or, Five Days in One Pair of JeansThis time last week I was in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic. One might think that as Slovakia and the Czech Republic used to be one country that a trip to Prague might be accomplished in a weekend. One would be horribly wrong to think that. Three of us went because we had a long weekend for Easter: there was no school from Thursday through Tuesday. We left Tisovec a bit after 6 on Wednesday evening, had about an hour and a half in Banska Bystrica, and then left Bystrica at 9:25. We arrived in Prague just about 5:30 on Thursday morning. It was quite the long bus ride. In contrast, the fourth member of our party, another teacher, was just leaving Bratislava by the time we got to Prague, and he was in Prague before 10 AM.
In Prague we left the bus station and headed to the hostel. This was the first time I’d stayed in a hostel. It was not terribly traumatic. We did have to change rooms twice (once planned and once not), there was a drunk British girl in the hall on Friday night, I glimpsed people making out in the bathroom, and some of our roommates stumbled in just before 6 AM when we were getting up around 7. We got to Hostel Elf, conveniently located just a few minutes’ walk from Florenc bus station, at about 6, so we couldn’t actually check into our room yet. We stowed our bags in the luggage room and then headed out again.
I am now of the opinion that the best time to see Prague, in the spring at least, is in the morning, before anyone else is out. (Overall, the worst part of the trip was having to fight through pushy and often rude tour groups.) On Thursday morning we walked to Old Town, across Charles Bridge, and almost all the way up to the castle. There were no shops open, but there weren’t crowds to fight through, either. It was nice to be able to see everything before it got hectic with tourists.
For the five days we were there the weather was PERFECT. There were blue skies and sun every day, a few clouds but docile, benign ones, and not too warm. We could not have asked for better weather.
One of Prague’s famous sights is Charles Bridge, or Karlův most. The bridge crosses the Vltava River; one end is near Old Town Square, and the other in Hradčany, the general castle area. On the Old Town side you can go into the tower over the bridge. There are lots of statues on the bridge, mostly of saints, and once the day begins there are artists and vendors and lots of people trying to take pictures. Guidebooks warn of pickpockets on the bridge, and in Prague in general, but no one in our group had any trouble. At left is the detail from one of the statues. It's probably morbid, but the grimace on the poor arrowed sheep's face makes me laugh.
Another attraction is Old Town Square (Staromestské námestí) and the Astronomical Clock in particular. On the hour the Astronomical Clock chimes and the apostles appear in a pair of windows. It’s really not that spectacular, even at noon, but huge crowds form to watch it. On the hour is a good time to ascend the clock tower, because everyone else is watching the display. I am hereby ranking the clock tower among the best towers in Europe for the ease with which one can go up and down. From the third floor of the building a ramp takes you up the tower. At the top of the ramp is one spiral staircase with a stoplight at the bottom. When you’re descending, you push a button that makes the light at the bottom red, which prevents people from trying to come up. It’s such a good idea. The views from the top of the tower are good. It was a pleasant tower.On one side of Old Town Square is the Church of Our Lady before Týn. Its two dark, spiky towers are striking, and some might argue the best thing about it. If you find your way inside, you are not supposed to take pictures or even talk. I would have liked to have taken pictures, and might have done so had they not seemed so stern. Below is the towers of the church as seen from the square, with Easter trees.
There were two things that I really really wanted to see in Prague: the Mucha museum and the castle. The first is a museum about the local Art Nouveau artist Alfons Mucha. Mucha is best known for his posters and advertisements depicting lithe women in flowy dresses framed by flowers and things. He was also a painter and produced a series (not on display in Prague) called the “Slav Epic,” as well as producing posters for specifically Czechoslovak events and issues. Those were the things that I’d not seen before, and of course those were the prints that the gift shop did not have. One feels that the museum could have been bigger; surely there are more originals that could be on display. The Lonely Planet guidebook does say that a museum is being built specifically for the “Slav Epic” and that it should be done around 2010, so that will be worth a visit.
Prague Castle is not a castle in the traditional sense. It’s more a complex o
f buildings. The thing that you see from afar is St. Vitus Cathedral on the castle grounds. The cathedral is huge and wonderful. In the morning the sun was shining through the stained glass on one side. My favorite window was the one designed by Mucha. After St. Vitus we went to the Basilica of St. George, a much older and simpler building. Another building holds the Story of Prague Castle, an exhibit about the history of the castle with lots of artifacts, including what seemed like kind of a lot of clothing. The exhibit seemed to double back on itself all the time, and I’m not sure I saw everything before I left. Behind the basilica is Golden Lane, a row of cottages where soldiers used to live that are now shops, and at the end is Daliborka tower, which has a little exhibit of old torture devices. There’s even an oubliette.
At the opposite end of the castle grounds there are guards when you first come in, and every day there’s a changing of the guard. We managed a pretty good spot to see it. A little band played, swords were displayed, a banner changed hands, there was marching. It was interesting. The guards didn’t look particularly imposing--no bearskins, and their uniforms are blue--but I think they’re probably pretty no-nonsense.
If you took AP European History in high school, you might remember an event called the Defenestration of Prague. I admit that I don’t really remember the significance of the Defenestration; what I remember is that they threw some people out a window, and that it’s brilliant to have a word for throwing someone out a window. As the name says, the Defenestration occurred in Prague. One instance of defenestration happened in part of the castle, so I was really looking forward to being in that room. Unfortunately, it was closed for “technical reasons.” At the very least I saw the outside of the building, but I suppose I’ll have to go back to be in the actual room.
Prague has a lot of cool Art Nouveau architecture that I really enjoyed seeing. It also has a less well-known style called Czech cubism. And a quite popular modern building is near the river south of Charles Bridge. It’s called the Dancing Building.
An easy day trip from Prague is to the town of Plzeň. From Florenc bus station it takes about an hour and a half to get there. You can travel by train as well, but the bus is a little bit cheaper. Why go to Plzeň? you ask. Well, boys and girls, you go to Plzeň to visit Plzeňský Prazdroj. Since that name probably doesn’t ring any bells either, another hint is that the anglicized name for the town is Pilsen. That’s right, Plzeň is the birthplace of pilsner and the home of the Pilsner Urquell brewery (that’s the prazdroj). You can tour the brewery and see beer being bottled or canned, watch a video of some guys making a huge barrel, learn about the history of the brewery and how the beer is made with a triple-mash process, and taste some unfiltered, unpasteurized beer. I found it as unpalatable as any beer, but I did not embarrass myself or the crew by not finishing my sample--it helped that it wasn’t very much. We bought gifts and ate late lunch at the brewery restaurant, where the service was slow but the food good. I had the garlic soup.
In the main square in Plzeň we went up the church tower to get a view of the city and the surrounding area. Everyone knows that I do not love stairs in general, but stairs going into towers are often even more challenging. They fool you by having nice, stable s
tone stairs part of the way up, but then they switch to the wooden ones, and eventually you’re going up a glorified ladder. For me the going up is draining, but the going down is nigh well terrifying. I always feel like my feet are too big for the steps and that I never have a good place to step, and falling going down is much worse than falling going up. The views were pretty good, and I did not die on the way down. There is a picture of me coming down the stairs and smiling, but I’m also clutching the railings on both sides. However, I then found genuine cherry Coke at the potraviny. I don’t get how it can get all the way to the eastern Czech Republic, but it can’t get into Slovakia. We ran out of time for the underground tour of Plzeň, and I was also interested in seeing the General Patton memorial museum. Once again, I guess I’ll just have to go back.
Apart from the weather, one nice thing about going when we did was the Easter f
estivities. Prague has a few Easter markets, one in Old Town Square and one at the end of Wenceslas Square. The booths sell mostly souvenir junk or traditional crafts. These include decorated eggs and special whips made of braided sticks or twigs. On Easter Monday it is tradition for boys to whip girls with these sticks, throw water on them, and put perfume on them. This is supposed to make the girls prettier and give them good luck. In return the girls are supposed to give the boys alcohol or chocolate. Our Tisovec boy found a whip at the bus station on the way to Plzeň, so he “whipped” us on Monday. I was a bit surprised that I only noticed one boy whipping a random girl; she happened to be American and immediately started to complaining to her friends about how “you just don’t do that!” The Easter markets also had food booths selling sausages inna bun, trdelnik or tube donuts, beer and medovina, and the two things that most pleased me, Spanish-style churros (called pikle) and slushies. Since it was so nice, too, the ice cream vendors were doing good business.
Another Easter tradition seemed to be getting branches at church. We saw a lot of people with branches on Sunday afternoon. We didn’t get any, but then again we were at an English-speaking congregation (to whose service we were late because I failed to write down directions to the church. “I’ll recognize the street name when I see it” is not a good plan). For Easter dinner we had Tex-Mex. The restaurant offered free refills on .5 liter sodas. Free refills don’t really exist in Europe, so I chose to abuse that offer and drank two liters of orange soda. I’m rather proud of myself.
There were two things that were a little different in the Czech Republic than I’m used to here in Slovakia. The first is that while the Czech Republic is part of the EU, it does not yet use the euro, so we had to get Czech crowns (Kč or praguies, if you’re Red) and figure out conversions in our heads. The exchange rate is about the same for Czech crowns as it was for Slovak crowns, but I’ve gotten so used to figuring out euros to dollars that it was confusing using yet another currency. The other thing is that while Czech and Slovak are very similar, they are different languages. Most of the people we encountered spoke English, because after all, Prague is the capital and a major tourist destination; but whenever someone said something in Czech it just sounded a little…off. Furthermore, people could probably tell that I know Slovak, rather than Czech, if only because I wasn’t pronouncing “thank you” right. In Slovak it’s ďakujem, but in Czech it’s dekuji.
On the subject of language, there were so many people in Prague speaking so many different languages! I got confused trying to figure out what languages people were speaking and where they were from. I’d also listen to people talk, especially Americans, and think, “Why are you here?” I realize that other people might have thought the same of me, but I didn’t come all the way from the US to be there. I was just very curious about all of the different people there.
It was interesting to go to another place, although it was a bit disconcerting as well. I had a good time and I'd like to go back eventually. If it didn't take so long to get there I'd probably go back again sooner, but as it is, I think there are more places I'd like to visit that are closer before I make the long trek to Prague.
In conclusion, here are some yellow penguins on the river.
Prague Castle is not a castle in the traditional sense. It’s more a complex o
f buildings. The thing that you see from afar is St. Vitus Cathedral on the castle grounds. The cathedral is huge and wonderful. In the morning the sun was shining through the stained glass on one side. My favorite window was the one designed by Mucha. After St. Vitus we went to the Basilica of St. George, a much older and simpler building. Another building holds the Story of Prague Castle, an exhibit about the history of the castle with lots of artifacts, including what seemed like kind of a lot of clothing. The exhibit seemed to double back on itself all the time, and I’m not sure I saw everything before I left. Behind the basilica is Golden Lane, a row of cottages where soldiers used to live that are now shops, and at the end is Daliborka tower, which has a little exhibit of old torture devices. There’s even an oubliette.At the opposite end of the castle grounds there are guards when you first come in, and every day there’s a changing of the guard. We managed a pretty good spot to see it. A little band played, swords were displayed, a banner changed hands, there was marching. It was interesting. The guards didn’t look particularly imposing--no bearskins, and their uniforms are blue--but I think they’re probably pretty no-nonsense.
Prague has a lot of cool Art Nouveau architecture that I really enjoyed seeing. It also has a less well-known style called Czech cubism. And a quite popular modern building is near the river south of Charles Bridge. It’s called the Dancing Building.
An easy day trip from Prague is to the town of Plzeň. From Florenc bus station it takes about an hour and a half to get there. You can travel by train as well, but the bus is a little bit cheaper. Why go to Plzeň? you ask. Well, boys and girls, you go to Plzeň to visit Plzeňský Prazdroj. Since that name probably doesn’t ring any bells either, another hint is that the anglicized name for the town is Pilsen. That’s right, Plzeň is the birthplace of pilsner and the home of the Pilsner Urquell brewery (that’s the prazdroj). You can tour the brewery and see beer being bottled or canned, watch a video of some guys making a huge barrel, learn about the history of the brewery and how the beer is made with a triple-mash process, and taste some unfiltered, unpasteurized beer. I found it as unpalatable as any beer, but I did not embarrass myself or the crew by not finishing my sample--it helped that it wasn’t very much. We bought gifts and ate late lunch at the brewery restaurant, where the service was slow but the food good. I had the garlic soup.In the main square in Plzeň we went up the church tower to get a view of the city and the surrounding area. Everyone knows that I do not love stairs in general, but stairs going into towers are often even more challenging. They fool you by having nice, stable s
tone stairs part of the way up, but then they switch to the wooden ones, and eventually you’re going up a glorified ladder. For me the going up is draining, but the going down is nigh well terrifying. I always feel like my feet are too big for the steps and that I never have a good place to step, and falling going down is much worse than falling going up. The views were pretty good, and I did not die on the way down. There is a picture of me coming down the stairs and smiling, but I’m also clutching the railings on both sides. However, I then found genuine cherry Coke at the potraviny. I don’t get how it can get all the way to the eastern Czech Republic, but it can’t get into Slovakia. We ran out of time for the underground tour of Plzeň, and I was also interested in seeing the General Patton memorial museum. Once again, I guess I’ll just have to go back.Apart from the weather, one nice thing about going when we did was the Easter f
estivities. Prague has a few Easter markets, one in Old Town Square and one at the end of Wenceslas Square. The booths sell mostly souvenir junk or traditional crafts. These include decorated eggs and special whips made of braided sticks or twigs. On Easter Monday it is tradition for boys to whip girls with these sticks, throw water on them, and put perfume on them. This is supposed to make the girls prettier and give them good luck. In return the girls are supposed to give the boys alcohol or chocolate. Our Tisovec boy found a whip at the bus station on the way to Plzeň, so he “whipped” us on Monday. I was a bit surprised that I only noticed one boy whipping a random girl; she happened to be American and immediately started to complaining to her friends about how “you just don’t do that!” The Easter markets also had food booths selling sausages inna bun, trdelnik or tube donuts, beer and medovina, and the two things that most pleased me, Spanish-style churros (called pikle) and slushies. Since it was so nice, too, the ice cream vendors were doing good business.Another Easter tradition seemed to be getting branches at church. We saw a lot of people with branches on Sunday afternoon. We didn’t get any, but then again we were at an English-speaking congregation (to whose service we were late because I failed to write down directions to the church. “I’ll recognize the street name when I see it” is not a good plan). For Easter dinner we had Tex-Mex. The restaurant offered free refills on .5 liter sodas. Free refills don’t really exist in Europe, so I chose to abuse that offer and drank two liters of orange soda. I’m rather proud of myself.
There were two things that were a little different in the Czech Republic than I’m used to here in Slovakia. The first is that while the Czech Republic is part of the EU, it does not yet use the euro, so we had to get Czech crowns (Kč or praguies, if you’re Red) and figure out conversions in our heads. The exchange rate is about the same for Czech crowns as it was for Slovak crowns, but I’ve gotten so used to figuring out euros to dollars that it was confusing using yet another currency. The other thing is that while Czech and Slovak are very similar, they are different languages. Most of the people we encountered spoke English, because after all, Prague is the capital and a major tourist destination; but whenever someone said something in Czech it just sounded a little…off. Furthermore, people could probably tell that I know Slovak, rather than Czech, if only because I wasn’t pronouncing “thank you” right. In Slovak it’s ďakujem, but in Czech it’s dekuji.
On the subject of language, there were so many people in Prague speaking so many different languages! I got confused trying to figure out what languages people were speaking and where they were from. I’d also listen to people talk, especially Americans, and think, “Why are you here?” I realize that other people might have thought the same of me, but I didn’t come all the way from the US to be there. I was just very curious about all of the different people there.
It was interesting to go to another place, although it was a bit disconcerting as well. I had a good time and I'd like to go back eventually. If it didn't take so long to get there I'd probably go back again sooner, but as it is, I think there are more places I'd like to visit that are closer before I make the long trek to Prague.
In conclusion, here are some yellow penguins on the river.
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