Prague Reflections

Sorry for the lag-time on this last Prague post...I know it was a while ago, but I still want to put it up.  Also, London is coming soon!

20. Oktober 2010

Just some things I thought about or found interesting on my trip:

1. I loved Prague. It’s a beautiful city – so full of culture and character – and the history, good, bad, beautiful and devastatingly moving lurks everywhere, just waiting to be remembered. What a place it is that can hold it all with such grace. I hope to go back someday! Being ¼ Czech myself, I’d like to have a greater knowledge of the language and history before I go, and I’d also like to venture away from the capital to see another side of the country.

2. Here are some things that made me react emotionally on my trip: Jewish History and Holocaust remembrances, beggars kneeling on the streets at night with their foreheads to the ground, their hats outstretched for almost before them, street musicians who play brilliantly, but can barely eke out a living, the willingness of so many Czech people to help me however they could in whatever language they could (even their language, when I couldn’t understand), even though I can barely speak five words in their language, the history – it’s everywhere and from every time period – and to me, the care and preservation of so much in spite of all that’s happened there gives me hope for the future. I’ve never seen a city that is so alive – not just the people’s visages, but the face of the city itself is alive with the past, present and future all at once.

3. Traveling alone suits me. I was apprehensive about it, but I shouldn’t have been. It’s freeing to not answer to anyone and experience a new place completely on your own terms. I never once was bored or lonely. Occasionally I was anxious, but that’s not so unusual for me. It was nice to have the company I had, and I’ll always be glad for a travel buddy, but now I’ll feel good should I decide to be independent. I think everyone should try taking a solo vacation once. If you haven’t…do it!

4. Having a student ID is awesome; it saved me so much money. Also, I found out I don’t like having to stop for lunch. It takes too long when I could be seeing things, and it’s too expensive. I took a bunch of fruit with me from home, and I will also bring small snacks with me next time. I honestly wasn’t that hungry because I’d eat a big breakfast at the hotel and by dinner when I was hungry, I’d really enjoy the meal. Win.

5. Prague “things”: colorful patterned scarves imported from Cashmere, Matryoschka dolls hand-painted in the area, ornately patterned, hand-decorated eggshell ornaments, hand-made marionettes, hand-made jewelry made by street vendors on the Charles Bridge, Czech glass and glassware items, hand-carved toys and Christmas ornaments.

6. The Metro: easy to use, fast and awesome. I’ll miss that.

7. It’s hard to get veggie food in Czech restaurants. Many have fixed menus and substitutions aren’t smiled upon. The Czech cuisine in general is meat-based, so it’s not easy. I’d really have liked to try some dumplings, but it really wasn’t feasible. Luckily for me, I can also get something similar in Germany, so I’ll have plenty of other opportunities. The food I did eat was all excellent. If you go to Prague, go to the Lesser Town area by crossing the Charles Bridge, go up Bridge Street turn right as if you were going to go to Prague Castle, and then turn left up Neruda Way. About halfway up the street, you’ll find a sign on the right side “All you can eat vegetarian food”. The restaurant is through the art gallery, across the courtyard and down the steps in the cellar. If you enjoy ethnic food, I promise you won’t be disappointed! The owner and atmosphere are authentic and you can’t beat the price!

8. Pick pockets were a large concern of mine…I wore a waist-belt for my money and passport. It worked great, and I never had to worry!

9. Prague is beautiful at night. Even though I was nervous about being out alone at night, there were tons of people around, and I felt relatively safe. (Minus the gypsy episode!) The lights on the castle, water, bridges and theatres are dazzling, and I wouldn’t have missed my night strolls for the world.

Hope you enjoyed my Prague saga! Get ready for London in two weeks!

Deine,
N*

In Good Company

20. Oktober 2010

Yesterday morning I met up with my good friend from high school, the Violin Man, in Old Town Square. We may not have too many opportunities to see each other again in the next few years, so it was really perfect how my Fall Vacation lined up with when he’d be in Prague. We decided to visit Vyšehrad Castle as some of the Violin Man’s classmates had said it was nice, and a couple of them were also planning to visit that day. Sure enough, when we got there, Logan and Chris were sitting up on a bench on the hill with all of their stuff, just chilling. They looked like they were waiting for a bus or something. The Violin Man introduced me to them and we all proceeded to make a rather haphazard tour of the grounds. We sought out Dvorak’s grave, peeped into the doors of the still-closed cathedral and enjoyed the vistas from various points throughout the grounds, including a few we found by accident when we were trying to find our way out.

After that The Violin Man and I went to the National Gallery in the Messepalast to view the 19th and 20th century art collection. We were there for about five hours straight and managed most of the museum in our marathon stretch. I could’ve lingered much longer in many places had there been time, but I got to see the French and International exhibits as well as lots of Czech Art, which I rather liked, so I really can’t complain. I’ll definitely be reading up on Kupka, Mucha and others in the near future. If you’re a Modern Art enthusiast, don’t overlook the Czechs! They’re worth more than a second look.

We were pretty hungry (read: ravenous) when the museum closed at six. It’s probably a good thing it closed then because otherwise I don’t think the Violin Man or I would’ve had the will to leave the art, no matter how famished we were. Earlier we had agreed to go my veggie restaurant and had mentioned to Chris where it was. After our chance meeting that morning, I wasn’t surprised when the Violin Man and I saw him standing outside the restaurant as we rounded the corner. Once again both the food and the company were excellent; Chris even wanted to go back the next day. It was nice to be able to show people an awesome place in a town where I don’t live and get commended for it – especially since the restaurant was vegetarian.

After dinner I was telling the Violin Man and Chris about my Pied Piper experience. They told me that apparently Prague has a gypsy problem, and they were convinced that I’d nearly been taken by gypsies. They thought it was a great story, and now that I’m not totally freaked out, I think so too. Finding the gypsies was kind of a running joke as we strolled through the streets. Chris took the Violin Man and I to the Lennon Wall, where people continuously paint/write quotes from and homages to John Lennon, and then to the lock gate, where people lock locks to the wrought iron bars – there are literally thousands of them. Then the Violin Man wanted to show me the “peeing statues” “if I was into it.” I’m not really sure “into it’ is really the right phrase, but I’m not going to turn down a piece of culture, no matter how strange, without a pretty good reason. Up the street from there a little ways, we found a book shop and perused the selection for about an hour. I could’ve bought several books (most of them about the Czech Republic), so I wrote down their titles for later. The book I started reading was a wrenching biography called Under a Cruel Star by Heda M. Kovály and was a Jewish woman’s story of her experiences in the Holocaust and later in Soviet-occupied Prague. It is definitely worth seeking out and finishing. The guys walked me to the metro station afterwards since it was getting late. It was nice to spend a day with travel buddies, and I just want to thank them for letting me be a part of yet another pleasant day in Prague!

Deine,
N*

The Pied Piper of Prague

17. Oktober 2010

I started my first trip to a foreign country other than Germany with a half an hour of sleep and an hour-earlier-than-anticipated start. Being the brilliant individual that I am, I booked my train ticket from Dessau instead of Roßlau. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but until yesterday (of course, the last day), the bridge between the two parts of the city has been under construction, so you have to take a bus. Naturally, that bus runs less often on Saturdays, resulting in said unforeseen early departure. It’s 4:15 A.M.; do you know where your passport is?


  

Landscape from the train



The train ride was uneventful. I slept most of the way, even though I tried desperately to keep opening my eyes because the countryside between Dresden and Prague is heartrendingly picturesque. The only other thing of note during the trip there was that I couldn’t sit in MY reserved seat because a Czech man, who looked like Severus Snape from Harry Potter, kept waving his arms at me, said who knows what in Czech and absolutely refused to move even when I showed him the ticket. In the end I gave up because there were other seats, and frankly I was just too tired to put up a fight. I seem to have really bad luck with reserved seats. I’m strongly considering not getting them anymore, no matter how much the Germans swear by it.

When I arrived in Prague, I got cash, bought train tickets and found the metro with relative ease. Finding the hotel was a different story. My instructions were to exit the metro station, turn right and go up the hill. Well, it sounds simply enough, but it turns out that depending upon which way you exit the metro station, there are about three ways that could be correct. Guess who chose the wrong two first? After the second attempt, I tried asking for directions from a cute, little old lady. Unfortunately she only spoke Czech and also had no idea where the hotel was. She kept trying to tell me things in Czech and looked at me questioningly to see if somehow I understood. I didn’t. Finally she hailed a little old Czech man over. He also didn’t speak English, but once he had donned his glasses, it turned out he did know where the hotel was. He started trying to explain it to me slowly in Czech, but thankfully right at that moment, two middle-aged ladies, who spoke English AND knew where the hotel was walked by and took over. Once I found out where to go, I also found out that there isn’t really a great way to get there by foot. There are many paths, but none of them are direct, and several are dirt trails through a wooded area – pretty, but inconvenient when you’re carrying your luggage.


View of Charles Bridge and castle

After checking into the hotel, I went into the city to explore. As easy as I find the metro to navigate is how difficult I find the street directions here. I have a poor internal compass without mountains as a reference point, and in a city with winding ways like Prague, well, I spent a lot of time finding out exactly where I'd gotten myself. Oy with the poodles already! I managed to find myself from the Wenceslas Square (too many people and touristy/mall shops!) to the Charles Bridge. Wow. Prague is known for its bridges for a reason. The view over to Lesser Town and Prague Castle accentuated by the river and bridge is unforgettably classic. I strolled over the Charles Bridge and “window shopped” by the open air vendors selling handmade jewelry and artwork. I will certainly be doing some shopping there before I leave. As I finished crossing the bridge, it started to drizzle, so I opted to head to the museum I particularly wanted to visit.



National Gallery



By the time I reached the National Gallery in the Messe Palace – the location where 19th and 20th century

art is housed – there wasn’t a ton of time before closing (I got lost), but there was enough time for the “Monet to Warhol” exhibit visiting from the Albertina Museum in Austria. Fine by me. I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibit and then stopped by an Italin restaurant for pizza on my way back. I had the waiter teach me to order in Czech, but I forgot by the time I got home...I wanted to write it down too - oops.



Charles Bridge and castle by night

 Cue, the night gets a little more interesting. The Germans have continually reassured me that it’s safe to walk around at night ever since I’ve gotten to Europe, so I decided to take the metro to the Charles Bridge to view the magnificence of the night lights. All was well until I was about three fourths of the way across the bridge, when a girl about my age with a guitar on her back started talking to me in Czech. When I was unresponsive, she asked me if I spoke English. My first mistake was acknowledging that I did and my second was probably letting her keep talking at all. She wanted me to come to the end of the bridge with her for something that she wouldn’t or couldn’t tell me and gave me this green branch that had been in the flowers she’d sold. She was with a boy who’d also been playing guitar a few minutes before, and she said they were living on the streets, but doing this was better than doing something else. Whether by design or because she just couldn’t say what she wanted to in English, the whole conversation was very convoluted. Needless to say, I didn’t feel good about it. Why was she so insistent and why me in particular? Her ambiguity and the boy’s music all had a Pied Piper type feel, so I pretended to follow them and then I turned around and left the green branch on the bridge in case it was some sort of a gang sign (…yes, that’s where my mind went). Maybe her intentions were honest, and if they were I’m truly sorry for doubting her, but I can’t exactly afford blind trust alone in a country where I don’t speak the language. Honestly the whole thing creeped me out…there was just something “off” about it. In self-defense I learned that if your gut senses that, it’s usually right, so I went back to the hotel as quickly and unobtrusively as I could. I was worried about being followed then, so unfortunately my otherwise great day ended with a bit of a negative spin.

Deine,
N*