Nature, Festivities, a Battle vs Russians, and Language Struggles

The river Oder passes through the middle of Wrocław, and along its banks are many nice parks. Additionally, there are several other parks around the city, including a couple of very large ones. While Wrocław itself is mostly pretty and not industrial or gritty, it’s still refreshing to get out into green spaces with loads […]

Neighborhood Art

There’s an old neighborhood in the northern part of Wrocław where residents have taken to creating various art projects at the base of multiple buildings. This enhances the aesthetic appeal of what are otherwise quite drab old buildings. The facades (without art) of some these buildings are shown in the Steven Spielberg film Bridge of […]

Konspira

There’s a fantastic Polish restaurant in old town Wrocław that strongly represents its freedom and peace movement connection with a thick menu highlighting historic information and backgrounds of the various traditional Polish dishes on offer. They’ve also added some recent signage protesting Putin’s war in Ukraine. Bonus side note: So far I have managed to […]

Wrocław’s Gnomes

There are several hundred little brass gnomes placed in locations all over Wrocław. They’re fun to find, and it’s easy to come across several, or even dozens, while walking through the old town. Each is different and has its own theme. Here’s some background on the gnomes (aka dwarves), if you’re interested: https://the-travelling-twins.com/wroclaw-gnomes/ Below are […]

Wrocław, Poland

I said goodbye to Sofia on Tuesday, and to Colleen on Wednesday. By the time you read this, Colleen will be back in Asheville. I took a bus from Prague to Wrocław (pronounced like “vroht-swav”, with the ł character sounding like w), enjoying several hours of the Czech and Polish countryside. Back in November 2017, […]

Miscellaneous Prague

While wandering Prague’s streets, you begin to learn some Czech words due to their repetition and context, such as “pozor” (caution) and “zákaz” (prohibited), as you’re often told what not to do (just like anywhere else). There is a lot of prominent Jewish history in Prague, and the historic Jewish quarter Josefov remains intact today, […]

Mug mugs

Below is Major Meander’s first installment of a series on Google Maps translations of establishment reviews from foreign languages. Here, the source is a set of Google Maps reviews (translated from Czech) for a museum bistro in Prague. Today’s travel quote: Travel far enough, you meet yourself. David Mitchell

Around Town

Here are some photos from the lovely city of Prague in September. It’s rainier and colder than this time last year! So these photos were captured between showers. Today’s follow-up note: With regard to the smart watch cable, I did eventually receive a text message notifying me that the cable I had ordered was now […]

Cold War Bunker

Once per month, the municipal district of Prague 2 (our favorite neighborhood) opens an underground shelter built in the late 1950s and early 1960s for civil protection. It could house up to 1,300 people for 72 hours in case of aerial bombardment, and it includes toilets, showers, a first aid room, a power generator, multiple […]

Heydrich Assassination

The most senior Nazi official assassinated during World War II was Reinhard Heydrich, killed in Prague by Czechoslovak resistance operatives under orders from the government in exile in London. Heydrich was particularly nasty, even for a Nazi, and he had been in charge of the Nazi-occupied Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. His assassination led to […]