Ahoy ahoy! (Czech for "Hello")
So last weekend was the big trip to Prague! From Friday the 7th til the morning of Tuesday the 11th, Myself, Massimo, Mike, Barbara (& Teddy, her dog) were all in the capital of the Czech Republic.
Single word impressions:
Beautiful,
Majestic,
Historic,
Old-world,
European,
Former Communist state that is still working through the ramifications of said period nearly 20 years later,
Ok, so that last one isn't a single word. Oh well.
After arriving late on Friday, we were ready bright and early Saturday morning to start our tour. Since Barbara had lived
there last semester, she of course was a ready and willing tour guide. We started off by grabbing some crepes for breakfast and seeing this castle /cathedral that you see to the right: Vyserhad. Apparently, in the old days, the lords/dukes/whatever of the area would live in parts of the cathedrals, and have other buildings erected on the grounds for their servants/staff. The same was done for the king's palace (pics further down). We took in the views from this area to get our first ideas of the geography and layout of the city.
Prague is located in a sort of basin, the low point next to the river running through it, with a ring of hills surrounding it, all affording beautiful views of the city from different persp
ectives. From here, we set off toward the center of town, and our first sense of the city proper. What did we do next you ask? Well, we walked, for 15 hours! We covered so much ground, it's hard to remember what came first, next and last. For starters, there was a twice a year festival going on in one of the main city squares, Starometska. Every Christmas and Easter, the square is filled with wooden shack-like booths of food and trinket vendors. I found this rather ironic after being informed that the Czech people are majority Atheists. But anyway, this square held another distinction of being the location of all of Hitler's speeches in the city. That's the yellow building you see to the right. Apparently, he loved Prague so much, that it was why he set part of his government's seat here, and also why Prague was never bombed by the Nazis.After grabbing some lunch from a few different vendors (we really did the eating and drinking tour of Prague), we set out for the other side of the river and the palace hill. The route led us across the famous Charles Bridge, a bridge adorned with many statues, artists, musicians, and tons of tourists.
At the base of one of the sculptures, are two bronze plaques, one on either side. The local tradition states that by rubbing specific spots on them, you can make two wishes. For the one on the right, it's a general wish to return to Prague someday. For the one on the left, it's a wish for whatever you desire. Above is yours truly, obviously, making my wish to return to Prague, or "Praha," as the locals call it.
Sunday brought more of the same - lots of walking, lots of eating food & drinking cheap Czech beer (still not my favorite; that would be Belgian, followed by German). The main difference on this day was that Barbara didn't join us, because the previous day's 15 hours of jaunting about took a physical toll, so she decided to rest up and see some old friends while taking it easy. So it was boy's day out, and as I mentioned, we ate alot of food - roasted pork leg sandwiches, chicken-skewers, steak sandwiches, potato pancakes wrapped around s
ausages, variouspastries, and chocolate-covered bananas and strawberries. Oh, and a small, bizarre pizza of dough, garlic, ketchup and a sprinkling of cheese. (Mike and Massimo ate that one).
We ended up eating at an actual restaurant that night, where we had, among us, boars knee, roast duck, and KANGAROO!! Oh yeah, and a frog leg appetizer. So chalk up two more animals to the list of foods that I've had for the first time ever while being in Europe. So far the list has the following animals - Reindeer (Stockholm trip), Wild Boar (Italy), Hare (Italy), Horse (Italy), Kangaroo & Frog (Prague), and possibly Pheasant (Stockholm) - possibly, because I can't remember if I've had it before or not.
That night, Massimo & I went to "the largest dance club in Eastern Europe," the name of which I can't remember. The place has 5 floors, each with it's own style of music and DJ. It being Sunday however, and not a prime club-going night, there were only 2 floors open. We mainly just hung out and people-watched. After 2 days of lots of cheap Czech beer, we really weren't in the mood for any kind of alcohol, so we didn't have any. One floor was playing some really industrial techno, and the other was playing top-40 type pop songs. LAAAAAAME. The highlight of the night, for Massimo anyway, was seeing this one cute girl, who happened to be from Italy. He never spoke a word to her, but he couldn't take his eyes off her either. It was love at first sight, for him at least. In the end, he let her leave without trying to talk to her, but he certainly talked about her for the rest of the trip, to anyone that would listen anyway.
So Monday brought with it the plans to go to a town about an hour outside of Prague - Kutna Hora, and see a bone church, and the village it occupies. However, before leaving we (luckily) read a few Czech guide books and found out that the church is closed on Mondays from Oct-April. That put the kibosh on those plans. (Add that to the sold out opera we wanted to see on Saturday, and there were two plans that got ruined.) We thought about it for a few and decided to stay in Prague that day, since it was our last day in town, and there was still a few things we wanted to see, including their imitation Eiffel Tower, and the giant Metronome on one of the hills. Massimo & I set off together and Mike & Barbara together.As it turned out, the tower was only open on the weekends, so we went 50 yards away to see the mirror maze, which ALSO turned out to be closed during the week.
Double lame.
The other thing that we wanted to do, and actually were able to, was go see the giant metronome that stands on one of the opposing hills. The story with that is there used to be a massive statue of Joseph Stalin on the hill, overlooking the city during the rule of Communism. He chose the spot because it looked out over all of Prague. Naturally, after the fall of communism, the people of Prague decided they wanted this statue no longer. So of course the obvious option was to replace it with a giant metronome. I didn't understand the meaning/symbolism behind it, and apparently neither did Barbara, nor anyone else I asked. We tried to figure out a few ideas, such as it standing for the Czech people getting back their rhythm, or getting back a regular routine, but we were told that the Czech people don't think that deeply. Oh well, another unsolved mystery.
All in all, a mighty fine trip to the Czech Republic. Our flight there and back took us through Bratislava, Slovakia, and on the trip home we had a 3 hour layover. I figured I would at least walk outside and find some dirt to walk on, to say that I'd walked on Slovakian soil. I did one better. Just outside the rather small airport was a large city map showing the airport literally being on the edge of the city. I figured "what the hell," and went for a walk while the other 3 stayed inside. Just off the airport property was the edge of town. Unfortunately, it was the industrial part of town, but there was however an IKEA store. I figured in honor of all my parents who love the store, that I'd check it out. I ended up buying two small boxes of Swedish cookies...from a Swedish store...in Slovakia. But hey, at least I can say I've been to Slovakia. How many of you out there can say that?
.JPG)