Next stop on the Spring Break trip:
Prague! We were up and at 'em by 9am the next day. Our
Airbnb was just a little out of the city center, but just one easy 8 minute tram ride away. Getting around via public transportation in Prague is pretty easy -- though once you're in the city center, everything is pretty much walking distance. Prague has trams, metros and buses, and one public transportation ticket can be used on all three. You can buy a 30 min. ticket for 24 czk or a 90 min. ticket for 32 czk or even a 24 hr. ticket for 110 czk. (€1 = 27 czk at the time of writing). All the tickets allow unlimited transfers. To get to our Airbnb from the airport for example we had to take a bus, then metro, then tram, all of which we were able to get from our 90 min. ticket.
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| Some colorful houses near the tram station |
Oh, and another random story about the trams. Our tour guide mentioned that we should be careful when crossing the roads because the trams
will not stop. If they see you, they
will run you over, and moreover, they get three days of
paid leave because of the "stress". Crazy!
Anyway - we started our day with the
Sandemans free walking tour. I had taken Sandemans tours before and loved them. True enough the tour lived up to its expectations and was fantastic; it was very informative without being overwhelming, and I learned so much. It was also my first time in Central Europe so there was so much about its history that I didn't know.
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| Our tour group with our tour guide in the middle, Katerina |
One of the first thing our guide Katerina mentioned was that we were also in Bohemia. Bohemia was a kingdom in the Holy Roman Empire and makes up about 2/3 of traditional Czech lands. It often refers to much of contemporary Czech Republic, including Prague. The name "Czech" comes from the Slavic tribe Czechi who arrived in Bohemia in the 7th century.
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| Old Town Square |
We met by the
Old Town Square (Staromestske namesti) which is the oldest and most important square in Prague. At this point, our guide shared a quick overview of Bohemia's history, particularly its religious problems. Like many other nations, Bohemia had its fair share of religious troubles. In a quick summary: in the 17th century, many of the Bohemians were part of the Hussite Church. Under the Habsburg monarchy, citizens were forced to convert to Catholicism or leave Bohemia. There was a rebellion; 27 leaders were publicly beheaded and their heads were placed on spikes at the gates to the city to warn people to turn Catholic. On the pavement in Old Town Square lies a memorial with 27 crosses were the 27 leaders were executed.
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| It's considered bad luck and disrespectful to walk on the crosses |
Our next stop was the famous
Old Town Hall Tower to view the
Astronomical Clock (Orloj). We didn't watch the show that happens on the hour every hour, but our guide told us all about the symbology of the clock. The clock was built in the 1410, and while it's the 3rd oldest astronomical clock in the world, it's the oldest one still working. Legend has it that the tongues of the builders were cut off to prevent them from telling anyone how it was constructed. Another legend says that it was the clockmaster himself who was blinded so he couldn't replicate the clock.
Some quick symbology from what I was able to take down: The upper part is the clock dial itself. The inner ring of the clock face shows the symbols of the zodiac. The outer ring shows the Old Bohemian time, and tells the time from the last sunset. On the left and right of the dials are four figures: a man holding a mirror representing
vanity, a Jewish man with a bag of gold representing
greed, a Skeleton representing
death, and a Turk which knows exactly what he represents. Under the clock dial is a calendar which shows who has the name day on that day. The four figures on either side of the calendar are a Philosopher, and Angel, and Astronomer, and a Historian.
At this point we had been on the tour for maybe an hour and had learned so much! We continued the tour around Old Town and stopped outside the
Estates Theatre (Stavovské divadlo). In a bit of a more light mood, our guide mentioned that it's the last standing theatre in which Mozart played in himself. It's also were his opera "
Don Giovanni" had its world premiere. That hooded figure in the background is supposed to be the commentator from
Don Giovanni.
Right by Estates Theatre was
Charles University (Univerzita Karlova v Praze) which was named (along with many many other buildings and monuments in Prague) after
Charles IV, the most important king of Bohemia. He was well loved by the people and did everything he could to make Bohemia great. Charles IV had gone to university in Paris, and when he came back, he wanted Bohemians to be educated as well and thus built this university. The university is still standing today and is the oldest university in Central Europe.
We continued walking around more of Old Town and came upon
The Powder Tower (on the left) and the
Municipal House (on the right). When King Charles IV became emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, he moved the capital of the Empire from Munich to Prague.
The Powder Tower or Powder Gate (Prašná brána) was once the main entrance to the city of Prague, while the
Municipal House (Obecní dům) used to be the King's Court.
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| Powder Tower |
If you look closely, you can see a bridge connecting the Municipal Hall to the Powder Tower. The King would use this bridge to go down and greet people as they entered the city. Today, the street on which it stands divides the
Old Town (Staré Město) from the
New Town (Nové Město). Some interesting trivia: the Municipal House is an Art Nouveau building that was completed thanks to donations from the people (the government ran out of money). Thus, many of the citizens are actually quite proud of it.
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| The bridge connecting the Municipal Hall to Powder Tower |
Our next stop was Wenceslas Square which starts with the National Museum and goes all the way down near Old Town Square. The
National Museum (Národní muzeum) was built in the 19th century during the time of the National Revival. The Czech National Revival was a cultural movement aimed at bringing back the Czech language, culture and national identity which, as Czech lands suffered from Germanization under the rules of the Habsburgs.
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| The National Museum in the background with a statue of St. Wenceslas in front |
Wenceslas Square (Václavské náměstí) used to be a horse market, but is now actually more of a boulevard lined with many clothes stores, bookstores, and restaurants. One thing that surprised me about Prague was how many international brands and chains it had! It looks really pretty at night, and all the lights reminded me of NYC.
Communism is another important part of the country's history, and our guide shared quite a few things about this. Back then, 1 in 40 people was a spy, and many people were afraid. When the communists invaded Czechoslovakia, one particular student
Jan Palach protested by setting fire to himself. There is a memorial in Wenceslas Square on the exact spot where he set fire to himself. It was also in Wenceslas Square where mass meetings were held of the
Velvet Revolution, which was a non-violent revolution that led to the end of communism.
Prague is one the best preserved cities in the world as most of its buildings are original since they weren't burned down or bombed during WWII. We got to admire several of these architectural beauties while on tour (though not all of them were originals).
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| Grand Hotel Europa - an Art Nouveau café and hotel |
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| Pretty buildings |
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| Pretty buildings |
We took a quick break at this point, and our guide gave us a few tips and tricks. The first was to be careful when changing money as sometimes they will give you Belarusian rubles instead Czech korunas. The 500 Belarusian ruble bill looks
exactly like the 500 Czech koruna bill, but its value is actually 1 cent! Another tip she shared in picking restaurants was to check the price of
goulash and
pivo (beer). A decent priced restaurant should have beer for less than 50 czk and goulash for less than 160. Anything over that is considered expensive by locals.
After our break we continued the tour to the
Jewish Quarter or Josefov. Josefov was born in the 13th century, when the Jews were forced to leave their homes in the city and settle in this area. Naturally, the area grew more and more crowded as laws forbade Jews from living anywhere else in the city. Nowadays though it is one of the most expensive places to live in the entire country.
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| A synagogue in the Jewish quarter |
Josefov contains some of the most well-preserved Jewish monuments in Europe. One of them is the
Old-New Synagogue (Staronová synagoga) which is Europe's oldest still functioning synagogue. It was built in the late 13th century in Gothic style. One explanation for its name was that it was lost in translation - it was misinterpreted as "
alt-neu" which means "old-new," rather than its Hebrew name "
At-Tnay."
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| Old-New Synagogue |
Another synagogue we passed by was the the beautiful
Spanish Synagogue (Španělská synagoga). It's the newest of the synagogues in the Jewish quarter and was built in the second half of the 19th century in Moorish style.
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| Beautiful Spanish Synagogue |
The Jewish Quarter is the birthplace
Franz Kafka, and so we had to stop by his monument. Kafka spent most of his life in Josefov, and the place often features in his short stories. The monument itself was constructed 80 years after his death and is a reference to his works "
Description of a Struggle" and "
The Metamorphosis." It's said that if you rub the feet of his monument, something strange will happen to you!
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| Rubbing Kafka's feet |
After a few more historical stories, particularly some about WWII, our tour came to an end. It was an amazing way to get to know the city, and I enjoyed it a lot. Then it was time for a much needed lunch! One of the things I love about traveling is getting to try the local cuisine. For lunch I decided to try
goulash, a traditional soup or stew made with meat and vegetables and seasoned with paprika. It was pretty good, though we had to eat in a bit of a rush to make it to our next tour. I tried some Czech
pivo (beer) as well, but that I didn't like as much.
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| Goulash and Czech beer |
Our morning guide was actually promoting Sandemans Prague Castle Tour, and we were so impressed with the tour that we decided to go for it. It was a paid tour
(€9), but since we were planning to go to Prague Castle the next day anyway, we decided to go with Sandemans. So after lunch we rushed off to our second Sandemans tour of the day: a tour of Prague Castle.
Prague Castle (Pražský hrad) is actually more of a fortification than an actual castle. It stands on top of a hill, and includes many buildings and churches. The hill had a natural moat surrounding it which was why they decided to build the castle there.
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| Prague Castle |
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| Entrance to one of the main courtyards |
Our guide, Chris, with a fountain beside the well which was the royal drinking water source. The flag flying behind means that the president is in the country.
Our next stop was the gorgeous gorgeous
St. Vitus Cathedral! It's the oldest church in the country and was built under the reign of Charles IV. It was built in the 1300s in Gothic style, but since is took 600 years to finish, some parts of the church are in Neo-Gothic Style. The idea of Gothic style churches was that the Church wanted to impress upon people 'judgement,' so they were typically built in dark colors with tall sharp spikes. Gargoyles and grotesques were also prominent figures to scare away evil spirits and keep the church clean.
There were a lot of people so our guide suggested we come back later to go inside. Unfortunately, when we made it back, the cathedral was closed. I was quite disappointed as I was really hoping to be able to go inside.
Nevertheless, even the exterior was still so beautiful to gaze at. This was taken from the Southern Courtyard and is of the tallest tower of the church, the Bell Tower. The
Bell Tower has its own set of legends - the one the guide told us was that it's said that when the bell breaks or cracks, something bad will happen in the country. The last time this happened was in 2002, just a few weeks before Czech Republic experienced catastrophic floods.
This mosaic at the bottom of the Bell Tower depicts
the Resurrection of the Saints (left),
the Second Coming of Christ (middle), and
Judgement Day (right). It was done with one million pieces (and there was even a special committee appointed for the making of the mosaic). Below the mosaic are two doors which lead to the Royal Treasury where the Crown Jewels are held.
On another side of the church is a statue of
St. John of Nepomuk, who (after St. Wenceslas) is the second most important saint in the country. He also happens to be the patron saint of Bohemia, and is easily recognizable by the 5 stars that around his head. The story goes that St. John was the court priest of King Wenceslas IV. King Wenceslas' wife, the Queen, would often confess to St. John. King Wenceslas ordered St. John to tell him what the Queen told him in confession, but St. John refused. He was tortured and eventually thrown from Charles Bridge in chains. And as he drowned in the water, 5 stars appeared above his head.
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| St. John of Nepomuk |
Then we saw
St. George's Basilica built in Romanesque style. It used to be a convent, but under the reign of
Maria Teresa she turned it into a school for women. It now serves as a concert hall, which on another interesting note, Prague seems to have many of (classical concerts, that is).
At this point we were near
Golden Lane (Zlatá ulička), which was were the goldsmiths worked making gold, and the alchemists in their search for the philosopher's stone. Kafka also supposedly had a house here where he used to come to write in peace. Because of the crowds we didn't actually get to walk down the lane, another thing I was disappointed at. We headed instead to one of the nearby gardens that were open (the rest were still closed as the Spring schedule began on April 1st). In the garden was this sort of circle thing, which apparently is some acoustic wonder. If you stand in the middle and talk, you hear a sort of feedback, but only you can hear it.
Our guide then shared us more stories, particularly about contemporary history. He pointed out a statue of
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk who was an advocate of Czechoslovak independence during WWI. He went on to become the first President of Czechoslovakia. He's considered to be the second most important person in Czech history, right after Charles IV.
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| Tomás Garrigue Masaryk or TGM |
We were now outside the President's house where we met this protestor. Our guide was familiar with him as he's there protesting everyday -- as of that day, he had been protesting for 2,063 days straight.
Then we saw the changing of the guards that happens every hour.
Right before walking back down, we stopped to take in the gorgeous view from Prague Castle (and some pictures, of course).
Back down, we walked through Lesser Town towards Charles Bridge.
Lesser Town (Malá Strana) is a neighborhood at the foot of Prague Castle filled with cobblestone streets, small shops, and Baroque architecture. We walked quickly through and passed the
Bridge Tower to Charles Bridge.
We ended the tour at the famous
Charles Bridge (Karlův most). The bridge
was commissioned by King Charles IV to connect Prague Castle district to the Old Town. Lined along the bridge are Baroque statues of important Czech Kings and Saints.
Nowadays it's a pedestrian lane (as previously, trams and buses crossed it), and is lined with souvenir stalls, art vendors, and street musicians. It also makes for a popular tourist spot because the views from the bridge are just spectacular. From the bridge you get a beautiful view of either banks of Prague, as well as the
Vlatva, the longest river in Czech Republic.
While I loved how informative the tour was, I was a bit disappointed with not being able to go inside St. Vitus Cathedral and go down Golden Lane, considering we spent money on the tour. No regrets though, but I think next time I'll stick with the free walking tours.
Anyway, after the tour we backtracked a bit to Lesser Town to see the
John Lennon Wall. After Lennon's death, he became a pacifist hero for many young Czechs. His image was originally painted on this wall alongside political graffiti and Beatles lyrics. The wall has been painted over white numerous times, but young Czechs continued to paint graffiti, and now it's been left that way.
Right before heading back to the other side of the city, I stopped by
Shakespeare a synové (Shakespeare & Sons), a bookstore I had read about before coming. I just love visiting bookstores - there's something so magical about them.
Then after a long and tiring day, we crossed Charles Bridge and made our way back to Old Town. As we were walking, we looked back and were rewarded with this magnificent view of Prague Castle.
♥
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| Isn't that just gorgeous? |
After walking all over Prague we headed back to Old Town Square to treat ourselves to a good dinner. We found a traditional Czech restaurant right by the Astronomical Clock Tower and tried more traditional Czech food. We had some: beef
goulash with dumplings, beef sirloin with dumplings and vegetable cream sauce, and roasted duck with
sauerkaut and dumplings. (In case you hadn't noticed, meat and dumplings are two of the most popular things in Czech cuisine.)
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| Traditional Czech food |
I had the roasted duck with
sauerkaut and dumplings, and the waiter recommended me a good bottle of red Czech wine. It was such a delicious dinner and a perfect end to the day!
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| Great dinner to end the day :) |
It was a great first day in Prague, and I particularly loved learning about all the history. There's so much more to what I shared in this blog entry, but I left it out so you can visit Prague and learn it all yourself. ;)
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