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the charles bridge After seeing the movie yesterday, my next destination on the list was the library. I had gotten tired of researching my trip online and decided to try to find some information that I could actually hold in my hands. When I got to the library it felt odd, since I hadn't been there in years. I have nothing against the library, but somewhere along the line I started to find the online method much more convenient than actually going somewhere to find information. I suppose that wouldn't be so bad, if the local library wasn't within walking distance of my house and something that I drive past on an almost daily basis. At three in the afternoon I had most of the library to myself with the exception of some senior citizens. From past experience I knew where the travel books were located and started to pick some books off the shelf. After I had what felt like a good amount to sift through for information, I found a nice quiet spot to read without any real distractions. However, by the time that I left an hour and a half later, the middle school across the street had let out and deposited some of its students there. So I don't think that I could have timed it any better than I did. Going there was definitely worth my time and by the time that I left, I walked away with a small pile of books about Prague. Last year before I went to Nova Scotia, I had done some research, but this time I want to be even more prepared. I want to have a much better understanding of where I am going since this time I'll also have to deal with a language boundary as well as a distance one. Oh, I know that English is spoken around the world, but I doubt that there are English signs everywhere. I guess that I want the best visual picture that I can in my mind before I actually get there. I want what I am seeing to make sense to me on some level. Prague might seem like an odd choice to some people, but so often I hear it referred to as the new Paris of Europe and that is something that I definitely have to see and experience. Of course there are other things that I have influenced me such as Kafka and Dvorak. Then on a more personal level there was the girl that I knew in grade school whose mother had come from Czechoslovakia, which at the time seemed very exotic. Europe was this far off place talked about in history books and yet this girl said that her mom was born there and that some of her relatives still lived there. It was all very strange for me at the time. So maybe that left more of an impression on me than I thought. As for seeing Germany, I have mixed feelings even though everything that I have heard about it from people who were there has been positive. I guess Berlin just doesn't interest me that much and I want to see more than Bavarian castles. Then there is the stigma of the Nazis that still lingers in my mind and I want to stay as far away from old concentration camp sites as possible. Maybe to contrast all of the driving around that I did yesterday, I decided to spend the entire day inside my house paying bills and sorting through piles of papers and magazines. Amongst the piles were my January issues of The New Yorker that I vaguely remember scanning once or twice, but never fully reading. Then adding to the pile were my latest issues of National Geographic, which for the most part were also unread. I really need to either manage my time better or start canceling a magazine subscription or two.
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