My flight arrived in Prague close to midnight, unfortunately meaning that very little exploration could take place. I travelled to Caitlin's flat and we decided to call it an early night so to take full advantage of the following day. Caitlin's flat is in an ideal location. Being on the north side of the river, she has excellent views of the castle and access to a vast number of restaurants and shops but is just far enough away from the largest tourist destinations. Her neighborhood is quiet and quaint but only minutes away from the busiest areas of Prague, it's really an ideal location. Prague's public transportation is incredibly impressive. A 24 hour transport ticket allows you full access to trams, metros, buses and even a funicular! And all this is located in a city that is immensely walkable. While I enjoyed the public transportation I always believe the best way to see a new city is on foot and Prague made this simple.
My first day in Prague consisted of wandering around the city with Caitlin. We walked to Charles Bridge, across Old Town, down King Wencelas Square, and down the river pathways before having an authentic Czech meal. Prague is absolutely gorgeous, it is described by many as Paris in miniature, which I believe to be a fairly apt depiction. Each and every building has something to add to the city, whether it be gargoyles, intricate facade carvings, murals, mosaics or elaborate statuary there is not a single plain building in the city. While I have lots of pictures from Prague the city is impossibly difficult to photograph, it is a place you simply have to visit to see. Also, my camera has truly transformed into a Scottish camera and has no idea how to photograph objects on a sunny day.
Following our full day of exploration, Caitlin had made plans to attend an 80's/90's night at a local club. According to the ever trusty Lonely Planet guide book the people of Prague love their 80's/90's dance nights. The guidebook seemed confused by this passion. I, however, have no confusion whatsoever about this love. Who doesn't want to spend hours upon hours singing Tina Turner, doing the YMCA, and teaching Czech People the Cotton Eyed Joe? Because I did all of these things and had an amazing night.
This is how excited I was about 80's/90's dance night!
Don Giovanni is an opera written by Mozart that originally premiered in Prague. The opera has gone on to become the seventh most viewed opera in the World. Prague sees the opera as a rich part of their history and the opera is performed each and every day using marionettes. I was hoping to have a chance to go see this marionette opera but considering the price decided to give it a skip (The average beer in Prague cost less than 50CZK the Opera tickets cost 597CZK.... (597CZK= 30.35 Dollars, 18.87 Pounds, 23.56 Euros and finally 248.23 Rand). Rather than going to the Opera I visited a marionette shop, where the store keeper attempted to give me a lesson on using marionettes.
Caitlin attempting to use the Harry Potter Marionette
Finally getting it to walk across the floor.... very, very slowly!
Friday and Saturday were spent with more wandering around the city, vising the castle and various parks. The parks in Prague are beautiful and a nice, quiet escape from the thriving city just steps outside the garden's gates.
A piece of Scotland escaped to Prague!
Occupy Prague
Statue to Franz Kafka
On Sunday, Caitlin and I decided to get outside of Prague and went to the city of Terezin. The drive to Terezin was beautiful and the landscape was surprising. Field after field was entirely yellow with hip high plants bursting with tiny yellow flowers. Upon my arrival home I did a bit of research and discovered that these are actually fields of rapeseed, the seed used to make canola oil. The town of Terezin is a fairly small city in the Czech Republic, what makes the city so famous is its fortress. The military fortress was built in the 18th century but was never under direct siege. During World War One the fortress was first used as a military prison. And, finally during WWII the Nazis used Terezin as a concentration camp, referring to it by it's German name, Teresienstadt.
Teresienstadt was used primarily as a holding camp. Vast number of prisoners spent days, weeks, months and sometimes years in the camp before being sent on to camps such as Treblinka and Auschwitz. The camp was also chosen to house Jewish artists, writers and musicians. These artists were forced to aid the Nazis in presenting the camp in a positive fashion to Red Cross officers. The Red Cross was provided a tour of Teresienstadt, one that would lead them to believe life for the Jewish people in concentration camps was better than a life they could achieve in the outside world. Special shaving rooms, shower facilities, bunk houses, etc were constructed for the sole purpose of the Red Cross tour. In actuality these rooms were never used by the prisoners. The tour of the concentration camp was as greatly moving and emotional as one might expect. The most poignant moment came at the tour's end. While Teresienstadt was not used as a death camp executions were still used as a means of ultimate punishment in the camp. An execution wall was located in the rear of camp and as many as 30 prisoners were executed at a time. As you walk past the execution wall the path loops by a cinema and pool used by Nazi officials and their children. Sources of entertainment only steps away from the greatest of human tragedies.
Returning to Prague we had a nice lunch and decided to visit the Senate Gardens. The gardens are quite impressive and have a collection of peacocks, including two white birds. Birds seemed to be the theme of the day, before even arriving at the peacock gardens we ran into a few street performers with macaws.
Making my way back to Caitlin's apartment I strolled across the Charles Bridge for a final time. The bridge is so breath-takingly beautiful. But, having crossed it multiple times and putting full concentration into weaving in and out of the hundreds of tourist on the bridge I rushed along ignoring the gorgeous views. Half way across the bridge a man began playing a violin. Despite the horribly tacky accompanying music the man was an incredible violinist. His music was so beautiful that I stopped my hurried pace and instead overlooked the city once more. Perhaps it was the pure exhaustion I was feeling from days of little sleep or missing having a travel companion but as I overlooked the gorgeous views of Prague I became a little emotional. I tell people that this year causes me to frequently have moments of "is this real life?" and this moment in Prague was certainly one. I was so lost in the beauty of the city, the beauty of the music and my own happiness. That is until the beautiful music stop and the violinist started screaming at someone in Czech. While I have absolutely no grasp of the language it became fairly obvious the violinist was shouting at someone for listening to his music and not paying a price. Well, I wasn't planning on paying so suddenly my emotional moment was abandoned as I pressed myself against the walls of the Charles Bridge hoping to be lost in the statuary as I shuffled away from the violinist. Fortunately my escape tactics worked and I wasn't verbally harassed in unfamiliar language.
To finish the tale of Prague I will share a travel secret I heavily employed throughout this trip. That travel secret is free samples. As a child my favorite day at the store was "try it" day. This day of course was Saturday and there would be multiple old woman lining the aisles of the grocery store with free samples of whatever the store was hoping to sell. I wouldn't eat lunch to prepare for this day. My love of free samples has carried over into travelling and while I am mocked for this (being told I sound like a house-wife) I reap all the benefits of the free samples. After having an absolutely terrible lunch at Heathrow I decided I missed Belgian chocolate. So, I made my way to the airport's shop and pretended to be interested in purchasing a box of chocolates. This feigned interest rewarded me a free truffle. In Prague, I saw a woman with a tray of "new!" frappuccinos. No need to tell this woman that this is actually my favorite drink at Starbucks and I know what it tastes like, another free sample! Back in the airport, I didn't really feel like being picked up by someone I hadn't seen in week smelling like airplane so it was time to hit the department stores. Again, faking interest in purchasing perfume only to receive some complimentary sprays. While this tactic works very well I will say that no matter how long you longingly look at Michael Korr's handbags in Harrods and pretend to have all the money in the World to purchase one, they won't give you a free sample. This should change.
Thank you Starbucks!!!
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