July 22

Hollywood Glamour and Prague Target

We started the day taking all the right trams with the right connections back up to the Castle area to see the Marilyn Monroe exhibit at the Prague Riding School (former life for the building now an exhibition space).

On display were cases of her Ferragamo shoes,  6 1/2 just my size, from the classic pump with the perfect roundish pointy toe to the stunning turquoise suede ballet flats with the shell heel.  Mannequins wore her clothes, which contrary to expectation, were classic and muted. Thirty costumes from her most famous movie scenes were exhibited, but only an exact replica of her famous white pleated chiffon from the 'vent' scene. There were Andy Warhol' iconic paintings  and Richard Avedon photos hanging next to movie clips playing and a film of the infamous, sexy Happy Birthday JFK.  

Steve, who misses not much, spied the attribution for some of the costumes. They were loaned for the exhibit from, ready for this Philadelphians who are of that certain age -- Gene London, Reading PA.  

And since I sat on Gene's lap in 1961 (there is proof of this somewhere in a photo taken when the episode aired, black and white polaroid of a black and white tv show) I now can claim a link to Marilyn Monroe.

We had been missing our One bottle Paris lunches so we reserved a terrace table overlooking the city at Villa Richter where we ordered our fav Czech white.

I went for a traditional Czech mushroom soup thinking it would be brown and a bit heavy but the Czechs do know their mushrooms.  ( Hi, Joli! )  It came out creamy and light yellow with a bright lemony flavor, flecked with dill and a fluted shirred egg in the middle. 

Steve's tartar sampler -a salmon, a beef and a veg- also gorgeous and tasty.  

Salads next 

followed by a walk down hill, across the river to do some shopping essentials.

But as we were walking, Steve spied a salon advertising men's cuts and since it has been five weeks since his Provencal styling, it was time to have a Czech haircut. 

Mido, from Beruit, trained in France and living in Prague, did a great job and Steve, who has only ever gone to a barber, had a salon like primping with a shampoo, styling, blow dry and hair product. 

Stayed tuned for the next cut - Croatia.

Last stop was Tesco, the large department store which is most like Target. Since we had packed so lightly, we had brought only limited underwear and one bathing suit each. With a sailing trip booked unexpectedly for Croatia, the thought of wearing the same suit each day that never quite dried was not appealing.  End of the season choices were limited but we managed to find one female leopard suit, two pair of trunks and some wild turquoise and royal blue striped men's briefs, none of which will be coming home and some of which make Steve look like a version of SNL Czechoslovakian bachelors. I am not even going to ask if he'll let me include a photo of him modeling these but suffice it to say it was the laugh of the day when he did it for me. 

Topped off the night with an invite from Eva and Pavel's expat neighbor and friend to hit a couple of the close pubs for some beer, where you order your beer by the % of alcohol you want, either 10, 11, or12.  The beer was fine, the pubs a look at Prague life and the conversation easy and interesting. Perfect nightcap-new beer, new friend.  Every night falling asleep never knowing what elae tomorrow might bring.