Traveling at top speed through Central and Eastern Europe

This blog would have been a great place to write about our trip, had I started it right after the Hamburg post. I didn't write about the Fulbright program (although one of my colleagues did) because I wasn't sure how public I wanted to be about my musings on the German Sozialstaat.

Anyways...meeting up with B on the train worked out just fine, although his pocket got picked in the process and we spent HOURS in the lobby in our place in Prague skype-calling the credit cards to cancel them and get replacements sent to our hotel in Dresden. The fucker got nothing, though - although he tried cash advances on every card. We were less successful with the MA DMV (no surprise there) - apparently the possibility that a MA resident should lose his/her license while out of the country and have to have a replacement in order to rent a car has never occurred to the Provincial Geniuses who run the DMV. (Why would anyone even leave the state? I ask you.)

I never did get my bearings in Prague but we saw the city museum on the first day (Sunday) - interesting but not really research-relevant. Interesting special exhibit on a 1920s furniture designer and architect from the Czech Republic whose name escapes me this moment. Also we saw the monument to Jan Palach and later, the Museum of Communism (REALLY great!). Later we stepped into a brand-new club called Propaganda that is full of leftover artifacts from the period. The next day, Monday, we took Communism tours from two different tour companies - same content, quite different approaches - but lots of parallels with the tour industry in Krakow/Nowa Huta (Poland).

We met a delightful French couple in our hotel and talked with them every day at breakfast. I am glad to report that I am able to be sarcastic in French as well as English. We sort of bonded over our frustration with Stumbledumb, the weekend desk clerk.

On Tuesday, we grabbed the train to Dresden. More to follow.