Prague: A City to Savor

St. Vaclav
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Prague is a city to savor. It's a city to enjoy, relax, and be with the person you love. And if not with someone you love then at least someone with whom you really like to spend time. No one should try to see Prague in two days, unfortunately, I didn't have much choice. The overall feeling I got in Prague was that of rebuilding. Our hostel was located a bit outside the city center and in a more unkempt part of the city, but the hostel itself was warm and inviting and the staff was very helpful. Carolyne felt that all the people looked depressed and indeed, the area seemed very grey. But once we got into the city center, Prague was hopeful and alive. Thousands of people were walking the streets taking in the majestic architecture. The feeling I got, was that the people of Prague are proud of their city and its history. Having survived both World Wars with relatively little damage, many of its buildings are the oldest of its kind in Europe and much of the original architecture (representing the Art Nouveau, Baroque, Gothic, Renaissance, Cubist, Neo-Classical and Ultra modern eras) is preserved

Looking up the Vaclacske Namesti towards the National Museum and Vaclav
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My flat mate in Aarhus is from Prague and she gave me many suggestions of where to go, what to see, and what to do. One of the things I really wanted to do was go shopping. Unfortunately, I did very little shopping. We started on Vaclacske Namesti, a long street that leads straight to Old Town Square. At the top of the street are the National Museum and a statue of Saint Vaclav on a horse. Saint Vaclav (originally Prince Wenceslas) is the patron saint of Prague. He was assassinated by his brother and is the "Good King Wenceslas" from the Christmas Carol. He was also responsible for establishing friendly relations with the Saxons and promoting Bohemia as an equal trading partner.

walking towards Old Town Square
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From Vaclacske Namesti we walked into Old Town Square. Here is the Astronomical Clock that looks out over the city of Prague. The Clock has 3 main parts: the astronomical dial, which shows the position of the Sun and Moon; a calendar dial; and each hour “The Walk of the Apostles” occurs, which is a little show of figures of the Apostles and other moving figurines. There were always people crowding around the clock waiting to see the little show at the strike of each hour. Unfortunately, we were never there at the right time to see it. But we were able to go up the clock tower and see a wonderful view of Prague and its rooftops.

The Astronomical Clock
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Pariska or Paris Street, a street full of posh designers, connects with Old Town Square. We walked up and down it but failed to find anything reasonably priced. :) However, it was a gorgeous tree-lined street that offered many tasty treats in store windows for the eyes. The rest of our first day we walked along the streets around Old Town Square and checked out a few shopping Malls Petra mentioned, but it’s hard to justify buying clothing when many of the styles will not transfer to Corvallis very well. For dinner we went to The Coloseum, a famous Italian restaurant located on the main street Vaclacske Namesti. The restaurant was on the second floor of the building, so we were able to look out over the street and still see hundreds of people going to and coming from Old Town Square. I ordered a large fresh Greek salad and Fettuccine with creamy marinara sauce and chicken. It was absolutely delicious.

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Our second day was a wonderful learning day. We found a flyer for a free walking tour of Prague and decided to check it out on Sunday. The tours are led by younger people who all have experience traveling and living in many different countries. Our tour guide, Nicole, had just finished her psychology degree while traveling throughout the world and tour guiding in Europe. Our tour started at Old Town Square and the Astronomical clock, we then walked to one of the many churches in Prague, but it was closed to visitors due to Sunday morning service. We walked through the Jewish Quarter, which was formerly the Jewish ghetto. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the city demolished most of the quarter as part of its program to model Prague after Paris. Only a few of the original buildings are left, including the old Jewish cemetery which is Europe’s oldest surviving Jewish cemetery and the Old New Synagogue, which is the oldest active synagogue. Because the cemetery was only on a small plot of land (she told us the number but it was in hectares and I’ve since forgot), the graves are in layers. They believe that there are 3 layers in the cemetery. One of the synagogues is also a museum of drawings from children that were in the concentration Camp Terezin, outside of Prague. Many Jewish artists were sent to the camp as well and they stole art materials for the children to use. 6,000 of these drawings were hidden and then later brought back out and put on display in several museums, including the synagogue in Prague.

St. Nicolas church
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Our next stop was the Charles Bridge. It used to be the only way of crossing the river and connecting Old Town with the Prague Castle and surrounding areas. The Old Town Bridge tower is an amazing work of gothic art. Along the sides of the bridge are 30 statues from the Baroque era. These statues are so important to Prague that the originals are locked up somewhere and only replicas are on the bridge. The statues depict many different saints including St. John of Nepomuk the national saint of Bohemia. The king had him thrown off the bridge for political reasons and because he was the confessor of the queen and refused to divulge her secrets to the king. The night he was thrown off the Charles Bridge and died, five new stars appeared in the sky, so his statues always depicts a halo of five stars. The statue also has two plaques. If a person rubs the right side, he or she will have good luck or have his or her wish come true. If a woman rubs the dog on the left plaque, her husband will never leave her.

Gorgeous chandelier inside
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Across the Charles Bridge are many other wonderful sites. We stopped first at the John Lennon Wall. When Lennon was killed, fans of John Lennon and of Peace painted and wrote messages of peace on the wall and painted a large picture of his face. The next day the wall was painted over, but the students continued to paint their messages and grievances of the government leading to several clashes between the police and students of the “Lennonism” movement. Today, it is the only wall that people can legally write/paint on in Prague, and it has a bust of John Lennon on the wall since the original paintings of his face have been painted over. Along the walk we saw many churches and old buildings, but one of the grander sites was the Prague Castle. Prague Castle is the largest castle complex in Europe and has been home to many Kings, Holy Roman Emperors, and presidents. Many churches and the first convent in Bohemia were built a couple centuries before the palace. There is also a HUGE gothic church, St. Vitus Cathedral, that took six centuries to build. We walked through the church and saw some of the most gorgeous stain glass windows I have ever seen. It is a truly grand church and I would love to attend a mass in it. Several gardens also surround the castle. One of the Kings dearly loved his wife Anna and so he had a ridiculously long (a couple kilometers apparantly) garden built for her. He ordered that it be filled with gorgeous unique flowers and the gardeners traveled the world and came back with Tulips. This is apparently the first introduction of tulips to Europe (Holland didn’t have tulips until after Prague). Also in the Prague castle is a street called Golden Lane with about 20 houses reaching my height (5ft3in). One of the crazy kings had them built and several artists and writers lived in them throughout the years. Now it acts as a depiction of medieval times and has several little museums and gift shops, but we were unable to visit it because we needed tickets for the whole castle complex which included Golden Lane. The Prague Castle also offered a gorgeous view of the city, and our tour ended here. From Prague Castle we could make out the Charles Bridge and the Astronomical clock. There is also the Petrin lookout tower, a copy of the Eiffel Tower on the hills of Prague, but we didn’t make it up there. The gardens were wonderfully peaceful to walk through and had several paths taking you all over the Prague Castle complex; the perfect place for couples to stroll hand-in-hand while enjoying the magnificence of Prague.

statues on tops of the buildings
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Our day finished with shopping at some of the little shops along the street below the castle. Almost every fifth store was a jewelry store specializing in ONLY amber and garnet. There were several glass and crystal shops a well. For dinner we ate at a traditional Czech restaurant our tour guide recommended. We really wanted beef goulash but it wasn’t being served. Instead I ordered beef a la stroganoff with a side of cabbage and some French fries as well as a glass of Czech beer.

Overall, Prague is a city of history and promise. Much of the city is still recovering from the 20^th century, but its citizens are proud of their history and love sharing it with outsiders. There was an energy about Prague that made a person feel slightly bittersweet but hopeful. It’s a city that looks toward a bright future and everyone who visits seems to rejuvenate their belief or faith in an unknown but potentially wonderful tomorrow