The Czech List

Yes, as everyone knows, I am indeed back in the States now, but for my own sanity, and for anyone who is interested, I want to finish my travel blog, so that I don’t leave anything out. The last week of my trip was a bit busy and insane, as it should be. So I found myself lacking in the time to keep up on blogging. So now I’m playing catch up.

I did make a few posts from Prague, but none of them were particularly detailed, I think. It was a really interesting visit to Prague for me. Like London, a city that I had visited on my last trip to Europe, but unlike London, a city that had changed a great deal in the six years that I had been away. Prague is much, much busier than it used to be. More crowds of tourists. More expensive, particularly due to the weak dollar. But it’s still a simply gorgeous city, and I honestly think that there’s no other like it. The architecture just has a magic of its own. My brother, John, described it to me as being very fairy-tale like, and I have to agree that he is correct.



I spent 4 ½ days in Prague on this trip, and I found that while I really wanted to go back and see the places I had visited on my last trip, I wasn’t overly enthused about paying to have repeat experiences. For instance, I went to the Castle, but I didn’t go into the Castle. I did a repeat visit to one church, but when it came to views of the city, I preferred to go up a tower I hadn’t climbed on my last trip.

I was quite content to walk around, see the city, and take pictures. And take pictures, I did. In 4 ½ days in Prague I took about half the number of pictures that I took in all my time in England. Prague just kind of brings it out of you – it’s just such a lovely and unique city.

I did not in the slightest mind going back to places I had been before, even if I didn’t pay to go into many of them. We spent a good deal of time in Old Town Square, on the Charles Bridge, at the Castle, walking through Mala Strana, and took a swing through Wenceslaus Square. I went to see the Changing of the Guards again, which I swear, was a much bigger event than on my last visit!





My brother and I went together back to St. Vitus's Cathedral at the Castle, and admired the exceptionally gorgeous stained glass windows.





One day we took a lovely walk through the park along the Vltava River, where they are currently having one of those public art displays – only instead of bears, pigs, or cows, they had artists decorate phone booths. To avoid repetition, and because he’s much wittier than I am, I offer my brother’s blog on the phone booths for your amusement here.

There were new visits for me on this trip as well. I hadn’t seen the Lennon Wall on my previous trip to Prague. A pretty cool thing, the Lennon Wall. Apparently they used to paint it to rebel against communism. And no matter how hard the communists tried, Lennon’s face just kept appearing on this wall. Pretty awesome.





I didn’t remember the Metronome on my last trip. Or maybe I just didn’t pay attention to it. The largest Stalin statue in the world used to stand in that spot, overlooking the city. Now in its place is the Metronome, constantly measuring time over the city.



My brother and I walked down to New Town to see Fred and Ginger, the nickname for this modern building right up against the Vltava down there. It’s pretty damn cool looking. The world needs more weird-ass, but pretty, modern architecture.



We walked through Josefov, the Jewish Quarter. Which is a rather disturbing place, really. It is unique in Europe because Hitler decided to preserve it as “a monument to a dead race”. And people do visit it today in exactly the way that Hitler envisioned, except that, obviously, Hitler failed and the Jewish race lives on. Both disturbing and inspiring at the same time. But aside from that, Prague has a long history of mistreating the Jewish people in the city, and much of Josefov has now become the “rich” part of Prague, due to the Czech people trying to drive the Jewish people out at the turn of the century. It’s strange to walk through and see the contrast of the Jewish buildings to the lavish restaurants and hotels.





Initially the plan was to take a day trip to the town of Cesky Krumlov, but for various reasons that plan fell through. Instead, we spent a day at Vysehrad, a castle down in the south part of the city overlooking the Vltava. The best bit of Vysehrad was this big, old church in the castle grounds.



In particular, it had a rather impressive cemetery, which I took some time wandering through.





It was quiet there, a nice contrast to the insanity that seems to have invaded the touristy parts of the city. Great for the Czech economy, but not as pleasant for tourists, ironically enough.

But without a doubt, my favorite thing about this visit to Prague was seeing the city at night. I was out late almost every night. Twice for dinner with my brother. Once to be rebellious and try the Absinthe bar. And once to have dinner with an old friend from high school who happened to be in Prague at the same time as me.


Me and Amanda (the friend mentioned above) on the Charles Bridge.




The Castle at Night


Old Town Square at night

It was a lovely week that I spent in Prague, and I had a great time. No regrets there, even with the lost luggage on the way back. Apparently I am cursed when it comes to getting my checked luggage into the UK. Aaack!