The Elves and the Shoe: Magic Afoot in Prague

Day 38

This morning I left Prague, but not before it gave me a final surprise.  From the moment I emerged from the subway Friday afternoon, I knew there had to be some sort of magic in the city, and I dare you to disagree after you read this story.

The Problem:
Friday night, I am at a bar with my friends and after a few drinks I suddenly realize that the gold cross necklace I am wearing does not match the rest of my outfit at all.  I take it off and put it in my pocket and forget about it.  When we get home that night, I pat down my pockets and am disappointed to find that it is not there anymore.  Saturday morning I get up and look again, hoping I just missed it the night before.  No such luck.  The necklace was one I had bought in Lourdes several years ago, but I live 20 minutes from the Vatican, so its not like I can't get a similar one with equal significance.

The Conditions:
I brought one pair of pants and one pair of really tight lace up boots with me to Prague.  I wear both of these items all day Saturday.  We spent a good 8 or 9 hours walking around Prague on Saturday.  By the time I took my shoes off when we got back to the hostel I was intimately familiar with every detail of their interior.  Plus I then put them back on and went out to spend another 4 hours dancing in them.

The Conundrum:
This morning I go to put on my boots and nearly scream when my foot touches something inside, as I'm positive something crawled into it in the middle of the night.  I shake out my shoe and what falls out but my gold cross.

What. What? What?

There is no way that necklace was in my boot the whole time.  For one, the laces are so long that I have to loop the strings around my ankles and essentially seal the leather to my calf, so the necklace wasn't sneaking in as it fell out of a pocket.  For that matter, there is no way it was hanging out in some part of my skinny jeans either.  There is also no way that the necklace was in my shoe the whole time, as my feet would certainly have alerted me to that at some point during the previous day.  Finally, I took my shoes off in a completely different part of the room than where I kept my bag and my clothes, so there was no way it tumbled out of something in the middle of the night and landed in my boot, unless the necklace developed legs and walked itself over and in.

As if the look of Prague didn't already convince me there folkloric creatures running around, it went and dropped this on me as well.

Ciao,
J