I have to say that I have a love-hate relationship with water. Most of the places I love most have a lovely sea front or a river that run through them. I grew up in the city with the world's most beautiful harbour, my favourite city has the River Seine trickling through it, the place where my mum grew up is where the Kupa River, one of Croatia's longest, has its source. I love long hot baths and showers, adore looking at waves crashing the ocean, walking over bridges, throwing pennies into fountains.
The hate part of the relationship comes from circa 1978 when I was learning to swim at Canterbury Pools and almost drowned. It was only when I came to Croatia 16 years ago that I stepped back into the water but still feel a bit of a chill up my spine every time I do. So I love looking at water but have a bad time getting into it. Wonder what the shrinks would say to that...
The hate part of the relationship comes from circa 1978 when I was learning to swim at Canterbury Pools and almost drowned. It was only when I came to Croatia 16 years ago that I stepped back into the water but still feel a bit of a chill up my spine every time I do. So I love looking at water but have a bad time getting into it. Wonder what the shrinks would say to that...
Anyways, the first stop on my recent trip to France was Prague. As my friend Davor said, it was a lovely aperitif to the wonderful meal ahead. I'd never thought of Prague as a place I'd like to see. I'm more into Mediterranean countries like France, Spain and Italy. But I have to say that Prague completely knocked my socks off. But if you pressed me to tell you what it was I loved so much about Prague I wouldn't be able to tell you. There was no specific "thing" that particularly "blew me away". It was simply the whole atmosphere that struck me.
The Vltava River, with its amazing Charles Bridge and swans searching for tourists' scraps, the Old Town Square with its quaint revolving church bell that strikes every hour, the puppet, babushka and souvenir shops that sell proper handmade Czech goods, the cafes offering Czech specialties like medenka (honey cake), babka (walnut cake) or the infamous absinthe.
But I think the thing that struck me most about Prague was the fact that it was like a home away from home - so similar to Zagreb and yet so new and fresh. It's definitely a place I'd like to get to know better. I hope I will.
Old Town Square
Town Hall in Art Nouveau style
A view of Charles Bridge
A swan
2 komentara:
The magnificent thing about where you are Mary is that you're literally walking distance from these fantastic, ancient cities. That's the drawback of the lucky country, you're so far away from that. What did someone say, here you got a rock, a reef, a harbour and beach! ...and the sticks with plenny-o-gum leaves! :-0
I forced myself to swim at Bronte Baths in 1981 because as you can imagine where I grew up it was utter surf-culture. I'm a reasonably good swimmer now.
You in Paris??
Nah, came back the day before yesterday. Paris was great but I have to say Bretagne was just magnificent, loved it. Will write about it soon, with lots of pics :)
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