Three Jans (yawns)

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Prague (Praha), Czech Republic
9.5.09-9.8.09

At least three Jan’s

We were greeted by a nice guy named Jan (pronounced Yan in Czech) with a Cramer sign in his hands promptly after deplaning at the Prague airport. On the way to the St. George Hotel, Jan sped around and tried to sell us a rental car. As planned, our friend Matt (AKA Kozel) met us at the hotel circa 6:30. He was to be our host for the first night in town.

Matt took us to a fine, candlelit restaurant specializing in vegetarian food—which was very good for us since we had had difficulty avoiding pork knuckles and Polish head cheese! We enjoyed nice wine, great food, and some catching up with an old friend and his friend Jessica. After we finished, Matt and Jessica took us across our first of many bridge crossings to a small kavarna that one of his colleagues owns. The walk across the bridge was a great appetizer for what was to come. Prague is one of the most beautiful cities in the world at night. All of the great sights are lit up. As we crossed the bridge, we first passed the National Theater, in the distance we could see Prague castle, and to our right we could see Old Town Square defined by the Our Lady Before Tyn Church and many gothic towers (one of which we would climb in the morning). The Voltava River glistened with reflections.

Our first full day in Prague would be spent walking across the city with a pocket book about Prague in hand (since I had been here before I could help introduce Susanne to the city). First we came upon Wenceslas Square. The Square is in the shadow of the National Museum. Above the square sits a large and imposing statue of Good King Wenceslas himself (who is buried in the Cathedral at Prague Castle). Each side of the square is lined with shops and people from all over the world. The pedestrian walk way and roads have been the sight of many protests and revolutionary actions throughout Czech national history. Highlights for me are: a memorial to Jan Palach who burned himself alive in the Square to protest Russian communist rule (Prague Spring 1968) and the streets where many demonstrated for democracy in the late 1980’s. Vaclav Havel delivered his pronouncement of democracy and the fall of communism in Wenceslas Square (1989).

Next we came upon one of the many gothic towers in Prague. We paid to take a tour of the tower. Old Town Square was next on our list. We walked into the square with our eyes and ears taking in all of the sights and sounds. We were surrounded by history! Jan Hus (inspiration behind the Reformation) stands in the middle of the square as he has since the 1400’s. Our Lady Before Tyn Church to the South, St. Nicolas Church to the north, and the Astronomical Clock right next to Jan. The Old Town Square consists of old houses, kavarnas (bars), coffee shops, shops, restaurants, and of course horse-drawn carriages. The area dates back to at least 600 AD. It is quite a sight to see! After taking it in and planning what we may want to learn more about in the days to come, we continued under Powder Tower to cross the Voltava River via the St. Charles Bridge.

The walk across the St. Charles Bridge on the way to Prague Castle is a memorable one to be sure. The bridge has been around since medieval times or before (like most things in Prague). The Stations of the Cross are represented by statuettes on either side of the bridge and form a tableau against the sky and Castle. You can’t help but to entertain fairytales, fights with dragons, knights, kings, and the like as you make your toward those spires in the sky.

After crossing the bridge we walked through Mala Strana on our way up. This section of the city is quaint and historic. The trek up the side of the hill that Prague Castle sits on was tiring. We walked through the main gates adorned with two big, burley, male statues poised to kill the enemy and guards standing stoically under each of the statues. We snaked around the castle environment towards the crowned jewel of Prague Castle: St. Vitus Cathedral. The structure is massive and invites immediate comparison with other large cathedrals we had seen (and those we had not yet seen—i.e. Notre Dame in Paris). The Cathedral is very gothic and presents a scary ambience. Old King Wenceslas and others lay in tombs within the cathedral walls. The temperature was definitely cooler inside then it was outside. We spent a little longer in the Castle and then proceeded to make our descent through gardens and vineyards. Once the sun went down, we retired to the National Museum for a classical concert of Mozart, Vivaldi, Tsaichovsky, Beethoven, and Dvorak (Czech native).

Many people had recommended Radost FX for dinner. The restaurant happens to be near where we were staying. We enjoyed eclectic décor and interesting clientele. All was well until some drunken Russians and their dog entered the bar. The stumbled over each other while their Rhodesian Ridge Back dog whined and sat at our feet. Susanne had a feeling something might go bad—and it almost did. At one point one of them fell on top of me. Adrenaline rushed through me as I turned around and started to stand up. They quickly said “pardon” several times. We talked about how the situation could have been much worse had one of them fell onto Susanne instead of me.

After Radost we walked down the street to a Kavarna (bar and café) that doubles as a political party. We sampled traditional Czech drinks (Slivovice, Absinthe, and Pivo) and carried on a conversation with a computer engineer for an American company called Oracle. Each of his eyes went in a different direction. He was funny and informative about all sorts of things. At one point he made a joke about Poland. I guess the US is not the only place where Polish jokes are told.

The next morning began with loud pop music (mostly American) over our breakfast at St. George’s hotel. The plan today was to tour Josefov. Josefov is near Old Town and is known as the Jewish quarter of Prague. We had agreed a walking tour guide would be helpful for this portion of our trip. Jan (yes, another Czech by that name) met us under the Astronomical Clock in the Old Town Square. We began our two-hour tour.

The first thing I noticed upon entering Josefov was the intimacy and shade. Things were very close to each other, not many of the structures were very large and the entire area seemed to be covered by a shadow. Historically Josefov has always been home to a large Jewish community. When the Nazis arrived during World War II and sent the vast majority of Josefov residents to death camps the decision was made to make the area a museum to an extinct race. For this reason Josefov was not destroyed by Hitler and his army. The area has several synagogues including the Spanish Synagogue (considered the most beautiful in Europe) and the Old New Synagogue (the oldest synagogue north of the Alps). Old New Synagogue is shrouded in the legend of the Golem and has stones in its foundation that come from Jerusalem. While we were near Old New Synagogue a large police force had gathered around the structure. Jan explained that a high level Jewish meeting was taking place. Based upon the number of police, we believed him. We wrapped up our tour of Josefov by looking into the Old Jewish Cemetery and by listening to Jan tell us about the life and writings of Franz Kafka who had lived in Josefov.

After a nice vegetarian meal and a trip to some Baroque gardens at the foot of Prague Castle (including an entertaining moment when I climbed a wall to locate the garden), we did some shopping and prepared to meet our friend Matt at a garden pub. Matt had given us directions to a tram stop where we were to meet him because he thought we might be taking public transportation. In general Susanne and I found Prague to be small enough to walk to most locations. Under the cover of night, we made our way towards our location. Long story short: it ended up being MUCH further away than I anticipated. Susanne was very angry with me for at least several minutes. Eventually we found our way and enjoyed a night with an old friend in a garden pub overlooking Prague Castle. Definitely the most beautiful night view we had ever seen. On the way home we stopped and danced for a while at Club Roxy.

Since we had seen everything we had wanted to and more, our last day in Prague was to be a relaxing one. We decided on some shopping, some coffee (which is espresso-based drinks only in Europe as far as we could tell), one last grand event, and lunch at Kavarna Slavia. We had narrowed our last grand event in Prague to one of two things: spending some time in the Baroque gardens at the foot of Prague Castle or paddle boating on the Voltava. Anyone who knows me has already guessed that we decided to paddle boat on the Voltava! Captain Cramer and First Mate Susanne enjoyed several beautiful views of everything we had seen on foot during the previous days in Prague from the Voltava. Really, with the exception of nearly running into a much larger boat, we had fantastic time weaving under the Charles Bridge. After our boat ride, I wiped the sweat from my brow and we enjoyed a final lunch in Prague at Kavarna Slavia where Vaclav Havel and his compatriots had planned the Velvet Revolution of 1992 (which ushered in the current era of Czech democracy).

Praha, c'est une belle cite du monde et dans notre coeurs!

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Comments

[eze]

too bad you did't where vodka perfume to distract them