European Book Tour Part I: People, Prague, Glowing Penguins, John Lennon Wall, Storefronts, and Licking Fungus

(I gotta say--that thing was de-licious)(Ann's got two new hellacious bodyguards.)Dear Fruiting Bodies, Be-tentacled Monstrosities, Intelligent Meerkats, and Democrabs:I eez returned, along with Ann, from Europe. And have been working out from under various deadlines ever since. So, first off--THANK YOU Meg Gardiner for some great posting. So, second off--I will be posting about various and sundry European thingees between now and Sunday evening (for the great Minister Faust guest blogs starting Monday).Among the things I will be blogging about tomorrow include: Parcon, Hotel Metamorphes, Romania (and Slovakia/Hungary), 13-hour car rides, border guards, beers and other ferments, books, certain Finns, BEER BATH (!?), Romanian spaceships, pirate antho cover, Finchy, merry cemeteries, book launches, New Weird, et al.But for now, I am having the energy for only linkage to the photo sets I've managed to get up there on that thing you call flickr. (And guide you to Sir Tessa's admission of guilt regarding her glowing penguin army...)PEOPLE WE METWe met a lot of great, wonderful people (more on that in a future post). This set isn't quite complete yet, but does cover Czech Republic and Romania. Note below two excerpts, one with Cornel Secu, gracious entrepreneur and publisher, the other showing the peril to editor/publisher/friend/fiend Horia Ursu (bad, bad bear!) of trying to avoid being photographed by hunching down low. Click here to see the whole set. Including spaceship!PLACES IN PRAGUEOkay, so we don't need 85 photos of Prague, BUT we DID manage to get to Svankmajer's gallery, it WAS open, and we DID (yay!) buy an original Svanmajer piece of art. We are very, very happy. Besides, Prague's doors are to die for. And they have great-tasting fungus. And many high places. And it's like Disneyland for people who hate Disney. Click here to see the whole set.PRAGUE STORE FRONTS AND STREET LIFEAs Floridians, we appreciate solid tourism, and Prague's good at it, so some of this just reflects catering to tourists. But there's also some really cool stuff. Click here to see the whole set.JOHN LENNON WALLThere's a great wall in Prague devoted to John Lennon. We took a lot of photos. Click here to see the whole set.PENGUIN ARMY!!And, of course, the aforementioned penguin army, which is part of an art installation at a museum there. Note also the giant chair! (in the Prague places set) Click here for the full set.(More tomorrow, chillins. And here's the link to ALL of our sets...)