Eastern Europe: Prague

Our pre-7 am revelation of the day is that overnight train is by far the most enjoyable way to travel through Europe.  After catching our train around 9 pm, we shared a bottle of wine as the sun set, then settled in for a bumpy, but quick trip across the national border.  The only negative to the whole experience was my morning coffee, which I confirmed with Kristin, was infact, the worst coffee I had ever tasted.  Since we arrived so early in the morning, we walked around for a few hours waiting for our tour to begin. There was some great architecture that we saw on our way!

One interesting statue that we saw while walking was called Man Hanging Out. This was neat because Kristin had bookmarked it on the map, and we found our way to the intersection and couldn't find it anywhere... until we looked directly above our heads! Apparently people are often concerned that it's a suicide attempt or a person in the middle of an accident - instead it's depicting Sigmund Freud, who was born in the Czech Republic. He had a well-known fear of death, but when he was in the end stages of oral cancer he had a friend help him to commit suicide with a morphine overdose. The statue is about his internal struggle about whether to hold on or let go. This art installation was made by David Černý - you'll be seeing his name several times as he has a lot of art in Prague!

Another statue that has a neat story is 'Piss', which Kristin kept a secret from me until we arrived. Built in 2004 by the same David Černý, there are two animatronic men urinating into a pond which is the shape of the Czech Republic. The two men apparently represent Prague and Brno, the two largest cities. If you text a message to a number written nearby, apparently the men will 'spell' it out for you! These were a lot of fun to watch.

Kris getting in on the fun

We next crossed the world-famous Charles Bridge. It was built from 1357 to the early 1400's. It was originally an important trade route because of how wide it was (nearly 10 meters) and used to be open to wagons, carriages, trams and buses. Since the 1970's it has been open only to pedestrians. It is lined with statues and lights, and has plenty of local merchants selling crafts and services. We crossed it several times during our time in Prague, but we've put all of the pictures together here.

 

There are several statues and local customs on the bridge. The most famous one is for St. John of Nepomuk. He was a priest who took the confessions of the Queen. The King demanded that the priest tell him the queen's secrets; when the priest refused, the king had him thrown from the bridge. Touching the engraving of the priest being thrown off the bridge gives good luck and a return to Prague one day, and touching a cross on the bridge where the Saint was thrown off the bridge grants you a wish.

I don't know what petting the engraving of the dog elsewhere on the bridge gets you, but we did that too!

Later in the day, as we were crossing, there was a bridal party crossing to get some great pictures while the sun was setting. It was lovely to see the boats on the river as the sun went down!

The biggest and most well-known attraction in Prague is the Astronomical Clock. Built in the 1400's, its the oldest operating astronomical clock in the world. It has a truly impressive amount of information that it keeps track of, including the hour of the day, the phase of the moon, the position of the sun and moon in the sky, the current zodiac sign, and the Saint's Day of the year. It also puts on an hourly show with a parade of the Twelve Apostles at the top of the clock, and death (the skeleton) telling figures representing greed, vanity, and lust that it is 'time to go'. I found a video of a tour guide that tells it way better that we ever could!  As most people don't understand the significance of the various symbols around the clock, the hourly procession has often been called the second most disappointing site in Europe (we didn't find out what the first was).  I'm glad that our tour guide made sure we had the proper background information before we saw the show.

Excerpt of a tour

Some fun parts about the clock, there are 24 hours on the face of the clock, but the hours of the clock don't start from midnight as we'd be used to, they start at dusk from the previous day.

This is SUPER cool - it's a 3D projection celebrating the clock's 600th anniversary and some of the major events in history that this clock has seen.

Anniversary light show

Looking around the rest of the Old Town Square there is neat scenery and history, as always. The next picture is the side of the Old Town Hall - the Astronomical Clock is on around the corner on the left side of the building. The Town Hall was heavily damaged by fire in spring of 1945. They've left the Town Hall partly intact rather than rebuilding. Some of the wooden figures of the Astronomical Clock were destroyed - there was a shortage of linden wood suitable for fine carving after World War II but apparently Czech citizens sent their own furniture and supplies to help repair the Clock. The square is full of really pretty buildings and we enjoyed looking around.

We also heard about the first of two notable defenestrations that occurred in this town.  Defenestration was a new word to me, but I was informed it's the act of throwing someone out of a window.  In this square in 1419 a judge, the mayor (Burgomaster) and thirteen members of the town council were thrown out of the window by a crowd of radical Czech hussites.  Those not killed by the fall were dispatched by the angry mob outside.  This started a 17 year war against corruption in the Catholic Church, and the growing inequality between the people and the nobility.  The second occurred at a castle we visited later in the trip.

We also saw Estates Theatre, where Mozart directed the world premiere of Don Giovanni in 1787.

We also had one of the local 'tourist' snacks, the trdelník - a fried cinnamon roll with chocolate drizzled over it. Yum!

Despite these being available all throughout the touristy spots of town that we visited, our tour guide made it quite clear that these are not at all a Czech tradition, and have been brought here from other cultures, but persist because they are tasty.

Our tour moved from the Old Town into the New Town, passing through the Powder Tower, which was one of the original gates of the town dating back to the 11th century. The tower got its current name when it was used to store gunpowder in the 17th century. It's attached to the building in the next picture, the copper-roofed Municipal House, which is used today as a concert hall.

The next few pictures I don't remember any details of, but it was nice to see the range of architectural styles on display.

This is a famous statue of Saint Wenceslas, the patron saint of the Czech state (he was a duke in real life, and the source for the Christmas Carol). This statue is in Wenceslas Square, and also includes the other four patron saints of the country. It's a well-known landmark, but the statue could be of anyone on a horse, it's not particularly notable. Not so the next one!

This next statue is another one by David Černý, the same one who created "Piss," and it's Saint Wenceslas riding a dead horse hanging upside down. No one seems to be quite sure of the meaning behind it (I've seen several different ones online) but it sure gets a lot of attention hanging in the main atrium of a shopping mall just off Wenceslas Square!

 

 

While we were in the shopping district, we tried on some Botas (the only sneakers that people in the country had access to under communist rule) to see if they would work out as some neat souvenirs. So many neat colours! Unfortunately they were not comfortable at all, at least for either of us!

This was a really neat tidbit. This owl statue is perched next to an opening into an inner courtyard that used to be a 'parking lot' for horses and carriages. Since these are difficult to back up if the courtyard is full, they used the owl to signal whether there were vacancies. If he was sitting upright, come on in! If the attendant used his cane to flip him over to hang upside down, we're full!

We decided to head up Petrin Hill to get a view from the observation tower. There was a funicular to ride to the top which gave a great view. Plus the old-school controls are always fun to see. The funicular was built in 1891 and was originally a water-balance system before it was converted to electrical.

Once at the top of the hill, we had the choice to either wait in a 30 minute line and pay double the tower's ticket price to be able to use the elevator, or walk directly to the stair door and head up! Seeing as it's only 299 steps (the Eiffel Tower was over 600 steps just to get to the second stage), up we went! The views of the Old Town, the river and Charles Bridge were beautiful.

We then looked around the rest of Petrin Hill (they had a lovely rose garden and stone walls) before heading back down the funicular.

 

Our next stop was the "Lennon Wall." This is a wall owned by the Sovereign Military of Malta (Digression: one of the neatest things this year was seeing echoes of places we'd been before. Not only did we have a scuba diving trip to Malta, we also looked towards St. Peter's Basilica of the Vatican through the Knights of Malta Keyhole in Rome) which has been covered with ever-changing grafitti since the 1980's. Students at the time were speaking out against the communist regime and painted Beatles lyrics and a picture of John Lennon - since then the grafitti changes continuously. It was not only neat to sit and watch people paint and consider all of those who had been before, it was also just a really beautiful wall and was fun to take portraits in front of with different lenses!

 

Well, portraits with different lenses, and also selfies with cell phones

 

We then got some dinner and headed out for our night's entertainment. In Prague, black light theatre is very popular, especially with tourists. As there are no words, audiences from all countries can be entertained. Although it is practiced all over the world, Prague is the hot spot with 10 companies using these techniques! A few actors in bright clothing interact with other actors wearing entirely black outfits (and thus invisible to the audience) who manipulate objects that fluoresce under blacklight. It leads to some pretty incredible illusions and 'how did they do that???' moments. We had a great time and if you're in town would highly recommend you take in one of these shows!

See a sample of the weirdness here!

After the show we wandered along the waterfront on the way back to our AirBNB, enjoying the sights.

Charles Bridge to the right, Prague Castle to the left

The next morning we had a delicious breakfast at the Savoy, a french-themed restaurant with an awesome ceiling, which dates back to the 1890's. It was covered by wood paneling to protect the ceiling at the start of World War II, then it seems that people forgot about it, as during the communist years the building was partitioned off into several small businesses. It's just as well, as it likely would have been scavenged, damaged, or destroyed by the authorities during communist occupation.  After the fall of communism, the original ceiling was re-discovered, and lightly restored to it's current brilliance.  It was really beautiful, and the food was great!

Photo credit: http://cafesavoy.ambi.cz/en/

Next we headed up the hill to Prague Castle, which is part of an imposing walled compound that is visible in the night picture above. It includes St. Vitus Cathedral, which is the largest church in the country, and the resting place of several Holy Roman Emperors. It's a pretty great example of Neo Gothic Architecture.

We saw this in several places (mostly churches) on our trip. Apparently it's the three initials of the wise men who brought gifts to Jesus, and are a blessing on the building

This balcony allowed the king to address the congregation (no separation of church and state here!) and also allowed him to enter and exit the church without mingling with the rest of the people. It's carved to resemble branches.

Another view of the royal balcony

The light coming in through the stained glass windows looked amazing with the vaulted ceilings

The south side of the church has the Golden Gate, which has a mosaic of the Last Judgement above it. This must have been absolutely breathtaking back in 1371 when it was completed. Unfortunately they chose to use 'local materials', so instead of using mosaic tiles from Venice (which are the best in the world and are made from soda) they used glass tiles made from potash (burned wood), which isn't stable - when exposed to water it corrodes. So for centuries it was barely visible under a layer of grey. Luckily for us, there was a huge restoration in 2000 so the mosaic is once again beautiful.

Another major building in this complex is the Royal Palace, which has a wide array of different rooms to visit. The first room is Vladislav Hall, added to the castle in 1485. Can you imagine living in those times and seeing this room?

 The next room had the family crests

Who would you call if you lost the key?  That would require some talented locksmith.

This was also the site of the second defenestration, which took place in this castle in 1619.  In this instance, two catholic Lords Regent, and the Secretary to the Regents, accused of limiting Protestant power, and forcing Catholicism throughout Bohemia, were defenestrated by several Protestant Lords.  Although the three men survived the defenestration, this did begin the 30 years' war, and another long period of instability.  

These books were ledgers of taxes and other important information. The colours and patterns on the covers had no meaning other than helping the clerks to find the one they wanted more easily.  

There is also a smaller church in the castle complex, which was fun to contrast with the basilica.

The last attraction we saw in the castle complex was the Golden Lane.  It's an alley of the original castle that has been retained in a similar state to what would have existed throughout history.  Many of the houses were restored to show trades that would have been found on the street, or to remember famous people from Czech history who could have lived there.  The exhibit on the armoury was my favourite, showcasing small weapons that would have been used to defend the castle throughout history.

Walking down the hill from the castle complex

It would be wrong to travel to the Czech Republic and not drink beer!  They are generally credited with inventing the style we are used to drinking.  I got my first proper taste when we got to dinner, a restaurant called U Medvidku.  It's so common to order many glasses of beer, that a separate system has been created to keep track of beer from all other orders.  This ensures you don't need to wait more than a fraction of a second for your beer to arrive.  There are also ways of ordering your beer so that you get nearly all head.  It's called a slice and costs almost as much as a normal beer, so I can't understand why anyone would bother.

They also have some familiar beer companies.  I don't know how this hasn't resulted in a massive lawsuit for copyright infringement, but if I had to choose, I'd take the Czech version any day.

This was one of those things we didn't intend to see, but happened upon as we walked around the city.  It's a huge art installation, a sculpture of Franz Kafka's head that is cut into slices and each slice will turn in it's own pattern. 

There was one other thing that Kristin heard about in Prague that we needed to do.  She knew it would be a neat thing for me to see, so she kept it a total surprise.

Paternoster: Eastern Europe's 'Elevator of Death'

The term paternoster literally means 'the lords prayer', but in practice in some parts of Eastern Europe, it also refers to an early form of elevator, which is constructed of a series of boxes, running in a loop between floors without doors, that allow riders to get on and get off without the elevator stopping, and moving as they want between floors of the building.

In addition to riding throughout many of the floors, hopping on and off again, we also rode past the last stop.  The mechanism of the paternoster moves the compartment around the top wheel, and starts it back down the other side.  We were a touch worried we'd be turned upside down, or churned up in the gears, but opted to brave the danger, and ride it out.

Braving the elevator of death!

While these are remarkably cool, they are also under threat of extinction, as they are slowly being removed and replaced with the much more common, not nearly as dangerous, and no where near as much fun, modern elevators.  We actually had to go to 4 different buildings before we found on that we could ride.  Two had been removed since the posts we had read were published, and one was in a secure area of a building that we couldn't enter. If you are looking for the only paternoster we found that we could ride, look for this building! It's a publicly accessible office building, walk straight through 2 sets of doors then turn right! Have fun!!

Vodičkova 699/30, 110 00 Praha 1-Nové Město, Czechia

Good advice!