First Glimpse of Prague

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It is my goal to show up in Prague and be as little recognizable as a bumbling American as possible. Unfortunately a group tour is not the way to accomplish this. Nothing screams tourist more than fifty people pointing cameras at buildings that were built even before our country was founded. Actually, I was rather surprised by some of the snide remarks made by this group of choir students supposedly well versed in culture, language, and history. Why would anyone expect that Europe would be an exact copy of our own continent? I thought the point of travel was to learn something new…if you want McDonalds, why not stay home? Blame it on fatigue and anxiety I guess. After over twenty-four hours of travel, we’re all pretty wiped out I guess.

But there’s no time to rest now: we’re in Prague, baby, and I’m ready to see the sights! Our tour started in the New Town (Nové Mesto). We walked to Wenceslas Square, an impressive expanse of pedestrian real estate where stands a majestic statue of Praha’s patron saint book-ended by the national history museum to the southeast and a tower marking the entrance to Staré Mesto opposing it. One of our guides, Hana, regaled us with anecdotes of the revolution (well, revolutions), the most recent being the Velvet Revolution when the Czechs resolved to take back their country from the Russians in ’89. She was conjuring images of shoulder-to-shoulder patriots storming the square and of martyrs ascending to the sky in billowing clouds of black smoke twisting from a suicidal pyre when the clouds currently above our own heads decided to burst. One deafening crack of thunder and the sky let loose a torrential rain. One Praguer who pointed out the streams of dirty water rushing through the tires of a parked car informed me that such deluge was indeed rare for the city on the Vltava. (Of course the terrible floods of 2002 come to mind, but at this moment, it seems that each new natural disaster dwarfs that which came before it.)

When the rain let up we crossed “the little bridge” to Staré Mesto, the old town. Rich in its charm and history, splendid buildings of every style from Baroque to Rococo to Art Nouveau sprang up around us. Only in Europe can one see such a menagerie of architectural styles in one square block--Prague’s rich and deep-seated history was apparent just glancing around Old Town. Unfortunately, walking onto the Old Town Square felt more like a trip to Silver Dollar City than Prague, and the Astronomical clock was truly and genuinely overrated (very beautiful, but not really worth waiting for the top of the hour.) Small booths abounded, with peddlers hawking everything from painted beer steins to umbrellas to drawings of the city. It was still nice to wander around the square and watch people go about their business.

Now I’m the biggest advocate I know of the old aphorism “when in Rome…” but tonight for dinner I happened to be with a couple of people who were craving pizza. Not what I would particularly choose for my first night in Prague, but sometimes it’s safer to just play along (rather than ending up in some local eatery all alone not knowing a word of Czech.) Hypocrite? Never—mine was covered with paprika and mustard!

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Photos

Cityscape 1
A view of Prague from the hotel window

Cityscape 2
What a great view!