To The Moon

Žižkov TV Tower, Prague, on the 50th anniversary of the moon landing*.

*alleged

*mutters over here in the 1st world*

So I've been feeling a bit down, a bit bummed a bit bla of late. Somewhere been the last week to 4 years or so. It's just.. shit isn't really working out. I mean it's not not working out it's just.. I don't know.

I mean I've got work, which continues to annoy me in one way or another, and this place, which is an improvement on the last but we still have to share and the hot water isn't heating up properly now and I'm worried we'll have a problem with bugs again. There was the problem with the plug but that's been fixed, for now but then the first time after that I try to take a shower the water doesn't even heat up properly.. it always has to be something.

And my charger isn't working, or working slow. It keeps working poorly, then better then poorly again. If it doesn't start working better again the power will run out and I won't be able to use my phone and what will I do then? I shudder to think.

Dammit..n n n... this bloody phone and its "keyboard" I mean you spend years.. or more like weeks really learning to type properly and really fast (well in my case it may have been days *is slightly smug*) and they invent these super phones that we suddenly all have to use for everything where you type with your thumbs clumsily on a tiny screen like some, man or something and they put the n right next to the space bar and it takes about 30 times to write the word "and".

They're just the things that are bugging me right now. Come back in a hour and I'll probably still be ranting about them, plus addd a few things, although they will be quite similar in nature to the existing list.

I admit some have it worse.

Overheard in Prague 4-7-19

(Presumably) American guy, walking by in group. "We're literally walking round in circles. I do not get the geography"

Well... I mean, it was the nuance, the way it was said, the accent and affectarions... emphasis on "literally" and "not"...

I mean you like.. had to be there.

.......

I'll get me coat.

Parade o' the monks

The Czech Republic (or Czechia as it's supposed to be officially called now, though no one here calls it that) is one of the least religious countries in the world. It's about 80% atheist, according to at least one statistic which may or may not be currently accurate, but the percentage of religiosity here in Prague is lower than the national average so in any case, especially in this city it's real low.

Still, there are tons of churches, statues of saints everywhere, and lately I keep seeing monks.

First last week one morning I saw one running for the tram, holding his skirts as he sped along. It was amusing but a small incident, almost not worth writing home about.

Then yesterday, after a sweltering day of 38 degrees, fatigued by doing tours all day, and then getting on the wrong tram, getting on the right one but getting off again because I thought it was the wrong one and luckily realizing it was the right one and getting on and taking a seat, I see this monk in long robes, black ones, in a heavy material, and I sweated just looking at him. Then he got on the tram and sat down beside me and engaged me in conversation.

He talked about his monastery, which is the oldest in Prague and has a restaurant and a brewery, of course. Asked where I was from, I told him Australia and he told me about some Australian woman he knows, we were interrupted by some tourists asking about the ticket system on the trams and he spent some time explaining it in broken English, which I had to correct later because he gave them some innacurate info, and then he took his leave after giving me a gift of a crucifix and a blessing. So the virgin Mary is now watching over me, I think.

And today I saw this.

Some kind of holy (or perhaps not so holy?) ceremony.