Phill: What’s the point of a clock if it doesn’t tell the time?
Me: I’m sure it does … we just can’t figure it out.

The Astronomical Clock in Prague, located in the Old Town Square, is one of those sights that you look at and just don’t get. It’s colourful and interesting and quirky – but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to read the thing!

According to Wiki (yes I am a Wiki addict), the clock is composed of three main components: the astronomical dial, representing the position of the Sun and Moon in the sky and displaying various astronomical details; “The Walk of the Apostles”, a clockwork hourly show of figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures; and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months. Phew – that’s a lot of things all going on at the same time!

There was a large crowd gathered at the clock, but they weren’t all there for the same reason – we quickly discovered the clock was a popular meeting place for pub crawl groups.  We saw four or five groups waiting to go to their next pub, and we were offered flyer after flyer inviting us along. It wasn’t just a meeting place for pub crawls either – Phill was offered drugs by a man who “accidentally” bumped into him and muttered, “Wanna joint?” Phill, of course, declined and we both watched as the man moved on to some teens standing near us. Another bump, another mutter, and the three of them walked off together.

I remember looking at Phill and saying excitedly, “OMG, our first drug dealer!!”

Yes, it’s small things that amuse me.

Anyway, back to the clock. It was pretty impressive and we spent a while there trying to figure it out (but with no luck). The clock itself is mounted on the Old Town City Hall and it’s possible to climb to the top to get a birds-eye view of the Old Town Square, so we did that. There was a religious concert(?) being held in the square. I’m not sure which religion it was, but it was quite popular. You can see the yellow shrine in the photo and the stage is to the left, where there was singing and music.

It was very crowded at the top of the hall and very windy too. The walkways around the top are very narrow, so we had to keep squeezing to one side to let people pass. After ten minutes or so, we decided to go back down and look at the clock one last time.

We still couldn’t figure out what time it was, but it was definitely interesting!

There was one very famous building in Prague that Phill and I wanted to see – the Dancing House, nicknamed “Fred and Ginger” after Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, because the building, when viewed from a particular angle, resembles a pair of dancers.

Isn’t it beautiful in a strange way? The buildings in Prague were so interesting – at times it felt like we were standing in completely different centuries just blocks away from each other. Fred and Ginger are situated on the end of the building, as you can see in this next photo, so to see the “dancing building”, you need to go to the end and view it from this angle. I remember seeing the building and thinking that I couldn’t see the dancers at all, then we came to the end and turned around – and I saw it immediately.

The top floor is the fancy Celeste Restaurant, which has stunning views of Prague. Unfortunately we didn’t make it up there to eat, as much as that would have been an experience! We crossed the road and headed out onto the bridge, snapping photos like crazy tourists. I love being a crazy tourist sometimes, taking millions of photos of buildings and food and plants and animals. Nobody is going to roll their eyes and say you’re taking too many photos – you’re supposed to!

I love this photo because it shows the contrast in the style of the buildings – in just one photo, you’ve got such a range of design and colour! It was seriously amazing. At this point I was a little addicted to the Dancing House and Phill had to tear me away from taking more photos. I just wanted to make sure I had the shots I wanted, since I wouldn’t get another opportunity to photograph it in a while.

The Dancing House is on the banks of the Vltava River, which is the longest river in the Czech Republic.

Some of our best lunches were simple store-bought food, eaten while perched on the wall running along the river, watching the boats go by. We actually walked along the river one day for hours – it was very beautiful but very long too and by the end of it, we were absolutely exhausted!

I know it’s been a while since we returned from our EuroTrip, but Terri’s comment reminded me that I’ve been very slack in posting about it, so I’ve finally got my act together and started writing up some posts. I’ve only done one so far and already it’s bringing back fantastic memories of our trip! I’m excited about sharing our experiences overseas and I hope you enjoy reading about it.

I love flowers – I think they are absolutely beautiful and whenever I see them on other blogs I get insanely jealous because the most I’ve ever managed to grow in my garden is weeds and a cactus, which is why I was surprised when I found this beauty peeking out from the overgrown grass:

When we were in Bali, we saw beautiful flowers everywhere – mostly frangipanis. Apparently there is a disease in Bali so their frangipanis don’t bloom, but in Lombok they didn’t have the disease, so all their flowers were gorgeous. I tried to take some close-ups to take home with us because I thought it might be nice to get them blown up and framed, to go on the wall. There’s something extra special about photographs if you took them yourself.

I love how the water is speckled on the petals and it pools in the bottom photo. We got some really heavy downpours while in Lombok – it started suddenly and absolutely poured down, then would stop without warning. Very cool, but also too unpredictable! A couple times we’d put off leaving the house only to be relieved when it started raining minutes later, which would have meant we would have been caught in the rain with no umbrella!

This is my favourite “ugly” flower. I think it’s not typically pretty because of all the short, stubby petals happening there, but they curl out softly, forming little points. The bees were active in these flowers – only taking a break when the rain started.

Orchids are beautiful flowers and also a little strange-looking to me. I loved these white ones, with their hints of purple and yellow – so pretty. It makes me wish I had a green thumb, so my garden could always have beautiful flowers, but in this Australian heat, I think you’ve got to really know what you’re doing or your plants don’t survive.

Yes, there will be Puddy posts coming up – she’s been a bit neglected on here for a while!

Phill and I returned home yesterday morning (Australia Day, how appropriate) at 4am. We were originally due to land at 11pm Monday night, but our plane was delayed two hours due to late arrival, which meant we landed at about 1:15am. Getting through customs in Australia was a huge process, taking about an hour (don’t get me started on their system which involves everyone declaring things to line up in one huge queue to get their bags searched by customs officers) and then we had about another hour and a half driving home. We were so tired we simply stumbed into bed … and I awoke at 7:30am with Puddy wrapped around my leg.

So where were we?

Bali!

I’d never been to Bali before but Phill has been many times growing up, so he loved seeing things that brought back memories. We did lots of shopping and bartering and of course, visited some of the local pubs to watch the cricket with a nice cold Bintang. We rode elephants (they are surprisingly uncomfortable!) and went on a Bali Hai cruise (I couldn’t stop humming the song the whole time) and did a lot of relaxing and swimming.

We are still pretty tired and today begins the process of a million loads of laundry, mowing the overgrown lawn, catching up on bills and credit card payments, cleaning the house and, of course, entertaining Puddy who is now outside and hasn’t seemed to have missed us at all! She followed us around last night because we’d come home in the early hours of the morning, then left again for an Australia Day BBQ at the beach with our friends, so perhaps she was worried we would disappear again if she let us out of her sight!

Anyway, I have a lot of housework to do before heading into work, but I thought I’d jump on and say hi.