Have you ever been in Prague in winter? You can go, right now, courtesy of the novelist Sarah Perry:
“Trams rattle on up to the National Theater, where, down in the pit, the oboists suck their reeds, and the first violin taps her bow two times against the music stand, it’s two weeks past Christmas but the mechanical tree in the Old Town Square turns and plays one final pleasing strain of Strauss, and women..clutch paper cups of steaming wine. Down Karlovy Lane comes the scent of ham, woodsmoke, of sugar-studded dough burnt over coals..” (from ””Melmoth”)
oh, yes its all there! i have clutched those paper cups of hot glüwein, i have swooned at the taste of those spirals of burnt sugared dough. My clothes smelled like we’d been camping after a day in the streets and squares where vendors cooked food over open fires. And yes, a city of music, always a plethora of concerts to choose from. A city of spires, a church for every day of the year. The blacklight ”magic lantern” shows. The Charles River, its swans,, its beautiful bridges.
This passage in the novel Im reading transported me back to Bohemia. I hope you were able to get away for a moment, too…?
ST UnWoked & UnVaxxed! 
Right alongside you, Hyp! Books are my favorite way to travel. THANKS!
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“There is no frigate like a book
To take us Lands away,
Nor any courser like a Page
Of prancing Poetry –
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of Toll –
How frugal is the Chariot
That bears a human Soul. “
—Emily Dickinson
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I have mentioned it before but the spa village of Karlovy Vary should not be missed. Best enjoyed in winter for my taste.
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Call it Islamophobia if you must but my enthusiasm for these Christmas markets waned after mohammedans raped many frauleins all over Germany during traditional New Year celebrations 2016.
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Yes, the Christmas market thing has been ruined. But Prague was the quintessential Christmas City, a Rockefeller-Center-sized tree in every square.
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Yep
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