An unusual side of Prague, Czech Republic

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If you can find a local to show you around their town you’ll often see much more interesting and rewarding things than merely the usual tourist things. Today we met up with two of Masayo’s friends who live here in Prague in the Czech Republic, and did exactly that. I’ve written before how travel, like diabetes, has a yin and yang balance to it. And that’s how our day went – we saw some things we never would have seen on our own, but would we have time for the world-famous Old Town area?

And although I’m definitely not over the sickness I first felt yesterday, my blood sugars were pretty excellent all day long. Yin and yang, baby. Embrace it.

To begin the day my blood sugar was 125. Masayo and I had breakfast at the buffet of Hotel Jelení Dvůr again, though I ate less than usual since my head and stomach were a little queasy.

Our plan for the day was to visit Old Town Prague, one of the most famous places in all of Central Europe and a tourist draw that I was totally OK with spending time in. Some touristy places are indeed worth whatever hassle might be associated with visiting them – Angkor Wat, Halong Bay, Niagara Falls… sometimes the most popular really is the best.

After seeing some of the things in Old Town we were going to meet two of Masayo’s friends, who both live in Prague and who she’d met at a filmmakers’ workshop in Japan, for coffee and then see more of Old Town.

But things didn’t unfold that way – we’d miss Old Town almost entirely and replace it with something else altogether, something we’d never heard of and would never have thought to visit.

First of all I had an errand to run. More like a treasure hunt: to buy soap.

I’ve been very pleased with my experiment of traveling with Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap, using it as toothpaste, soap, shaving cream, and laundry soap. One small concentrated bottle saves room and weight in my bag, and it’s all natural so my skin is smooth and healthy despite being outside in the European winter so much. No chemicals, no nonsense.

But I ran out and haven’t found more. I bought some natural “Aleppo” soap in Kraków, Poland, but it wasn’t the same at all. Overpriced and quickly depleted. The internet, however, suggested I could buy some Dr. Bronner’s, which isn’t popular in Europe, at a certain shop in Old Town Prague.

The John Lennon Wall

Masayo and I left the hotel and walked down the tourist hill beside Prague Castle on the way to Old Town. Before crossing back over the Charles Bridge we detoured to a side street just beside the Vltava River to gaze at the John Lennon Wall. A gathering spot for hippies and dreamers and music fans, the John Lennon Wall is continually covered in ever-changing graffiti – slogans (often in English) about peace and music and life, plus pictures of John Lennon and other colorful things.

For an inveterate Beatle freak like me it was super cool.

Across the Charles Bridge we finally walked into Old Town on our way to the shop that might have my soap. We passed right by famous sights like the beautiful Astronomical Clock and the majestic Church of Our Lady Before Týn , planning on coming to see them properly afterwards.

We found the cosmetics shop, called BIOOO, without too much trouble in a small mall. Masayo spotted the soap first: little bottles of Dr. Bronner’s sitting right on the counter, and all discounted. I was ecstatic! This was probably going to be my only chance to find this stuff so easily so I bought several travel-sized bottles. Hope they last the rest of this trip.

Meeting up with friends

As it turned out, that would be our only experience with Old Town Prague. After getting the soap we had to keep our appointment with Masayo’s two friends at a coffee shop back by the river.

We found them: Karolina and Lukáš had chosen a nice, wide coffee shop on the second floor which had large windows to watch cheerfully busy downtown Prague flow by. I went and checked my BG in a bathroom stall there — 100 even! I got tea with a little sugar in it, figuring that that reading was a little low for a diabetic doing a lot of walking.

We all sat and chatted, they the relaxed, imperturbable locals and we the excitable, out-of-context travelers just passing through. Karolina, with her head of magnificent red hair, gave us a Prague coffee mug and a big chocolate bar as a sort of welcoming gift before heading off to a meeting.

Lukáš, with his head of hair much like mine, then offered to show us a little restaurant for lunch that he liked. That changed out plans to go see Old Town but it was a great offer. Finding food constantly, two or three meals a day, gets wearying and if a local knows of a favorite place then you go.

It was back across the Vltava River on a little back street and called Lokal Inn. It was a little cramped and busy; clearly popular with locals. A backlit mural on the wall included a depiction of the Thriller album cover. John Lennon to Michael Jackson – a Prague musical journey!

I ordered beef with spinach and potato pancakes with a sparkling water. Lukáš ordered a glass mug of beer and pointed out that here in the Czech Republic his beer was actually cheaper than our water.

And it was true; a glance at the menu confirmed it. Lukáš said this was the only country in the world where this is the case. Czechs love their beer. Unfortunately I consider beer a diabetic liability and didn’t want one anyway while I felt sick.

Afterwards the lunch, which Lukáš insisted on paying for (we said we’d treat him when he visited Osaka), he took us on a walk to a large hill north of town. At the top of the numerous stairs we climbed was a large, flat plaza that looked out over the whole city. The view was great — we could see the Castle, Old Town, the Charles Bridge and the river, plus the fading hills beyond. Besides a few skateboarders buzzing around there weren’t many people there.

The other things there are a metronome and a large plinth. The plinth used to support a gigantic statue of Joseph Stalin. In 1962 the statue was torn down and people have been debating ever since about what to do with the big space. That’s where the metronome (in Czech, the Metronom) came from – it takes up a little of the space, at least, but seems to serve no real purpose. It doesn’t even tick back and forth anymore. It’s just a meeting place for moody teens now.

Lukáš had to get going, and we thanked him for his generosity in taking the time to show us around. To our enthusiastic waves he departed, and I took the opportunity to enjoy a scenic BG check: 91. This being sick thing is working for my diabetes.

We went a different way back to the hotel, through a large winding park along the upper edge of this hill we were on. It took a while and it seemed like we were almost the only people around. The last part of the walk went through Prague Castle, yet another famous part of the city that we haven’t seen properly yet.

You need a lot of days to see Prague properly. And curse this nagging sickness!

Masayo and I hung around in our hotel room for a few hours, trying to talk ourselves into staying in Prague an extra day instead of leaving tomorrow. We want to see more and we’ve only been spending half-days venturing into the city since I’m unwell.

We owe Prague more time.

Before dinner I was 165. I know that some people think that’s a little high, but with all the 200s and 300s I’ve been having, I was thrilled.

We didn’t feel like going out again for dinner so we ordered a pizza through the front desk of the hotel. (There was a menu in the room.) I called down and they said I had to come down and pay first, so I did.

They called up a while later and said the pizza was ready, and I had to go down and pick it up. Then I realized they had just ordered it from some regular little delivery place called Pizza Go Home, marked up the price, and sold it on to us. I’m a budget hostel-and-guesthouse kind of traveler, so I was surprised by what felt like an openly crass method by the hotel of lining their pockets.

But hey, the pizza was good. And since just about every pizza I’ve had on this trip so far has made me waaay higher than I expected, I took lots of Humalog for it. We then had some of the chocolate bar that Karolina had given us: more insulin.

And the result? 146 before bed.

And that’s the mysterious story of how an ill diabetic gorged himself on pizza and chocolate and ended up with a fantastic BG reading. Go figure!

So tomorrow we shoehorned an extra Prague day into our schedule. I hope I’ll feel ok and we can see some of the things that we haven’t been able to so far. I’d hate to stay an extra day and still not get to know Prague more properly.

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