Advertisement
Published: April 4th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Imagine hundreds of people lined up at the check in counter of a budget airline carrier at the end of a UK long weekend. Amongst the crowd, a boy stands holding two long cardboard boxes whilst a harassed looking girl frantically attempts to repack their luggage to make space for the newest additions in their little family-two wood-carved marionettes. Such was the aftermath of our three day city break to Prague, a city that acquires nothing but charm as you uncover more of its delights.
This was Adam's first visit to Prague and it didn't get off to the smoothest start. Arriving late on Friday evening, we struggled to reach our accommodation at the agreed upon time of 10pm. Filled with anxiety about possibly spending the night on the street, we wandered around the new part of the city centre, struggling to locate the tram hub to board the tram that would take us almost directly to the small studio flat we'd booked. As the deadline loomed, a stroke of luck became us and we spotted the tram stop just as our tram approached. Alas, we made it on time by the skin of our teeth, and despite this shaky
beginning, the weekend bloomed into a wonderful one.
Adam's first impression of Prague was that of a city overcome by British tourists. We'd picked a UK designated long weekend and it was with disappointment that we realised, we weren't alone in thinking this was the perfect place to spend the holiday. Tourists were everywhere, and while we are tourist ourselves, the aim of every adventure we have is to get the truest sense of the local culture as possible. And so, this weekend presented a new challenge for us both. How to see the best of Prague, whilst also avoiding as many of the tourist crowds as possible. We quickly conceded that at key sites such as the Astronomical Clock and the Charles Bridge, it would be absolutely impossible to escape the masses. And so with gritted teeth we wandered through both points and joined the crowds in pointing and smiling at the wonder of these sites. From there though, every bit of energy we had was aimed at avoiding the tourist scene and seeing as much of the 'real' city as we could.
And so, armed with a map and good footwear, we set off to explore
all that Prague has to offer. Having been here before, I did have some sense of what there was on offer. However, like all the best places, Prague had many secret joys and I found myself surprised and charmed by some of the new discoveries we made whilst strolling through the city from top to bottom. We set off on the free city walking tour to begin, as this has previously proven itself to be a great way to get yourself orientated. Some of the sites covered on this tour I hadn't found in my previous visit-such as the graffiti filled wall dedicated to John Lennon which sprung up after his assassination or the grotto style wall spanning the length of a secluded palatial park in the midst of some of the city's most important buildings. But like many places, some of the best discoveries we made were entirely about the characters that inhabited the places themselves. Beyond the friendly shopkeepers and artists selling their work, we found friendly souls in some great little bars or cafe-restaurants which served great beer or wine in the most delightful atmosphere. On our second night here we wandered for hours before settling ourselves
in a fantastic little tucked-away bar which was inhabited largely by locals. The next, we found a great cafe-bar with a classical guitarist playing and sat sipping wine in a table under the stars. Magic.
The galleries of Prague were the other thing that made this visit so memorable. We were fortunate to be in the city as it marked its 60th anniversary of the Russian invasion. There were displays and events related to the history of this period throughout the city. In one of the main city squares we found ourselves in the midst of a crowd taking in an open-air display of both photographs and artistic propaganda from the war time years. I found the whole exhibition pretty moving.
In the search for a more light-hearted celebration of art, we also hunted down the Prague art gallery dedicated to Alfonso Mucha, one of the greatest graphic artists of the Art Deco period. Being a huge fan of work from these years, simply walking around Prague itself is like gazing at some pieces of art. Mucha's signature is on alot of the architecture in this city, which is a delight to gaze upon. His works presented in
the gallery were every bit as amazing and we spent a few hours taking in the story of his life and his art. However, in the stores and shops themselves, we found modern day artists displaying their wares with glass art and puppetry being two of the things most coveted by tourists. Forsaking our normal favourite-photographic artwork-we both fell in love with the marionettes we saw in almost every shop window during our visit. We constantly found ourselves craning our necks around doorways to see the puppets on display and eventually conceded we were not going to make it home without one. When the time came to make the purchase though, we found ourselves unable to decide on a single marionette and so ended up with two!
These latest additions to our family were the main cause of concern as the weekend drew to an inevitable close and we found ourselves checking in at the airport with too much luggage. However, determination served us both well and we did indeed manage to get both marionettes home with us. We've yet to master the art of puppetry-and our attempts at doing anything more than getting each marionette to walk must
be described as 'feeble' at best. However, they now hang in our home as a reminder of our wonderful weekend discovering the delights of Prague-always giving us cause to smile.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.106s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0632s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb