Prague

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  Prague, Bohemia, Czech Republic
Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Prague is so cold, colder than it was all winter in Sydney - around 6 degrees! The temperature has dropped by 30 degrees coming from Greece! I had to buy a new jacket, and luckily I had already bought some scarves in Florence. I am actually enjoying the cold a little (though I don't know how long that will last). I like how it is so cold and medieval, with cobbled streets. It is like a fairy tale city. People are friendly and don't seem to mind tourists too much. Most people speak English perfectly. I went to see the Astronomical clock first, to meet a girl from the hostel there. It is composed of three main components: the astronomical dial, representing the position of the Sun and Moon in the sky and displaying various astronomical details; "The Walk of the Apostles", a clockwork hourly show of figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures; and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months.

Unfortunately, I chose an incompatible companion - we had nothing in common. She complained incessantly about very minor things - I wished she had an off button. She seemed to really dislike Prague for reasons like "I lost my camera case", and the lock was broken on one of the toilets in the hostel. I can't stand people who are so negative - when you are travelling you can't expect everything to run perfectly. I often tried to change the subject to something more positive but she seemed to be on a roll, and couldn't be stopped. She had no interest in any of the fantastic free music or art that is everywhere in the city, and instead preferred to complain about everything she could think of, and tried to force me to go to about 9 Jewish synagogues.

I went with her to the first one, which to be fair, was fascinating. The names of Jews from Prague incarcerated in concentration camps were handwritten on the walls. There were so many names. Upstairs, there was an exhibition of children's drawings from the concentration camps. They were disturbing, and incredibly moving. They featured images of being excluded from play grounds and general society, of people being hanged, of a very small person with a gun to his head. The Jewish star was shown, a symbol they were forced to wear on their chest, causing instant exclusion from society. A great amount of pictures expressed the wish to go home, with signs pointing to Prague. Most of the children were eventually executed in gas chambers; very few made it out alive. I couldn't believe that things like this actually happened, and so many people accepted it, and persecuted the Jews. I felt distressed by this exhibition. While this synagogue was fascinating, the others were boring. I tired of them after about 3, and told her I was going to do something else. I went to see a fantastic Czech band on the bridge, which I thoroughly enjoyed. After that, the girl from the hostel wanted to take a boat cruise of the river. I went, but it was a waste of money, and freezing. I just wanted to explore the back streets and find more little exhibitions and buskers. I found a photography exhibition in a square, of amazing photos of wildlife.

I took a ghost tour that night, which was weird. I enjoyed the modern art she showed us as an aside - such as a little white sculpture of a girl, sitting high on a roof with her legs dangling over the edge, in a tiny alleyway. There was a red light inside her chest, beating like a heart. Another was a dark sculpture of a man, holding on to an outstretched pole, hanging down. I wouldn't have seen these things if I didn't have a guide, as they are in tiny back streets and high above my field of vision. Because it was dark, at first I thought he was hanging by his neck. The ghost stories weren't very good though. The guide was strange, wearing a long, black cape, slightly hunchbacked. She was very difficult to understand, and she spoke in a "creepy" voice, almost in a whisper, which along with her accent, caused me to miss a lot of what she was saying. After each ghost story, a man dressed in white would jump out at us and scare us, then run away! Very bizarre. It wasn't bad, but I was a bit annoyed that we were ripped off - the brochure said 200, plus you get a free beer, but it was 250 when we got there, and we didn't get a free beer! She just said thanks about half an hour before it was supposed to end, and then literally ran off into the darkness!

I took 2 free walking tours of Prague as I am getting very low on cash. I can barely afford food, which is depressing. Unfortunately, I lost both tours halfway through, as I was looking at things longer than the rest of the group. A highlight was definitely the John Lennon Wall. It was formerly an ordinary historic wall in Prague, but since the 1980s, people have filled it with John Lennon-inspired graffiti and pieces of lyrics from Beatles songs. In 1988 the wall was a source of irritation for the then communist regime of Gustav Husak. Young Czechs would write grievances on the wall and in a report of the time this led to a clash between hundreds of students and security police on the nearby Charles Bridge. The movement these students followed was described ironically as Lennonism and Czech authorities described these people variously as alcoholics, mentally deranged, sociopathic, and agents of Western capitalism. The wall continuously undergoes change and the original portrait of Lennon is long lost under layers of new paints. Even when the wall was re-painted by some authorities, on the second day it was again full of poems and flowers. Today, the wall represents a symbol of youth ideals such as love and peace.

That night I hung out with some nice Melbournians and drank some Australian wine. I will come back to Prague some day. There was so much I missed out on, so much more to explore. The best part was just getting lost in alleyways and finding art and music everywhere.