Today my daughter and I decided to play hopscotch, for which we chose a shady spot by the fountain on the square. Here are some notes on this activity:

Lesson one: it’s nearly impossible to draw anything on cobblestones. Lesson two: hitting the right field with the stone is pretty difficult since the stone bounces away. Lesson three: no matter how sweltering it is outside, don’t wear a dress or skirt. 🙂

My daughter had great fun, and we kept at it for a long time. The Japanese tourists photographed and recorded her and applauded her wildly. Of course, she doesn’t like that kind of attention, so she stopped and the show was over. She looked around carefully and said that she didn’t like being photographed.
Some of the passing tourists enthusiastically joined our game, and one man even did so for the first time. We also drew some pictures, but the result wasn’t anything to write home about. The cobblestones are too small for any grand works of art.

With noontime approaching and our hunger growing stronger, and with a view to the lack of shade and toilets (In the end, I managed to find a public toilet, but I didn’t feel like paying ten crowns), we headed home.

The idyllic afternoon scene on Latrán was ruined only by the omnipresent tourists and the relatively large amount of traffic.

Everybody who we talked to today was great. A local resident from the housing estate who works downtown was against the project: She felt that it’s too late, that the center was already lost, and that it couldn’t be returned to local residents. A programmer from Prague who liked the idea had some coffee with us before heading on his way.

While fighting my way through the crowds of tourists in town, I overheard two local teenage girls discuss the following idea: “Why didn’t they split up the town long ago? Half could be theirs, and half ours.” A somewhat radical solution…