Interesting...

I picked up a brochure from the Prague tourist office and was quite surprised with its contents. Let's see... There's information on where to find your embassy, emergency phone numbers, warnings about pickpockets, pictures of legal currency, and two pages of illustrations on how to accurately identify police officers. No kidding, it shows their uniforms, badges, ID's, and vehicles. And after all that, there's this lovely message from the mayor of Prague: "I hope that the information in this leaflet will help you enjoy your time in the capital of the Czech Republic, that all the memories you take away with you are good ones, and that we will see you again on your next visit." Say what?! (Okay, I'm wondering what might actually be going on now...)

When I first arrived at the hostel, I posted that the elevator didn't get me all the way to my room. I've since noticed detailed instructions in the lift that go something like this: "First floor rooms, take the elevator to the first floor and walk half a flight down; second floor rooms, take the elevator to the second floor and walk half a flight down; third floor rooms..." You get the idea. The hardest hit are those on the top floor. They have to take the elevator as far as it goes and still walk up two flights. It helps with the luggage, I suppose, but we can't call it accessible.

I went to the pizzeria next door for dinner last night. When I couldn't finish the advertised 31cm pie, the server asked if I'd like a go-box. I was surprised when it said "Lucky Lucianos Mafia-Style Pizza"--the latter in Czech--with a mug shot on it. (That's the only bit of Czech I've been able to figure out so far. It's a bizarre experience for me not to be able to understand a language at all.)