Tendrils

     After a month in Indonesia, a hellish 40+ hour trip back, two days in the US, I turned around and got on a plane two days later, to Istanbul (overnight) and then to Nuremberg for a river cruise down the Danube to Budapest. That all went swimmingly, so to speak, but at the end of the trip, Gwyne wanted to spend some time in Prague, and so we did. 

     One thing I noticed, both in Indonesia and Europe are the tendrils of travel - thin lines of well worn paths where everyone seems to go and few seem to veer off of, myself included. There are, of course, good reasons for this. Sometimes, it's the method of transportation, whether it be trains, planes, automobiles or boats that take you to where the popular kids are. Other times, it's just because some places are more interesting than others. There are villages in the middle of nowhere in Java, Bali, Hungary and the Czech Republic that no one really wants to go to because, well, they're in the middle of fucking nowhere. I don't know of a lot of people who like to ride the turnip truck out to a tiny town in the middle of Central Europe and dig up their own potatoes for dinner. That just doesn't seem that interesting (or fun) to me, or evidently, to most other people. 

     Gwyne selected the hotel (after all, I had done all of the logistical work on the river cruise - all of the stops, translators, tours, room, food and such) and we ended up in a 15th century building/hotel that had a unique view of the Prague castle. We had two tiny windows, from which we could see the castle and the Starbucks right next to the castle. The Starbucks was what interested me. As I looked up, there was someone perching precipitously on one corner of the Starbucks wall, spending 5 - 10 seconds having their picture taken. Then someone else would jump up on the wall (there was about a 40' drop below them) and pose. The city of Prague was the background, but what was fascinating to me was the never ending stream of people having their picture taken in the exact same location - 5 - 10 seconds, then the next person in line would hop up on the wall and pose. All.day.long. WTF was going on? I looked on the internet, it said that location was one of the most photogenic in all of Prague (I really don't think it is - the whole city is unbelievably photogenic and there are much better city views, in my opinion). But someone on the internet said this is the place to have your picture taken in Prague. It turns out there was something else going on as well - it was one of the locations for a Korean soap opera filmed in Prague. That explains the higher than normal number of Korean folks getting their picture taken from the same spot, but what about the poses? I've watched over the past few days, from our hotel room, and from the wall across Starbucks. There seem to be three main poses: the staid, look at the camera, fake a smile and then get off the wall. Then there is the looking out over Prague, you can either have a profile picture, looking pensive or have your picture taken of your back while the photo subject looks outwards. Who knows what the expression on their face is? We all assume they are taking in the majesty of the history and architecture. No one needs to know what they really thinking, which is probably nothing about majestic views, history or architecture. Finally, there is the pose with your back to the camera and both hands raised in the air, sometimes, the occasional peace sign. Not sure what that's about. I've looked for the last three days and haven't seen any variation to those three poses.
     I do, however, enjoy the twist to pose #1, the fake smile. It involved the photo subject berating their photographer, pointing, directing, frequently scolding, brilliantly smiling and then quickly resorting to a scowl after the picture has been taken and checking to see that they looked sweet and happy in the picture, all within the 5 - 10 second window. Those were my favorites. Nobody likes an unflattering picture of themselves, but c'mon.

     The other thing that interested me in Prague were the Chinese pre-wedding photo shoots. In the morning, one location they can reliably be found is on the Charles Bridge at around 0600. A few hours later, and the bridge is barely passable, kiosks set up with people trying to separate you from your money (none successfully in my case), musicians playing, tour groups touring and an all around zoo. But the brides to be at that time are fully made up, their hair is done, they're dressed in elegant gowns and grooms are in their suits/tuxes. The bridge is lovely to start with, the morning light accentuates the beauty of the bridge/city and the only people that seem to be there at that time of day are the youngsters, stumbling drunkenly home from an all nighter, the Chinese pre-wedding photo shoots, and a few oddball early risers, like myself. What was all of this hullabaloo, I thought? Once again, the interweb came to the rescue. It's a big deal for those with resources, traveling to exotic locations, dressing up in their wedding garb and having a professional pre-wedding photo taken. The interweb says that Chinese weddings have a fairly rigid structure, which make it difficult to schedule time for wedding pictures, so they get them taken in advance. That also allows them to be plastered around the hall when they are actually married. After reading about it, I can see why they do it, but t's not for me. I'm an enormously practical fellow. My idea of a good wedding is giving the bride/groom a ladder and a chunk of cash. The ladder is for them to elope, the cash is to help them start a new life. Whatever works for you is what works for you. I just enjoyed walking down to the bridge in the am to see the next group of brides and grooms to be posing for the camera.

     The bike ride portion of the trip (and there's always at least one of those) was great for me, I took the bikes the river boat tour provided at most of the stops and pedaled aimlessly around, sometimes getting lost, frequently seeing a lot of nothing burger and occasionally running across something spectacular. After one stop in Germany, I let Gwyne know that on the next day my gaze would be lingering longer than was appropriate, and she jumped in, "At the sex shops?" No, I said, at the bicycles. My ride in DC was stolen, so I'm in the bike shopping mode. I looked, my gaze lingered, I wiggled my eyebrows, I even licked my lips. There are some über hot bicycles in Germany, and without shame, I lusted after them. And now it's time to satisfy my cycling urges, buy a new bike and enjoy the fantastic cycling around DC before moving, again.