Prague: City of a Thousand Spires

Before I begin the story of my amazing weekend in the most beautiful city in the world (yes this is going to be a long post filled with Czech history, but it will certainly be interesting), I have to tell you about punting. As of last Thursday I still had not been punting. I was told that it was a sin that I had been in Cambridge for over a month and had not yet gone punting. I had wanted to go punting since before I even arrived in Cambridge, but all the organized punting excursions had taken place while I had classes. So I made up my mind that I would punt myself down the Cam. So on Thursday night Lauren, Marisa, Ami, Joyce, Katie and I went to the Porter's Lodge, got ourselves a key to the punts and headed down to the river. After struggling to unlock the punt, we finally settled in and I became the first punter of the evening. Punting, although it may look simple, is quite difficult particularly when the pole used to punt you down the river is more than twice the height of the punter. I moved us slowly down the river with a few bursts of speed (relative to the average speed of my journey) here and there. When I failed to properly turn our punt around so we could head back the other way, Joyce took over as punter and she was very good. Everyone else took turns punting while Oscar Wilde was read aloud. Overall, my first punting experience was very successful. And by successful I mean that nobody fell into the river. We did see some other punter fall into the river. He also lost his pole in the process and proceeded to jump back into the river (not a good idea) to retrieve it. Enough about punting...on to Prague!

On Friday afternoon Katie and I headed for the Cambridge train station with passports, railcards and boarding passes in hand to begin our journey to Prague. We arrived at Gatwick Airport, proceeded through security and then grabbed some lunch at an Italian restaurant. Our flight arrived in Prague around 9:30 pm and we headed outside to catch the bus. After a great deal of confusion over bus tickets (nothing was in English despite my arrogant assumption that everything would be in both Czech and English), the attempts of a taxi driver to rip us off and various encounters with sketchy people, we managed to get a bus ticket and get to the metro station. The Prague metro is way better than the Tube in London. There are only three lines which are conveniently color coded for those of us who don't speak Czech. The stations and trains are very clean and efficient and, in my opinion, far less sketchy than the Tube. We successfully navigated our way to the hostel and we were pleasantly surprised by what we found when we arrived. We stayed at Mosaic House which is a combination of hotel and hostel. We stayed in a 26 bed female dorm and it was great. Everyone basically had their own cubby since each set of bunk beds was in a cubicle type structure and had curtains that you could close for privacy. We settled in for the night because we had a long day ahead of us on Saturday.

Before I get into all the details of what we did and the things we saw, I have to make something quite clear- Prague is the most amazing city I have ever visited. Prague (Praha, in Czech) exudes every characteristic you associate with "European"- charm, beauty, history and more. Prague's indescribable charm is evident as soon as you enter the city. It's history is a fascinating story of kings, empires, wars, occupations and defenestrations (more about defenestrations later). Prague's beauty is difficult to describe but I think the best way to describe it is as a quintessential European type of beauty. It doesn't have the modern feel of London or the glitz and glam of Paris, but Prague is filled with stunning architecture, cobbled lanes and countless church spires and it is a place where east and west have converged. You can still feel hints of the 42 years of Communist rule in the industrial style architecture that has been mixed in amongst the Gothic and Renaissance style buildings of the city. Communist rule in Prague came to an end a mere twenty years ago with the fall of the Iron Curtain, but the city has come very far in the short span of time. Prague had been on the top of my list of places to visit for a long time and the city did not disappoint as I fell in love with it instantly.

We began Saturday morning by doing a little exploring on our own and we walked down to see the Dancing House. We strolled around for awhile, taking pictures by the river as we went. We soon navigated our way to Old Town Square and grabbed some breakfast at Starbuck's until it was time to meet up for the Free Tour offered by New Europe. While we were waiting for the tour to begin, we struck up a conversation with two cool students from Holland who are spending the summer travelling all around Eastern Europe. Our tour guide, Kate, was awesome. Kate is Australian and came to Prague right after finishing up at Uni in 1991 with the intention of teaching English for 6 months. She fell in love with the city and the man of her dreams, got married and has been in Prague ever since. The tour itself was very good. I don't usually enjoy tours since I would rather explore places on my own, but we got to see alot of the sites we wanted to see and hear some great stories about Prague's history and it was all free! We began the tour in Old Town Square where we saw the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn, St. Nicolas' Church, the monument to Jan Hus and the Astronomical Clock. I want to briefly share some cool info about these few sites not really because I think you will actually care, but more so I don't forget the stories so here goes. The two towers of the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn are not the same size. They are known as the "Adam and Eve Towers" and Adam is supposedly bigger because it protects Eve from the weather...Kate thinks is just an excuse used for poor craftsmanship and mistaken measurements. The Jan Hus monument was erected to commemorate the martyrdom of Jan Hus who was burned at the stake in 1415 after propagating what the Catholic Church deemed to be "heretical views" (Hus was a key predecessor of the Protestant movement and his views greatly influenced Martin Luther). The execution of Jan Hus caused his followers (the Hussites...I never knew the name came from Jan Hus!) to become revolutionary and the Hussite Wars began a few years later. I had been looking forward to seeing the Astronomical Clock for some time so I have to tell you a few things about it. The oldest part of the clock was built in 1410. The clock is most well known for "The Walk of the Apostles" during which the 12 apostles can be seen (through 2 doors that open every hour) processing across the clock tower. There is always a large crowd gathered to watch this event, but most people, forgetting that the clock was built in the 1400's, are disappointed. It may not be very high tech to us today, but it was like the iPhone of the 15th century. On the sides of the clock dial and calendar there are a total of eight figures. The top four represent vices (or, more accurately, threats to Prague during the time of construction) and include vanity, the miser/Jew, death and a Turk. The lower four figures represent virtues (I'm not exactly sure how) and include a chronicler, an angel, an astronomer and a philosopher. So the clock is pretty cool and it is beautiful. There is actually a legend that claims that the town council had the clockmaker's eyes burnt out with a hot poker so that he could not make a clock for another city that would rival the beauty of fame of the Prague clock. The clockmaker got his revenge by cursing the clock so that it would not work and the clock did, in fact, stop working many times.

We continued our tour by walking to a building that would have been of particular interest to Nick- the Estates Theater. It was at the Estates Theater that the world premiere of Don Giovanni, conducted by Mozart himself, took place in 1787. It is the only theater left standing where Mozart performed. Our next stop was in Wenceslas Square which many of you have probably heard of before. The square was the location of many events of the Prague Spring of 1968. The Prague Spring was a period of reforms that occurred under Alexander Dubcek which lead to increased freedoms in the Communist society. This lead the Czech's to believe that Communist rule was coming to an end. Unfortunately, the Soviets eventually intervened and sent in military troops to crush the Prague Spring. In early 1969, a student named Jan Palach set himself on fire in Wenceslas Square to protest the renewed suppression of Communist rule. The Velvet Revolution, a non-violent revolution that lead to the overthrow of the Communist government, also occurred in the square in 1989. On November 17, 1989 the police suppressed a peaceful student demonstration in the city and a rumor spread that a student had been killed (the person who was thought to be dead was actually a secret police agent and he was just pretending to be dead, but nobody knows why and he still refuses to say why he did it). This rumor sparked massive outrage and within three days over 500,000 people had flooded into Wenceslas Square in protest and the jingling of keys, a symbol of the unlocking of doors that were locked during Communist rule, were heard throughout the city. By June 1990 the Communists were out and Czechoslovakia had its first democratic elections since 1946. After this we headed to the Municipal House before grabbing a bite at the coolest bagel shop in Prague- Bohemia Bagel. So good. We also decided to go on the Castle Tour which was happening right after the Free Tour ended so we bought our tickets for that and then continued on with the Free Tour. We made stops at the House of the Black Madonna and the Franz Kafka monument and then continued to explore the Jewish Quarter (Josefov) where we saw the Spanish Synagogue, the Old-New Synagogue and the Jewish Cemetery. We also saw the Prague Metronome which is a functioning metronome constructed in the very spot where a huge Stalin monument used to stand and which symbolizes the time lost under Communist rule. We concluded our tour outside the Rudolfinum, home of the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, said goodbye to our new Dutch friends and got ready for the Castle Tour.

The Castle Tour began in Lesser Town where we saw Wallenstein Palace which was absolutely gorgeous. The gardens were stunning and showcased several water features, statues relating to Greek mythology and a very unique feature wall. Wallenstein Palace is currently the home of the Czech Senate. After leaving Wallenstein Palace, we saw the other St. Nicolas Church and the monument to Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler. I'm certain that several of you have heard of Kepler (and his wonderful laws of planetary motion), but as far as I can remember, even I had not heard of Tycho Brahe. Kepler was Brahe's assistant until Brahe died. There is alot of suspicion surrounding Brahe's death because recent (but inconclusive) tests suggest that he died of mercury poisoning and many think this was Kepler's doing. Apparently, Prague City Hall approved a request to exhume Brahe's remains and testing will be done this coming November. Anyway, being a big fan of Kepler and his work, I would like to stick with the other theory of Brahe's death. This theory claims that while dining with the King, Brahe did not want to get up to use the bathroom because the King was still sitting and it would have been a breach of etiquette. After many toasts, Brahe passed out and died a few days later from kidney failure. We then made our way to the Strahov Monastery which offered some amazing views of the city. Next was the Czernin Palace which is currently home to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Palace was the sight of what is often considered to be the Third Defenestration of Prague. I suppose I should explain what the First and Second Defenestrations of Prague were. First of all, a defenestration is the act of throwing someone out of a window so I think you can probably see where this story is going. The First Defenstration of Prague occurred when a group of radical Hussites threw members of the town council out of a window and onto some sharp sticks and lead to the start of the Hussite Wars. The Second Defenestration of Prague was due to a conflict between Catholics and Protestants lead to the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War. After being shoved out the window, the Catholics landed in a pile of manure and claimed it was because angels were assisting the Catholic cause. Protestants claimed that it was just horse excrement that saved the Catholics and not the angels. I've definitely gotta go with the Protestants on this one. Anyway, the so called Third Defenestration occurred when Jan Masaryk was found dead in his pajamas in the courtyard of the foreign ministry. It is still unclear whether it was suicide, murder or an accident. After that we saw the Loreto and the Domecek which was a WWII Gestapo prison and then we rushed over to the Castle gates to catch the other changing of the guard (this one was way better because I didn't almost get trampled to death) and admire the Archbishop's Palace. We headed into the First Courtyard of the Castle where the treasure of St. Vitus was displayed until 1990. Next was the Second Courtyard of the Castle where we were greeted by the massive, breathtaking structure that is St. Vitus Cathedral. The sun shined brightly through the large rose window caused beautiful colors to appear throughout the nave. It was incredible.

After exploring the cathedral for awhile we continued the tour with stops at the Old Royal Palace, St. George's Basilica and All Saints Chapel. We then saw the window where the Second Defenestration of Prague occurred and, after several more pictures overlooking the city, the tour was finally over. We grabbed some dinner at a restaurant right on the river and then headed for the Charles Bridge. After Katie and I both bought some nice souvenirs we continued across the Charles Bridge until we reached the statue of John of Nepomuk. There are two plaques on the bottom of this statue and legend says that rubbing one of them will bring good luck and rubbing the other will bring bad luck. Thanks to our tour guide Kate, we knew exactly which one to rub for good luck. Being very tired after our long day of tours, we decided to head back to the hostel. We soon found ourselves in the hostel bar enjoying a wonderful night. We had several Americans come and talk to us, but one story trumps all the rest. I happened to be wearing my Harvard shirt that night and soon after we sat down, the DJ came up to us and asked me if I went to Harvard. I said no and told him that I was from RI and went to Providence College. His response- "My dad is from Warwick!" That's right folks, I somehow managed to find possibly the only person in Prague with RI connections. Anyway, Steve then proceeded to invite us up on stage to sit in his awesome beanbag chairs and talk with him for awhile. Steve went back on stage and I spent the next few minutes convincing Katie to come up on stage with me. She finally gave in and we went and hung out on stage in the most comfortable beanbag chairs ever. Steve turned out to be absolutely awesome and his music is great (you should all check it out...www.mindbeamdigidub.com). We spent Sunday doing some souvenir shopping and returning to our new favorite hangout, Bohemia Bagel for lunch. We spent the rest of our time in Prague sitting in a park looking out at the river and Prague Castle at which point we (jokingly) considered skipping class this week in order to stay in Prague for several more days and then head directly to Berlin from there. We got home at about 8 pm Sunday night and met up with Lauren and Marisa at The Eagle to share stories of our Prague adventure and hear about their weekend in Paris. It was an absolutely fantastic weekend.

Last night I watched Chariots of Fire with my British and Their Sports class. It was so good! The music was fantastic and it pretty much made me want to be British. This week is a four day week for us but it's pretty busy. I'm playing cricket tomorrow, going to Formal Hall Tomorrow night and leaving for Berlin at 3 am on Friday morning. And I have to write a paper before I leave. Oh well. With less than three weeks of classes left I plan on packing everything I possibly can into the time I have left.

Cheers!