Prague
Got into Prague on Friday. Saw Nabucco at an old opera house that night. Visited Charles Bridge (after Emperor Charles IV)--will post pictures eventually. My talk is in less than an hour, and I'm the first overall speaker in the entire European Peptide Symposium. I'll give a full report later.
UPDATE:
Talk went well. Many distinguished audience members have given me their congratulations. It's been somewhat disheartening trying to recover from a serious illness when I was supposed to be enjoying some tourism, but I'm feeling alright now. The last thing to return, aside from gastrointestinal regularity, is the appetite, so I've been trying to steadily shovel down the myriad small pastries available on several small tables outside the lecture hall. I sat through a couple other talks and understood most of the chemistry. You can tell when you're acclimated to a field when you can start to distinguish between legitimate science and snake oil. I'm almost at that point. Some of the other talks sounded like those skits people do of "what to avoid". Got some good internal laughs from that. The other hard part about talking chemistry in Prague is you have to deal with the world's most popular language: broken english.
Adieu,
Michael
UPDATE:
Talk went well. Many distinguished audience members have given me their congratulations. It's been somewhat disheartening trying to recover from a serious illness when I was supposed to be enjoying some tourism, but I'm feeling alright now. The last thing to return, aside from gastrointestinal regularity, is the appetite, so I've been trying to steadily shovel down the myriad small pastries available on several small tables outside the lecture hall. I sat through a couple other talks and understood most of the chemistry. You can tell when you're acclimated to a field when you can start to distinguish between legitimate science and snake oil. I'm almost at that point. Some of the other talks sounded like those skits people do of "what to avoid". Got some good internal laughs from that. The other hard part about talking chemistry in Prague is you have to deal with the world's most popular language: broken english.
Adieu,
Michael
posted by Michael Barany at 6:02 AM
3 Comments:
My dad used to live in Europe and has a great story about Prague. Back in the communist days, he visited with a friend of his. When they arrived at the train station they were surprised by a lady who evidently wanted to exchange money illegally. Being the upstanding citizens they were, they refused to participate in the black market exchange, for a while at least. Eventually, so many people had offered to exchange money that they felt it must be pretty safe, and they felt they would be missing out because of the amazing deals they were offered. At the end of the day though, they had traded for huge amounts of communist money and began to realize that they didn't need it. Because the border was controlled though, they couldn't take it and their lives back with them together. To remedie their situation, they spent all the money they had on the best that Prague could offer: champaign, caviar, and a really expensive though poor quality fake fur coat. The border guards luckily didn't seem to notice that two tourists who had gone into the country with minimal cash had come out with perhaps the most expensive piece of clothing sold there. Anyway just thought I'd share. I haven't been to Prague since 1992 and would love to visit again as I remember very little.
I also am thrilled that you got to see Nabucco. I saw a great performance in I think 2002 at the Verona Opera Festival in the Roman colliseum there. Do you know in which opera house you saw it? I think there are three old ones in Prague, two of which are used regularly.
I hope your gastrointestinal regularity returns soon and you enjoy the rest of your trip. Pictures certainly would be nice.
It was the old German opera house built in response to the construction of the Czech national theater. I forget the name, though.
Tyl-Theater
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