Prague, pt. 2

 The next day, we have breakfast at the Penzion Alpin, which puts out a kind of random selection to choose from, including a big vat of hot dogs (on our last day there, they had chicken soup).

            This day was our Prague day with George, which proceeded without incident really (besides me almost falling on an old lady on the tram and seeing a girl with short-short short-shorts in the Jewish quarter.

            Here is a quick overview of what we did and saw (and I have to say that George is an excellent tour guide).

            On our way to meet our guide, we pass by the clocktower and Prague’s famous T.V. tower with its pods and babies crawling up it. We meet George in St. Wenceslaus Square by the National Museum (there is a guy protesting there with shirts hung up everyplace. “It’s national do your laundry day,” said George).

            George starts his tour at Prague Castle, started by the Holy Roman Empire (whose parts you can still see), and expanded and modified for centuries, so the entire complex is quite large and expansive. Some highlights are the theater, the gardens with its peacocks, the ‘drip wall’ (which was a Gothic wall created by dripping cement meant to hide monstrous faces. It was reconstructed after WWII), Sternberk Palace, the Gothic cathedral of St. Vitus (under construction for centuries), a Communist memorial, St. George’s, and so on.

            Leaving there, we pass the Kafka museum with its odd kinetic statues, and the replicas of the T.V. antenna babies with bar codes stamped deep into their faces and shiny behinds because it’s really popular with tourists to rub them for some reason. We pass the Love Lock Bridge, with its hundreds of padlocks clipped on the rails, many of which are inscribed with names of couples. Legend goes that you and your significant other clip the lock on with your left hand and throw the key into the river with your right to represent your everlasting love (the irony is that the city routinely clips them off to make more room). We would see other lock bridges in other cities, but Prague’s was by far the most popular. We proceed to the Lennon Wall, which started as a tribute to John Lennon after his death (people left items and graffitied the wall), and continued as a protest after the Soviets kept trying to cover it up and stop it (Lenin vs. Lennon).

            We saw St. Nicholas Cathedral in Lesser Town, before crossing the Charles Brides with its many statues. Some of the more famous of these include the one with the little boy you rub to make a wish come true (and he’s now burnished from years of rubbing), the crucifix whose Hebrew letters were ripped off by neo-Nazis and thrown in the river (recovered by scuba divers and restored), and the spot where the queen’s confessor was thrown into the river because he wouldn’t reveal the queen’s lover to the king (supposedly, they recovered his body and his tongue was perfectly preserved). The bridge empties out to a statue of Charles himself, the Holy Roman Emperor responsible for many reforms in Prague.

            We head into Old Town Square to see the Church of Tyne with its twin towers, one of which is slightly taller than the other, said to be the brother. Also there is one of the few remaining Hussite churches, and the Rococo Kinsky Palace. Additionally, in the center of the square stands a statue of a Protestant martyr, Jan Hus and 14 crosses inlaid in stone in the ground where 14 other martyrs died.

            Here also is the famous Astronomical Clock. Created by a mechanical genius of his time, it was so amazing that the city worried that he would create another for a rival city, so they had him blinded. Learning that he had been blinded by government agents and not random bandits, he killed himself by throwing himself on the clock’s works, thereby ruining it. It was hundreds of years before they could figure out how to fix it. We happened to be there to hear it chime on the hour, where a tiny skeleton rings his death knell, apostles revolve, and a golden cock crows (as we were waiting, we see a kid dressed like a Dickens character weaving in the crowd. Neil: Who is this, the Artful Dodger?).

            On the way to the Jewish Quarter, we stop for lunch (delicious Wiener Schnitzel), pass Gunpowder Tower (guess what they used to keep there), and stop in St. Agnes Convent, a nunnery from the 1200s.

            Prague’s Jewish Quarter is one of the oldest in the world, and it has become a place of pilgrimage for many of the world’s Jews. As we enter it, George points to a shop and says, “You know you’re in the Jewish Quarter when there’s a goat on the butcher’s sign and not a pig.” We see the odd Kafka statue (who lived in the Jewish quarter), and see the girl in the shorty shorts, before going into some synagogues: the beautiful and richly decorated Spanish Synagogue (with its menorah that Michelle Obama borrowed after she toured there), the Maisel Synagogue, the Klausen Synagogue, and the Pinkas, whose walls are filled with the thousands of names of Czech Jews who died in the holocaust written in tiny writing. Another holocaust reminder are the small brass plaques on the sidewalks throughout the Jewish Quarter in front of many of the former residences which tell who used to live there and how they were killed. We also see the Old-New Synagogue, Europe’s oldest active synagogue, which still has a bullet hole in its side from an uprising, and where the golem of Prague supposedly resides (legend has it that a Gestapo officer tried to go into the attic and perished at the hands of the golem. Out of superstition, the Germans then left the synagogue alone, which is why it still stands).  Additionally, we saw the Old Jewish Cemetery, with its layers of graves dating back to the 1400s, and tombstones leaning haphazardly. We see that people still leave stones and coins on the graves that they’re able to reach, many of which are Israeli.

            We leave the Quarter to see the Prague Philharmonic, the National Theater, and the opera house, where Mozart famously premiered Don Giovanni, and there is a creepy statue there to commemorate this. George takes us down National Road, where the students began their protests that led to the Velvet Revolution, and shows us its memorial: a sculpture of a bunch of hands making peace signs (a satirical group once hung a plaque making a ‘sieg heil’ sign next to it to highlight Prague’s racism problems).

            We stopped at a very nice ice cream parlor (where I had, I think, the best chocolate ice cream I’ve ever eaten), and saw our last 2 landmarks: the brightly painted Jubilee Synagogue and the famous Upside Down Horse statue (a parody of  the St. Wenceslaus statue, meant to symbolize the topsy-turvy days of the revolution).

            To end the day, we try to go to the Big Lebowski, but it’s apparently a newspaper stand during the day, run by completely different people. So we go have some pho at a little Vietnamese place, which we eat standing up with dogs winding between our legs, before returning to the Big Lebowski. It turns out to be very much a hippy-dippy establishment, with ripped carpet, pillows on the floor, and large stuffed animals. When George tried to pay later, he was informed by our lanky faerie/aerie waitress that they don’t believe in prices; pay what you think it’s worth.

            We finished the night by going to a local Biergarten, eating delicious brats (or, as Kyle said “dessert”), watching some adventure program on the soccer screen, and eventually meeting George’s linguist friends.

Dresden

            The next day, because George has to work, we decide to make an unscheduled day trip to Dresden. When we arrive at the station, we find that our train has been delayed. Kyle gets some ketchup-flavored chips and we watch the board, waiting for our platform to be announced. I overhear a confused older couple trying to figure their train out. I help them get straight and turn around to see an Asian couple coming over for help with their ticket (even though I was able to figure out what they needed, I was unable to communicate it. Oh, well). Kyle said, “I’m surprised a line didn’t start forming.”

            When our train finally arrived, we find a cabin with a middle aged German couple. Soon, we hear a distinctly American twang ask if he could take the last seat in the cabin. He asks where we’re from, says that he’s from Tennessee, and we begin to swap travel stories as he was very chatty.
He: My plane broke from Detroit
Me: Ours too.
He: Did ya’ll fly Delta?
Me: Yeah
He: What day?
It was then that we figured out that we had been scheduled for the same flight. Small World. So, we shared some more travel tales (his included seeing a naked bicycle protest in London), and it turns out that we had been many of the same places. He was quite well-traveled, as well as very talkative and friendly. Kyle shared his retirement plan: to buy a boat and guide ‘any language tours’, then just mumble into the mic since no one can understand them anyway. The German couple seemed amused by this and Mr. Tennessee, so when he asked them about the specialties of the area that he could buy, they communicated for awhile using their decent English and drawing pictures. They then began pointing out points of interest along the way. Arriving at Dresden, we all went our merry ways.

            Feeling like a combination between Vienna and Berlin, Dresden is a very charming city with a lot of history. It used to known as the ‘Florence on the Elbe’, and was renowned for its beauty. Now, it is primarily known for being almost completely destroyed in WWII (it’s said that Churchill picked it out specially to get back at Germany for the bombing of Coventry), which killed over 30000 people. They are still in the process of reconstructing what they can, using bits of the old buildings and photographs.

            Once we get into Dresden, while we do see New Market, we spent most of our time in Old Market and the historical section of town, starting with the Kreuz Church, and proceeding to the iconic (and beautiful) Frauenkirche. We then saw the Albertinum and then the Art Museum, walking along the Bruel Terrace which runs along the Elbe River, where there’s a park with some manicured trees and the Dom, which looks like a wedding cake inside, all white and gold.

            Across the way was the Semper Opera House (Semperoper) where many composers used to premiere their work, including Strauss and Wagner. We then saw the Royal Palace (Residenzschloss) and the Procession of Princes, a pathway that was created to celebrate the Saxony rulers that is lined with a mural created with small porcelain tiles. Finally, we saw the Zwinger, a large palace complex with many buildings including the green vault, and lovely grounds.

            After that, it was about time for us to go. On the way home, our train cabinmates were again very friendly. They were 2 English girls who reminded me of plump versions of the Pigeon sisters from The Odd Couple. We chatted and shared stories and they giggled about the creeper who was eating a banana and staring at one of them, drawing the curtain and peeping out (so we swapped creeper stories). They loaned us a headphone splitter so Neil and I could watch a movie and Neil helped them with their luggage when we got off the train.

            We met George for dinner, and he told us a legend of Prague’s hairy ghost who drags girls into the river as we walked to the Afghan place, where we met up with Tony and his girlfriend. The Afghan place is small and highly decorated. George orders a bunch of dishes to share. The meal includes a naan-like bread, rice, spinach, daal, pumpkin, eggplant, zucchini, lamb, and a beef/tomato/egg dish. It was very good and even Kyle liked it.

            Afterwards, George took us to a very nice establishment called Hemingway’s, with rich leather seating and a very knowledgeable and attentive staff.

Prague, Part 1

After stopping along the road for a lunch consisting of French fries and a big block of fried cheese, which is a Slovak specialty, we drove the rest of the way into Prague and returned the car to the agency.

            Prague will always be special to me, as it was my first European city. But, besides that, it combines a lot of what I like about other cities into one. It is both old and modern, in many way progressive, but proud of its heritage. It has a history of artistic expression, and a tradition of active student life. It is more diverse than many European cities that we’ve been to of late (Kyle commented that it has gotten more white the farther east we go), though, admittedly, it does have its problems with racism. Not nearly as damaged by WWII as many Bohemian cities, much of its architecture was left standing to tell the story of 1000s of years of empires and struggles, from the Holy Romans to the Soviets.

            The first thing we do in Prague is drop some laundry off at George’s (thank God), and help him carry water up to his apartment as they are turning his water off in a few days for maintenance. We check into our Bed and Breakfast, which George has arranged. It is very nice, with a large bedroom for Neil and I, and a private bath with a bathtub with a shower attachment. Neil and I even have our own little kitchenette.

            For dinner, we meet up with George’s friend Tony who we met at George’s wedding. He’s the one who reminded us of someone, but we couldn’t put our finger on whom. We finally figured it out when I said, “Rex!” Yes, I know that I’m comparing him to a dog, but I mean it in the best possible way. Anyway, Tony had been cherry picking that day, and he presented me with a small bucket filled with cherries, which was quite sweet of him.

            That night, we went for Czech food. George, Neil, and Kyle all had pig knuckle, which came out on their own individual spits. Tony shared his roast duck with me, as he wanted me to have strength for the train tomorrow, even though I still had about a pound of cheese in my stomach. Afterwards, we went to the oldest Pilsner pub in Prague. The soccer game was on and in overtime. We left.

            We meandered a bit and saw some of Prague’s nightlife around and beyond St. Wenceslaus Square. Everyone, tired and full, began to find their ways home. George tried to give directions from the metro that included the phrase “turn at Albert.” What he didn’t tell us was that Albert was a grocery store, not a road. So, we ended up wandering for a long time, as we didn’t even know the road name, since George had booked it. Finding out that even cabbies don’t seem to know where our Penzion is, Neil decides to run ahead to see if he could find it. And, believe it or not, he did. We all stumble the rest of the way there, then fall into bed to get some rest for Dresden tomorrow.

Spis, Part 2

The next morning, Kyle wanted breakfast, and Jana’s parents generously offered to provide one. I left Kyle’s pillowcase on his doorstep with a note in red ink reading, ‘If you want to see your pillow again, be ready by 7:45. P.S. This is written in your pillow’s blood.’ He was and he got his pillow back before heading over to Jana’s family’s apartment. There, they had a nice spread of hard sausage, rolls, cheese, etc. Neil and I are persuaded to eat, so I eat a roll and some tea. They bring out the cake again for Kyle, and he has 2 pieces.

            This is our day to see Spis, and we see some amazing sites. First, we take a short [Edited to add that Neil objects to the word ‘short’] hike up the hillside and take a tour through an ice cave, where cold air created beautiful formations of ice in the mountain millions of years old. It used to be used by shepherds before becoming an attraction. The Slovaks used to train their Olympic skaters in there.

            We then visit the little town of Lavoca, which is very charming, with the church with the world’s largest wooden altar, and a communist memorial, 1300 year-old walls from the Tartar invasion, and the ‘cage of shame’ where they used to place criminals so the townspeople could mock and throw things at them. We stop for a Kofola, and Jana’s family offers to buy Kyle ice cream.

            We drive to a nearby place for lunch, to see how busy it is, and find it overrun by tourists. So, we decide to go to Spis Castle now.

            Spis Castle is an amazing site, even from a great distance. Initially started by the Celts, it was used by the Holy Roman Empire, etc., before a large fire left it pretty much not operational. The castle complex is very impressive, with some rooms even outfitted to show what they would have looked like, including the torture chamber. We saw the ancient crapper, and narrow stone stairway, and some sword fighting reinactors. The view from there was very nice, and there was a horse design on the hill that was based on a Celtic coin design. There were 2 guys on the hill coming up that were selling souvenirs, all of which were “perfect.” Jana bought a “perfect” horse and Neil bought a “perfect” glass. It was also here that Jana’s mother bought Kyle ice cream.

            We went to lunch at a pizza place (I:cheese, Neil: corn and olive).

            We went back to Jana’s family’s briefly and then headed to take a mini-hike up to the cliff. That was pretty breathtaking. And Neil got teased about his fear of heights. And we wanted him to spin through the fields singing, “The Hills are Alive.”

            We went back to the Penzion to freshen up a bit, then went into town via bus with George and Jana, who pointed out the points of interest in Spisska Nova Ves: St. James (with the tallest steeple in Slovakia), the town hall, the theater, the evangelical church, the Soviet war memorial, etc.). We had dinner, at which all of us but Jana got pirohy, then went to a local place for dessert. Jana and I shared a strawberry panna cotta. During dessert, she looked over and asked, “What kind of bug is that?” Neil said, “It’s a hummingbird.” Jana replied, “We don’t have hummingbirds.” “You do now,” said Neil.

            We hung out for awhile reminiscing (like, ‘Remember the time we decided to go possum hunting?’), then took a taxi back to the Penzion.

            Today, we spent most of the day driving to Prague with George and Neil in a rented car. Jana had to go to Budapest for school. We had driven through some beautiful mountainous country. It’s rare that the road trip game you get to play is ‘Spot the Castle.’

Spis, Part 1

“Ann, we have officially traveled by planes, trains, and automobiles,” said Kyle. Indeed, we are now in a car driving from Spis to Prague, and Neil and George are finally with us.

            So, this is a good time to catch up and write about our time in Spis.

            The train to Spis was long, but rather uneventful, until we got to the stop before Spisska Nova Ves. There, we pulled up and about 40 teenagers piled into our car, squeezing into every available space. ‘Well, this is going to be interesting getting off the train,’ I thought. We got our bags down and began squeezing our way through. We reached our stop and start pushing out. I notice that the adjacent car has a ton of extra space. I slide open the door and nudge a few of them through; a couple got the idea and moved, but the rest just stood there until Kyle started shouting, “Go, go!” We finally got off the train, look around the station, and spot Jana’s mother coming to meet us. Kiss, kiss, introductions, and we try to communicate as best we can in a language mish-mash. We loaded up her car with the bags and drove to the Penzion Stefani, where Jana’s mom calls her daughter and we worked out the details and checked in, Jana’s mother left us to settle in (Kyle got the dolphin themed room), and then picked us up later to take us to their garden and garden house on a hillside. We walk up the hillside and Jana’s mother gives us a mini-tour. It is very nice. They have vegetables and flowers growing on terraces up there, with their cabin and a great view. Jana’s father calls us in to dinner and we then sit down and eat delicious goulash and brown bread; they keep trying to get Kyle to drink something other than water, but no (one of the first things that Jana’s father said to George when he arrived was, “Kyle doesn’t drink anything.”)

            We hung out for awhile, and had some cake for dessert. I smiled and said, “Chocolate,” and pointed to Kyle. Once they found out that Kyle liked sweets, they were offering sweets to Kyle every chance they got.

            They give us a couple of fresh peas from the garden, and some pistachios, and that’s when Kyle says, “Wouldn’t it be hilarious if these weren’t Jana’s parents at all, but two random people?” We soon got word, however, that Neil, George, and Jana were on their way (Neil had had plane issues, and then had spent some time with George and Jana, going to Plzen, and out to lunch with Jana’s cousin). Their coming also meant that I had won my bet with Kyle, and I got his extra dolphin pillow for the night.

            Soon, Jana, George, and Neil arrive and there is much rejoicing. They eat dinner and we hang out at the garden for awhile before heading back to the Penzion and claiming my prize.

Brno, etc.

Yesterday was our scheduled trip to Brno. We got up and to the station with plenty of time, and didn’t see our train time anywhere. “I wonder if it’s that one?” I said. Kyle went to talk to information, and it turns out that it was the one (we had misread the schedule we had gotten the day before) and it was leaving…now! We rushed to the platform just in time to see it leave. There was a man on the platform who was very sympathetic and showed us the next train time. It was only later that we realized that we never told him that we had been going to Brno. Don’t know how he knew (Cue Twilight Zone music).

            Since we had a few hours to kill, we got a vending machine breakfast (me: candy, he: chocolate-filled croissant in a bag) and decided to see the Slavin Monument up on the hill. Now, I had chosen the shoes that I had felt would be best for my rash, cuts, and blisters. Making that climb, my feet quickly informed me that I had chosen wrongly. I ended up making most of the climb up and down the hill barefoot. After making the decent, we rested in front of the Presidential Palace, where we saw some official personage enter (Kyle swore it was the president. George would later tell him that it wasn’t).

            We went back to the hostel; I took a nap and changed my shoes. We made the next train to Brno easily.

            Since we had gotten a late start, and we didn’t want to miss the next train, we did an “Amazing Race” tour of Brno. In a little more than an hour, we located a souvenir shop to get a map and saw: Petrov Cathedral with the Capuchin monastery next to it, Spielberg Castle on the hill, St. James Church, the vegetable market, Freedom Square (which was having a sand sculpting contest), St. Thomas in Moravian Square, and Konecneho Namesti ( or the Red Church). The weirdest site I personally saw was someone wandering around with a surf board (where did he think he was going to surf?). We also saw the Old Town Hall, which houses the famous “dragon” and wagon wheel.

            The story of the dragon is as such. Once, a dragon was spotted in town. He terrorized the townspeople until one resourceful individual decided to kill a deer and stuff it with lime and leave it as dragon bait. Not able to resist such a tasty snack, the dragon consumed the deer and promptly died. Rejoicing, the townspeople stuffed the dragon and hung it in the town hall as a warning to other dragons, where it hangs to this very day. Modern visitors often mistake it for a large crocodile, but don’t be fooled.

            Our 2^nd tale is that of the wagon wheel. Once, a young man who was renowned for his skill in woodworking was bet that he could not make a wagon wheel from tree to finished product in one day. Working tirelessly, the man wheeled the wagon wheel into town in the allotted time. He was accused of witchcraft on the spot, killed, and the wheel was hung in the town hall, I suppose as a warning to all to not do anything spectacular, or we will kill you and take your things.

            Unfortunately, we could not see these magical objects, as the Old Town Hall was under construction, though we did wander through their offices before giving up the vain attempt.

            We got on the train back to Bratislava, and even made our connection, which had been cutting it close because it hadn’t given us much time. On the last train back, we sit next to two very talkative fellows. At one point, after dismissing a few nudges as accidental on his part, I realize that the one next to me is trying to get my attention. He does this in a very subtle way: by blowing a long stream of hot air into my face. He then spent the rest of the train ride talking at me/about me, leaing over my shoulder, making comments, including about my journal, even though he spoke little to no English. Creeper guy was creepy.

            We made it back to Bratislava in good time, so we decided to go up to the Hrad, or castle, to see it and a great view of the city. We do so, take a few pics, and make our gradual way down. I make the decent backwards, as it is easier on my knees. Kyle pretends not to know me (which he also does when I chase pigeons shouting “Mwah!” I don’t know why).

            After the Castle, we went to Slovak Pub and tried to order food. As this was apparently not possible, we stay for awhile, before getting sandwiches to eat in the hostel dining room.

            Today, we got up, packed, checked out, went and saw the Blue Church, and then boarded a train for Spis where Jana’s mother will supposedly pick us up and we’ll eventually meet Neil. Neil had some trouble with the airline as well. He missed his connecting flight from Munich to Prague, as his 1^st flight was delayed for 4 hours. And they lost his bag, for which he is still waiting. Oh, airline, you scamp you.