Prague, Czech Republic

Black Light Image Theatre in Prague, sent by my friend Corrine, from her vacation in Europe with her son and her husband, celebrating her son's graduation from Columbia University. (High five!)   

The website of the Image Theatre is well worth looking at (access through link above) as the copy is written with a sense of whimsy and passion for the art that is a pleasure to read.  From the "Welcome" page:  Sometimes it is difficult to be in the right place at the right time. But if you are sitting right now in the auditorium of the IMAGE theatre then you have succeeded. Welcome! Of course, not all the theatres are the same. Black theatre is different; the light is different and the dark is different. The intense darkness of black theatre is full of fantasy. Poetic pictures are approaching you from the mysterious and almost indefinite depth of a black cabinet. You cannot see the actors, as they are invisible. Suddenly you can see them rather well and almost dangerously close. Dance will express the unspoken, disturb emotions and overcome laws of physics. Music will bring inanimate to life, tragic will change into comic, unbelievable will become real. And, moreover, your imagination will fully awake. If you are willing to join our exploration, inside you may find something you have never known existed.  Bucket list!  Sounds very cool.

Prague is classified as an alpha- world city, a concept I hadn't heard of before.  The term is applied to "a city deemed to be an important node point in the global economic system".  Its city center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and at 4.5 million visitors a year, is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe.

 

When I look up "Czech Republic", I realize I feel more than a bit inadequate in my knowledge of post-Cold War geo-political boundaries.   Given that this is one subject area I always considered myself pretty good at, I should really start the process of re-learning world geography.  How else can I reclaim my status as the go-to person in Trivial Pursuit for Geography questions?   I've found one geography game site but if anybody has any better suggestions, I'd love to hear them.