My last days in Prague have been filled with trying to cram everything in. As always, once there's a deadline, motivation screams sky-high. In the last two days I've done a whirlwind tour of:

--Belvedere Palace--a beautiful renaissance building, where Tycho did observations
--The Prague castle
--The National Technical museum (some of Tycho's instruments are there)
--The old glassworks
--three synagogues (it's NOT my fault I didn't get to these ealier, they only opened post-flood on Tuesday)

Suddenly, I'm wishing I had several more weeks, since I'm only just getting the lay of the land. For one thing, my map finally makes sense to me (i.e. everything it says re: the trams and metros is wrong, wrong, wrong and while anything on the castle side of the river may look like a short walk, it invariably involves a solid 100 yard vertical height straight up a torturous hill) and also my language skills have improved dramatically. . . at the beginning of the trip I went to bed every night repeating the word for "thank you" over and over and I still would have forgotten it by morning. Now, I'm comfortable with the whole "please, thank you, sorry" oeuvre AND I can say "beer" and "spinach" too, which is all I ever need to know on any menu.

On the flip side, I cannot describe for you the joy, nay, the sheer desperate bliss with which I anticipate taking a three-hour, hot shower in my own apartment.

When it comes to bathrooms, there's just no place like America.