I arrived in Prague just over two months ago with dreams of Gothic cathedrals and beautiful gardens with a dash of the mysterious and macabre, and the hope of writing dozens of blogs about all the cool places we visit. And while the city itself is gorgeous, boasting so many different and unique kinds of architecture on even the most mundane buildings, I can’t say that I’ve yet experienced that same jaw-dropping sense of awe or did-I-really-just-see-that-ness of Istanbul.
Is it that Prague is inherently less interesting than Istanbul, or just a case of the grass is always greener syndrome? I think, in this case, it’s not the grass that is greener but the sky that is bluer or the sun is… shinier. We are currently in our second solid week of grey dreariness with only occasional glimpses of the sun. And while I was expecting the cold, which hasn’t taken its leave despite the supposed advent of spring, it is the gloominess that has been most affecting.
Prague seems to thrive on darkness. Never is the city so impressive than at night. The castle is lit up and you can almost feel Dracula beckoning to you from it. It is simply stunning and at its most impressive in the twilight. And while the mysteriousness and shadows are fabulous for enjoying the night, the lack of sunlight during the day has the opposite effect. We visited the lovely park of Vysehrad with a cool neo-Gothic cathedral and some gorgeous shots of the Vltava and the Castle. However, the day was overcast, windy and just a bit cold. That was fine for our stroll through a graveyard there but made what would have been a fabulous day with the sun, just a kinda nice, kinda meh excursion.
Sure, Istanbul wasn’t all good. We worked more than we wanted, and it always seemed to rain on our single day off. But the time we snuck in during our gaps in classes, like going to the Gulhane Tea Gardens to watch the ships on the Bosphorus while soaking up the sun, or watching a sunset over Sultanahmet, is the most memorable. Maybe I have spent too much time in Mediterranean countries with their 300 days of sunshine to make such a drastic move to the 3-days-of-sunshine Central Europe.
And while the absence of the sun is difficult, so are the similarities to life in the United States. I have yet to experience the slightest bit of culture shock here, but have gotten a bit of sticker shock. We live in a big, lovely apartment in the city center for much less money than it would cost in the U.S. But everything else, except the beer, is surprisingly expensive. How I’ve missed the 1YTL lamacuns we used to pick up for dinner. Here, when you can find a Turkish restaurant (lucky for us, we live quite close to one) lamacun costs something like $4! Even the ubiquitous sausage is about $3 from a street vendor. And restaurants charge even more for their daily specials. Eating at a restaurant in Istanbul was always cheaper than the street food but still not a bad bargain, and certainly cheaper than most restaurants here.
So maybe things will get better with warmer weather, a little bit of sunlight and after we get our second paycheck and are able to do some traveling (inshallah). I am hopeful that next year when we are in Japan, I’ll look back and be able to kvetch about all the things I miss in Prague. Until then, I may just be writing blogs about everything I miss in the sunnier lands of the Mediterranean.
