Prague

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I arrived in Prague a little later than I'd hoped, as such essentially writing off Monday in terms of sightseeing. However, this wasn't really too much of a problem as I was in need of a bit of relaxation after three weeks of hard work plus a whole afternoon of trains/buses! On Tuesday I made up for lost time by taking the free walking tour of the city, which was several hours long and packed with interesting information. The tour started out with what is apparently Prague's most famous sight (although I'd never heard of it before), a 600-year-old astronomical clock; although this is the world's oldest working astronomical clock and is undoubtedly incredibly complex - a technological feat of its time - it was in fact voted the world's third-most disappointing tourist sight! The cluttered dial certainly meant little to a layman such as myself: I couldn't even work out how to tell the regular time from its face, let alone "star time" or "ancient Czech time"... A major part of the tour was in Josefov, the city's Jewish Quarter, which was the only place in Prague that Jews could live or own businesses from 1096 to 1783. It was also the only place in the city that they could bury their dead, so naturally the single cemetery quickly became full; the only solution the community could think of was to cover the cemetery in a new layer of earth so as to create a second layer of graves: today there is essentially a multi-storey graveyard, housing an estimated 100,000 corpses. Unfortunately in 1893 the city authorities decided that they could make better use of Josefov, and so forcibly evicted all the Jewish residents and destroyed the vast majority of the buildings, rebuilding the area in a Parisian style. The only parts of the Jewish Quarter left untouched were the cemetery, six synagogues and the Jewish Town Hall. Surprisingly, during the Nazi occupation these buildings were preserved (in contrast to other Nazi-occupied cities, where synagogues were destroyed or at least severely damaged). This is because Hitler had decided that he wanted to keep Prague's Jewish Quarter as a sort of museum to Jews, so that in his imagined future German Reich, in which Jews would be extinct, people could learn about how they used to live. This might sound an odd idea for a man who considered Jews to be sub-human, but his plan was to have the synagogues adorned with photographs of Jews in daily life accompanied by plaques listing all the supposed crimes that the Jews had committed against the gentiles. However, instead, today the walls of the biggest synagogue have been inscribed with the names of all the Prague residents who lost their lives in the Holocaust.
The Czechs are a people who have a long history of being subjugated by foreign powers: the Holy Roman Empire (and then the Habsburg Empire) from 950 to 1918, the Nazis from 1938 to 1945, and the Soviet Union from 1948 to 1989. It's interesting to me that each of these three different overlords seem to be viewed somewhat differently. The period of being part of the Holy Roman Empire, and the subsequent Habsburg era, seem to be viewed in a positive light. This is exemplified by the fact that Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV is one of the city's most revered figures: named after him are the Charles University, the Charles Bridge, Charles Square and Karlštejn Castle! The Nazi period is naturally viewed in a deeply negative light, however it is a period that is the focus of a lot of attention: the Holocaust is considered an immanent part of Czech history, and the story of Czech resistance to the Nazi occupation is a source of great national pride. However I was slightly shocked by the attitude to the Communist period: unlike in Bosnia and Montenegro where there is a lot of nostalgia for the glory days of Yugoslavia, the Czechs seem to see Communism as an indisputably terrible episode in their history. In fact, they seem happy to sweep the whole period under the carpet. There is only one small museum dedicated to the Communist period, and it almost seems hidden: it's set back from the road, and definitely lacks any great deal of advertisement. I didn't visit myself (as I'm led to believe that it's somewhat uninspiring) but their posters give me an idea of their view of Communism: one poster shows a Russian doll with vampiric fangs and evil-looking eyes, and another shows a cartoon bear holding an assault rifle. It seems strange to me that the Czechs would attack Russian national symbols, apparently seeing the enemy as "the Russians" rather than Communism or the Communist Party; this is in contrast to the international tendency to refer to "Nazi" rather than "German" occupation, and to hold Adolf Hitler and Nazism as reprehensible, rather than demonizing the German people themselves. It seems to me somewhat unfair, considering that the majority of Russian people suffered just as badly as the Czechs (and of course there's the fact that Stalin wasn't even Russian)! In light of this anti-Russian attitude I was surprised to see that many of Prague's souvenir shops sell Russian dolls. However, my tourist map does have a big paragraph explaining that Russian dolls are not in any way Czech and that "the occupation is over", and imploring all visitors to buy authentically Czech souvenirs instead!
I've managed to write a lot about Czech history without really talking about Prague as a city! After the historical overload on Tuesday, I decided to spend Wednesday wandering around the city streets and getting a feel for the general atmosphere. Firstly I headed to the Vltava river, which runs through the middle of the city. Just north of the river, at the top of a hill, is the Letenské Sady park, which was really pleasant and surprisingly very empty, providing a welcome contrast to the bustle of the city centre. I really can't fathom why the park was so empty, as it has a wonderful view of the city and is only a short walk from the centre. From the park I headed to Prague Castle, the biggest castle in the world at 570 metres long and 130 metres wide. Rather than being one coherent structure, the castle is actually made up of a collection of several buildings, the most impressive of which is definitely St. Vitus Cathedral, a full-sized Gothic cathedral situated right in the middle of the castle compound. Although the castle was really impressive, it was also absolutely packed with sightseers. Similarly, the nearby historic district of the city was incredibly charming and attractive - with a real small-town Central European ambiance - but for the throngs of tourists and the abundant tacky souvenir stores! The Charles Bridge is the utmost example of this: the bridge itself is a beautiful structure, and provides a nice view over the river, but the incessant bustle of tourists, along with the clutter of tacky stands selling overpriced jewelry, somewhat spoil the charm. I wish that I had more time to explore the city, as I'm confident that if I were to stray further from the tourism-dominated centre there would be countless enclaves of "old Prague". Equally, I feel that it could definitely be worthwhile visiting some of the Czech Republic's smaller towns and rural areas.
One especially pleasant - and not too swamped in tourists - place that I did visit was the Wallenstein Palace, home of the Czech Senate. The Palace is in baroque style and was constructed in the 1620s. Although the upper chamber of the Czech parliament meets here, there was no sign of any security, and the gardens were completely open to the public. The gardens, although only small, contain a maze of neatly-trimmed hedges, several water features, an aviary of four owls and a large, bizarre artificial lava-stone wall. As the icing on the cake, several peacocks were strutting about the grounds. As far as I could ascertain, there was no signage directing tourists to the Palace, and no-one ever recommended I pay it a visit; I stumbled upon it entirely by happy accident! This kind of thing always makes me wonder how many hidden gems I miss in every place I visit, and confirms my belief that the best way to experience a place is through aimless wandering. Another example of the effectiveness of random wandering came when a fellow traveller and I were seeking somewhere to sample authentic Czech cuisine on Wednesday night. We had been recommended a particular restaurant by the hostel staff, but when we reached it we found it to be fully-booked. Undeterred, we set out to find an alternative; a blackboard with an appealing menu caught our eyes, and we followed its arrow into a small courtyard, where for the equivalent of about £5 each we enjoyed an absolutely delicious venison goulash and some succulent roast rabbit, accompanied by a Czech form of dumplings. In fact the low prices in Prague are often astounding: for example, in the supermarket one can buy 500ml bottles of local beer for the equivalent of 25p each! The same as everywhere I've been on this journey, however, one finds that establishments aimed at tourists are dramatically more expensive.
All in all, despite the high number of tourists around, Prague is an absolutely lovely city with a great vibe, interesting history and almost invariably beautiful architecture. A lot of travellers I've met have said they were disappointed with the Czech capital, and recommended staying only two or three nights, but I must say that I feel my three nights here were not enough! Nonetheless, I'm excited to be flying to Amsterdam in a few hours!

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Comments

[travelworld2011]

Hotels in Prague
The blog is amazing. I also went to Prague and I was satisfied with the city. So many beautiful places to visit... My visit was a couple of days before Easter and all was so beautifully decorated. One more thing that I liked was the service of my hotel. I stayed at http://www.hitrooms.com/en/Galileo.htm. It had very good location and perfect service. I highly recommend you to visit Prague. This is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited.