Prague

There is something nice about walking out of an airport in a new country and seeing someone holding a board with your name on it. Sometimes when we arrive late in a non English speaking country we have given ourselves a treat and organised transfers. It means we have a much more relaxed trip into the city, rather than trying to negotiate a rental car around in the dark or watching to see when we need to get off the bus. It also means that we can soak up the city's atmosphere from the taxi and enjoy the beginning of our next adventure. We arrived at our hotel with a positive impression of Prague - particularly as the taxi driver seemed to have the interests of his passengers (that's us) at heart (he slowed down when talking on his cell phone). We lugged our bags and tired bodies into the hotel and registered (from the discussions in Czech we suspect they had forgotten we were coming and our suspicions were confirmed when we found we weren't on the third floor as our booking had said). After saying a goodbye to the receptionist we tripped down a couple of small steps to the lift which we caught up to the 5th floor - uh oh - our room was on the 7th. Thank goodness we travel light. Up a couple of spiral stair cases and along a passage we found Room Number 71 (we rehearsed the trip later on when we found that there were smoke alarms but no sprinklers in the room and our room was situated right above a smoking room). We were pleased with our room with a view - if it wasn't for that little brick wall we would have seen nothing but blue sky and some clouds or stars depending on the time of day. But the view was even better when the next day Harry discovered by standing on the bed and twisting round he could see the spire on the top of the museum opposite - we even have a photo to prove it!! Onto unpacking and getting ready for bed. "Ouch" I said as I hit my head on the sloping roof - we were after all in the loft. "Ouch" (or another word meaning the same thing) said Harry as he hit his head on the sloping roof. As we both nursed our bumps we pulled the bed out into the middle of the room so that we could at least sleep in little fear of hitting our head in the middle of the night. But just to be on the safe side we left a light on cos there were two beams placed in strategic positions around the bed - just right for walking into.

Our hotel was only a stones throw away from Wencelas Square - not a square at all but a long stretch that covers a few blocks - some would call it an avenue and others a street or perhaps a boulevard. It is hard to believe that 20 or so years ago this was the place where uprisings occurred and where communism was overthrown. It has seen a lot this little stretch of land with beautiful buildings on each side. In 1938 there were demonstrations against Nazism, and 7 years later the Liberation celebrations. In 1968 there was the rioting against the Soviet tanks and in 1969 Jan Palach set fire to himself as a protest against the communist regime. Twenty years later this was the venue of the liberation of the country and the beginnings of the velvet revolution as communism collapsed. We learnt quite a bit about communism in the museum (that's the one which we could see the top of from our hotel skylight and which overlooks the square). I had never quite remembered all that my teachers told me about how communism was introduced - but began to realise with the devaluing of savings everyone became equal quite quickly. This oppression and poverty led people to focus in on their homes and families and not to venture out much. Unlike other Eastern European cities the locals seem quite open about their dislike for Communism - 'Czech people don't really like politics', 'that hotel was built in the communist area - most people think it is ugly', 'the tv tower is a monstrosity that was built with the locals being unable to comment on where, when and what it looked like' (incidentially the tower provided tourists with a lovely view of the city, but we tended to agree with the locals about its situation and look).

It is easy to see the tourist side of Prague as everything is within walking distance, lots of shows on offer (we went to an orchestra one night, music by Andrew Lloyd Webber another and saw Don Giovanni by puppets another), restaurants and lovely architecture to admire. We spent many hours wandering the streets looking at art nouveau architecture, secession housing and some cubism (the only place in the world where you can find this type of architecture - though we have seen other buildings looking a bit like it elsewhere). It all looked great from the outside but pretty sure inside it would be reasonably dark in the apartments. We also wandered through the railway station which was one of the few unkempt buildings with pealing paint on the ceilings and walls and we also wandered up the road by the river to see the dancing house which was built in 1996 by Canadian and Czech architects. There is something quite unique about this house which was named after Fred and Ginger as the house is meant to resemble a pair of dancers. Others have nicknamed it the "Drunk House" and I can see their point.

All that is very interesting, but what captures my interest more is how the locals live. We didn't see alot of local life because we only travelled by tram on one trip and never needed to catch the underground. But we did venture to a park once dedicated to Lenin (his statue was taken down and replaced by a metronome just after the fall of communism). We sat for a while watching lots of teenagers skate board and discussed how there weren't many ramps like young people have in the UK and NZ. When we walked along we realised that the ramps they did have were steps taken from other places. 

So, we got very worn out by walking the streets (so much so we went back to the hotel and had an afternoon nap one day). We tried a walking tour and enjoyed seeing the city through the eyes of a local tour guide. The tour ended up at the palace sitting high above Prague. The palace is like a little village where kings, emperors and presidents have all lived and worked over time. According to the Guinness Book of Records the palace is one of the largest ancient castles in the world. There was a magnificent church which we wandered through, and some cute little merchant houses now boutique craft shops.

It was Easter and it seems that the Czechs have their own way of celebrating this Christian festival. Although there were a number of churches - some we visited (like the Church of Our Lady of the Snows - huge building and extravagant decor and statues which was commissioned by Charles IV in the mid 1300's for his coronation and the Church of St Nicholas where we listened to a concert but were more in awe of the Baroque architecture) there didn't seem to be a lot of the Christian messages on the streets (not surprising since this country has been under communism influence for so long). Instead there were brightly decorated trees in orange, red and yellow streamers, lots of floral decorations with lots of mimosa (I think) and painted eggs galore for sale. I did hear someone say that these festivals were only for the tourists at Easter time, and given the number of foreign languages and phrase books there were a lot of tourists. Prague is also a centre for the Jewish community. There is a heap of history here and we spent a day looking through the Jewish synagogues and buildings and where for the first time we saw Harry's surname on one of the walls - these were the names of all the lost Jewish people during the second world war. A sad way to see his family name but it it made it very personal. We spent some time in the Old-New Synagogue which is one of the oldest places for the Jews to worship in Europe. It was dark and quite unsettling even when crowded with too many tourists following guides with umbrellas and tall sticks. There is the story of Golem who was created by Rabbi Loew. Golem lived in the attic of the Old-New Synagogue. He was an 'animated anthropomorphic being created entirely from inanimate matter' another way of saying I think he was formed from clay and then became a living creature. Golem was created in the late 16th century as a protector of the Jewish community. But unfortunately as Golem grew he became violent particularly towards gentiles and people began to fear him. Some say, he became this way when he was rejected in love but who really knows. The Emperor begged Rabbi Loew to destroy Golem, promising to stop the persecution of the Jews. Rabbi Loew killed his creature and his body is in the attic which is not open to the public (there is a story that says he could come alive once again in the future if something happens). We also spent some time in the Old Jewish Cemetery. Here there are tombstones galore, many not standing straight because of age and cluttered together because here people were buried 12 deep as it was the only Jewish burial ground for miles. There is a solomnity here that you don't find in other cemeteries as it is impossible not to remember the lives of those buried here.

One of the squares (and it was actually fairly close to a square shape) which had lots of decorations also had the Astronomical Clock. So, one day we viewed the clock chiming and dancing and the next day we climbed the tower to view the crowds as they watched the clock and the trumpeter.

And then there is the river, which seems to be the place where tourists are encouraged to go for the night trip up the river with dinner, or the day trip to see the buildings from another perspective. It really doesn't offer much for sight seeing and we hear the dinners aren't worth going on. We did however decide to have a dinner with some local music just outside of the city. Harry and I committed the name of the little village to our memories but I am writing the blog so long after our trip that it has fallen out of our memories sometime during that time (I think it was something like Stredoklinky but don't hold me to that). We had a great night, entertained with traditional music and dancing including solos with the dulcimer which we first heard in Budapest. The owner of the restaurant showed us photos of when he first bought the property and how he had renovated it - I was so intrigued that we took some photos - and the owner was pleased. And that was our first visit to Prague.