“I’ll be 15 minutes late, sorry.”

Not my favorite text to receive, especially when it’s 18:55, the meeting time is 19:00 and I’m already in the meeting place – corner of Vodickova street and Vaclavske namesti in Prague. A place I’ve been to a hundred times before.

“No worries. I’ll find a way to entertain myself.”

Sure, Kindle app is an option (ha, or Instagram). But this time I decide to do something different: Stuff watching.

Yeah, that’s right, stuff watching. You know, like people watching. But with stuff.

Now, the stuff to watch depends a lot on where you are at the moment and what “stuff” you have around. I am in the center of Prague, and so I have around quite a few old houses.

I do something quite unusual.

I look up.

And there it is: Facade decoration of “Area and thematic breadth unparalleled among houses built in Prague at the end of the 19th century.” (if you speak Czech, more on Wikipedia)

My jaw drops. Until today, I never looked beyond the windows of the bookstore on the ground floor. I observe the sgrafitti, read the inscriptions, and wonder whether it is possible to get to the balcony on the 2nd floor. After a while I look around – and notice that there are quite a few other beautiful buildings that I never paid attention to. I lose track of time, when…

My phone.

“Where are you?”

The 15 minutes passed almost too quickly.

I put the phone back to my pocket, promising to myself that I’ll be back soon.

Sometimes, all it takes to make yourself entertained, is to look up.

Photo on by Gampe on Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 3.0