Laundry Day

I got up, trying to sleep in as long as I could without missing breakfast. I'd gotten to sleep just after 4am when my Polish brothers decided to take a late night/early morning stroll through the city. I was glad they left, otherwise I might not have slept at all.

After breakfast, I decided I'd try to be responsible and do some of the things I needed to get done. My dirty laundry had piled up in my backpack, and I was down to one clean change of clothes. The clothes I was wearing, I'd been wearing for the past week. Jeans are great though, because you can wear them forever and they don't smell or look dirty. I've changed my pants only once this whole trip. Everything else though, starts to look and smell lived in after a couple days.

I took a shower and changed into all new clean clothes. When I got out, I felt like a whole new person. Then I gathered up all my clothes, and put them into a bag I borrowed from the front desk upstairs. At breakfast I asked the hostel tenant how much it costs to use the washing machines, and she told me I could just pay them 99 crowns (about 5 bucks) and hand them my laundry, and they'd wash it and dry it for me. It sounded like a pretty sweet deal, so I handed over my bag of dirty laundry. At 3pm they said I could come pick it up, so I had some time to wait around for it. While I was waiting for my laundry, I thought I'd go into town and see if I could find a place to get toothpaste, I was running low on that as well. I also needed to find some pipe tobacco, pipe cleaners, matches, and some kind of thermos so I didn't have to keep buying water bottles everywhere I went. So I had my little shopping list, and I took the metro into City Center to see if I could take care of some of it.

Literally right around the corner from the metro station, I found a smoke shop specialized in pipes and cigars. It was pretty cool, and I found everything I needed for my pipe right away. There was a whole wall of all different selections of pipe tobacco, but I didn't see the kind I usually get at home, Captain Black. So I asked the man who owned the shop which was his favorite. He pointed me to Black Vanilla, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I walked a little ways through old town and sat down on a bench near a park in the square, and tried out this new tobacco with my new antique pipe. It was glorious. This new pipe, smokes like a dream and the aroma of the tobacco was wonderful. I always get interesting reactions from people walking by as I smoke my pipe. Everyone seems to love it, it's a lot more pleasant than the wafts of cigarette smoke you usually get in a city, and I think it reminds most people of a happy child hood hearing stories and playing games with their grandfather. They're usually surprised to see my face behind the smoke rings, because I'm a bit younger than the average pipe smoker, but they all so far give me their nod of approval for being cultured and bringing back the traditional. It's much more classy than a cigar or cigarette, and smoking a pipe is really an art form. Plus it goes perfectly with my whole look right now, with the long scraggly beard, Scottish hat and my fiddle, Mr. Windlehatpee. My Grandma Sutliff suggested the name.

I kept on walking towards the river, looking for some kind of Supermarket/Wallmart equivalent, but couldn't find anything. I know there must be somewhere that people buy the things I'm looking for, but they probably don't look like they do back home, so I don't know what to look for. When I arrived near Charles Bridge, I noticed a stage being set up in the park. Several people laid out on the grass in front of it, and I noticed crew members tuning instruments, and hooking up sound equipment. Obviously these were the makings of some kind of concert in the park. I found a nice place up front and sat down on the grass next to two Irish guys. I heard them talking with some excitement about waiting for the concert to start, and so I asked them who was playing. Lenny Cravitz, they told me. They'd heard that Lenny Cravitz was giving some sort of secret free concert here in Prague, so they'd been sitting out here for a while waiting to see him. James was the one sitting on the far side of me, and Nole was his friend next to him. James looked like someone you might meet at a concert. He had long dark brown hair which he was constantly pulling out of his face, and he wore a well lived in black Linkin Park t-shirt, and jeans. He asked where I'm from and I told him California, and then I guess correctly that he was from Southern Ireland. He asked how I knew, and I said it's the accent which is slightly different from the Northern Irish. It's not as Germanic, I guess; a little less harsh sounding. We talked for a while, as the stage was being set up, and the mics sound tested. He said he wanted to study to be a director, and so we talked about good schools in California to do that, and about the film industry. I looked at my phone a little later and noticed that it was after 3 and I had to go pick up my laundry. I didn't want to leave my spot because people were already starting to figure out what was going on, and in a couple minutes the place would be swarming with people. When an experienced concert goer finds a free concert, he waits there all day, and doesn't move from his spot. I've been to enough outdoor concerts to know that up front can get brutal for people who leave and try to come back. However I figured I had still a good couple hours before the concert began. I saw them set up some lights, which meant they're planning on the concert either starting at, or going into the night. Night here doesn't fall until probably 7:30 or 8:30, so I gathered I still have some time, if I hurry, to go back and sort my laundry, and then get back here and still get a good spot.

I powered it to the metro, which took me forever to find. It seems, just walking around, I pass a metro station every couple of blocks, and here I was frantically looking for one and couldn't find it anywhere. I walked all the way back to the City Center where I was sure where one was, and took it back to my hostel, picked up my laundry, and sorted it. I packed up my backpack, so it was all together, clean and ready to go, then I raced back down to the metro station again. I tried to remember, once I got out, which way I'd gone to get to where the concert was. It took a little while to find my tracks again, but I eventually found the spot. There were a lot more people now than when I'd left, and it looked like security had cleared, and taped off the whole front area where I was sitting. I pushed through to the tape barrier, and asked someone near me if they were going to take the tape down when the concert started. The guys next to me looked at me disappointedly. "Naw" they said, "apparently it's not even a concert, there're shooting some kind of music video." I looked around, and did notice a whole lot of film crew. Soon after, Lenny Cravitz walked by me with the rest of his band, and a small crowd of producers and makeup artists. He seemed pretty nice, talking and laughing with the band, and giving a little wave to the crowd. I tried to take a couple pictures, but they kept him pretty well hidden, and I felt bad because I was acting like the paparazzi, trying to get a clean shot.

For a long time, we all just stood there and stared at Lenny, who was also just standing there, until the stage was set, and they were finally ready for him. They'd hired some people to act as the crowd in front of the stage, which was what that area was sectioned off for, and then they played the song (Love Revolution) through the speakers while the band sang along into dummy mics and the crowd pretended to go wild. It was interesting to see how a music video was made, and it was pretty fun to get to see Lenny Cravitz, but I stuck around hoping that maybe at the end of the shooting, they'd do a little concert for the fans waiting around. I still remembered those light's I saw them put up, and they did sound check the instruments. Why would they do that if they were just going to lip sync to a track? I sat nearby, and waited watched them till the end of the shoot, but after they were finished, they just tore everything down and left. It was kinda disappointing, but it was still cool to see a Lenny Cravitz video being shot in Prague. Now I can look up that video when I get home and say I was right there just out of frame while that was being filmed. I sat and watched the sun set by Charles Bridge, then I went off to find food.

I found an amazing Italian restaurant with priced which were decent, but a little more than what I was paying for a hotdog on the street, but I decided to splurge a little since it was my last night in Prague. The pizza was absolutely amazing at this restaurant. Better actually, than most I'd had in Italy even! Then for dessert I had a big gelato sunday, which was indescribably delicious. I've said before, that ice cream over here is so much better than in the states, and it's true.

When I got back to the hostel, I'd had to change rooms for this night because the other room was booked full for tonight, so my new room mates were India, and Nerida. India was from England, and Nerida from Australia. I told them about seeing Lenny Cravitz, and showed them my pictures and we were all a little star struck together. They told me about our other roommate, who wasn't back yet, who snores like mad. I said it couldn't be any worse than Vietnam flashbacks, but it was. We stayed up talking and laughing, and telling stories. We had a great night.
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