Going Back

This past week I was back in Prague for a quick two days of meetings.  While I didn't have time for any real site-seeing, I was able to walk around my old neighborhood one afternoon after my meetings were finished. It's funny how you never take pictures of the most routine things because it seems as though they'll always be there.  However, I've learned - this time I took lots of photographs.  Here's where I used to live:

The view coming up out of the metro at Jiřího z Poděbrad (Yir-zhi-ho z Po-dye-brahd).  It took me six months to be able to say that one correctly!  The big white building was behind scaffolding the entire time I lived in Prague.  It was so nice to see the finished refurbishment!

The "Timex Church."  Okay, so it's real name is The Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord.  Great name for a church, unfortunately it was only rarely that I would see people entering for mass. We referred to it as the Timex Church for the sake of ease, it was also a defining landmark for me in the early days of learning to get around.

If you remember the blog about the Yellow Potraviny, then here it is in person.  It's such a great little store.  And while I never took advantage of it since I can't stand the stuff, it's most important claim to fame is that Dr. Pepper can occasionally be found here.  This is HUGE if you're an expat living abroad.

My street - I lived in the flat just above the white van on the right where the wire balcony can barely be seen. 

I miss the wide open streets, with nice wide sidewalks that you don't fear for your life on.  The symmetrical trees are nice too. 

Recycle bins are everywhere.  It is also really common to see homeless people sifting through them for things that they can reuse.  I had forgotten how prevalent it was.

The buildings.  I love the architecture and the colors.

More colorful buildings.  I was so thankful that I lived in the older part of the city with more color and variety of buildings instead of some of the Soviet block buildings that were the "forty shades of gray".

My metro stop is on the left.

The red shop on the ground floor is a French pastry shop/bakery.  It wasn't there when I lived there, but this building was a major victory for me.  I was passing it one day and I saw a sign in the window - basically it said "Coming Soon - Bread Shop".  I was so excited - I read it IN CZECH.  Please keep in mind that my Czech skills are limited to please, thank you, that one (with an accompanying pointing finger), pizza toppings, and the word for Thursday.  This was HUGE!  No one believed me, but a few days later someone more proficient than I in the language passed by and confirmed my translation.  Vic-tor-y!!

Some of the older buildings.  The tower in the background is the Žižkov Television Tower.  It's the tallest building in Prague (and doesn't really fit in with the aesthetics of the rest of the city- if you see it up close it has crawling baby sculptures on it - bizarre).  During Soviet days, it blocked all of the incoming messages from the west.  It is two or three blocks behind the building that my flat was in.