go with the lovely cheese I've gotten at the Farmer's Market.  No luck.  I can get rice cakes, or Wasa crackers, or Pringles.  I showed the grocery clerk the word for cracker in my dictionary: suchar.  She brought me to sucr - sugar.  sigh.  It is hard to shop with all the words in Czech, and few pictures of what is in the container.  Most soup is dry, and in packets, not cans.  There is almost no coffee creamer, and definitely none with flavors.  I found two glass jars with something resembling spaghetti sauce.  We couldn't find dill pickles. And these people love pickles!  Bart found some bread sticks that looked crunchy.  Meh, they were so-so, a bit soft, and had fennel in them.  We will switch to baguettes.  The only sliced bread is stale from the get go, and called "toasting" bread.  Most bread is rye.  It comes wrapped in paper.  Cheese is also wrapped in paper.  This apartment has a "kitchenette," so we aren't doing much cooking anyway.

We were really hoping for a cheap apartment, but it is hard to find, as prices have been soaring in the past year.  We will end up with 800-900 per month for a one bedroom with a kitchenette, or kitchen, furnished, but probably walking up a few flights of stairs.  We will have to pay 1 or 2 months deposit, plus a full month's rent to the realtor for their commission, plus first month's rent. I'm still job hunting.  But the man who runs/owns The Language House says I'll make more money for my teaching online to Chinese students through VIPKids.  That is fine.  But I don't have many students, and right now the wifi is too slow to connect to the Skype-like classroom they use so the student and I can see each other while I teach.  I'm afraid to schedule classes, and then have connection problems and get fired.

I got a bank account, but we are having an awful time getting money transferred into it from our US bank.  We are using an app called TransferWise that doesn't charge a commission, but the whole process is complicated.  We need to hurry up and get cash to put down on an apartment.  If we have to pull it all from ATMs, we pay commission, get a poor exchange rate, and can only pull about $300 per day.

I'm very nervous about pick pockets.  So in addition to the backpack I wear, I have a belt pack under my blouse with money, credit cards, id and my public transport pass.  Bart has been wearing cargo shorts with his important things in the Velcro pockets.  I begged him to stop wearing his cell phone on a clip attached to his belt, for all to see.  I have my cell phone in my hand at all times, mostly so I can figure out where we are going.  I got an app called Moovit that tells which tram, bus or train to take, how many stops, and then buzzes to tell you get off at the next stop.  Then it fails totally to tell you which direction to walk, and you go up and down the street trying to figure out whether the little blue dot that represents you is walking along the dotted line or away from it.  I'm sure we look like crazy fools walking along staring at our phones.  Bart says too much typing noise - I must be blogging you all to death.  I'm taking him to the Charles Bridge and Farmer's Market early tomorrow morning, so good night.  I'll add pictures later.  I have to get them off the "icloud" and downloaded onto the computer before I can link them here.

Statue of Duke Wenceslaus, a symbol of Czech Nationalism, who did more than I can tell here.  He was canonized as a saint, and kings would kneel before his tomb to be crowned.  Locals like to say "I'll meet you under the horse's …. (tail)"

This is an "AntiToilet" to keep homeless people and everyone else from soiling the base of the statue.  They are also along the sidewalks in places to keep us all away from likely nooks and crannies.

This is a huge open area, where hundreds of thousands gathered in 1989 when they convinced the Communists to leave.  It was called the Velvet Revolution, as it was peaceful.  The Berlin Wall had just come down.  Masses of Czechs and Slovaks gathered here night after night, jangling their keys to show they wanted to be unlocked from their chains.  

Behind the statue is the National Museum, meant to show the world that the Czechs had their own culture and heritage and deserved their own nation.  Under the Hapsburgs their language was not allowed, and only peasants spoke it.  They had to work to get it back.  There are Soviet bullet holes in the columns from the 1968 Crackdown.  

In commemoration of the history of Czechia these 20 panels tell what happened from 1348 - 1918 (The Historical Eights) 

This is a memorial to two young men who burned themselves to death in 1969to protest the 1968 crackdown by Russian Communists.  One was named Jan Palach, and he is still a national hero. The Velvet Revolution was on the 20th Anniversary of his death.

We had ice cream at a spot the locals love, and ate it here in the Franciscan Gardens, where it is said many lovers meet.  

Statue of Wild Nymphs!