10 random tidbits from prague

1. the first thing we did in prague was go to the kafka museum and it was indeed kafka-esque and set the mood for the rest our time in prague.  basically kafka suffered from chronic dissatisfaction and his whole life was one big existential crisis.  some of kafka's drawings were on display which the label described as: "a tribute to the daily descent of kafka's soul into the abyss of the blank page." what a drama king.

the kafka museum is also home to this inexplicable fountain.

2. later that day we went to the museum of communism which is delightfully kitschy (see poster below) and recounts the history of the communist regime in the czech republic, 1948-89. it is located on a commercial street right above a mcdonald's and is owned by an american.

3. we were never brave enough to try czech food but we did eat lots of mexican food, czexican, if you will.

4. the czechs are the largest consumers of beer in the world (the germans are the largest producers of it). it is cheaper than bottled water in most restaurants.

5. on our second day we went on a walking tour through the old city and saw the famous astronomical clock and learned about czech history including about their unique way of dealing with tense political situations: defenestration. defenestration is the act of throwing someone out of a window.  the czechs reacted to no less than three political crises with defenestation.  by the way, the rulers of prague had the clockmaker's (see astronomical clock below) eyes burned out so he could never make another.

6. along with historical sites prague is also home to a frank gehry building called the dancing house because it resembles two people dancing. also referred to as the fred and ginger building :)

7. after our walking tour we were able to get tickets to the symphony. prague is a very musical city: dvorak is czech and mozart spent some time in prague. we even saw the theater where don giovanni premiered. the concert was at a different theater near the charles bridge and was excellent. there were just two performers: a pianist and a violinist and the violinist especially was superb. they did several encores including a piece by dvorak which was absolutely delightful to listen to because the violinist seemed to be so familiar with the piece that it seemed like an old friend to him.

prague castle from the charles bridge

8. something that surprised me about prague was the prevalence of art nouveau.  one of the best known czech artists, alphonse mucha, is an art nouveau artist.  we went to where the old prague castle was and went inside what looked like a gothic cathedral from the outside only to discover the inside had been entirely redecorated in the art nouveau style.  i had never seen an art nouveau church before. it was fascinating.

9. a word about hostels: ours was called the czech inn (get it?) and was actually the nicest hostel i've ever stayed in but we still shared a room with several other people and this can make things interesting. for example when rebecca and i were about to enter our room and man who was not wearing pants opened the door (fortunately he was wearing underwear). he promptly screamed and slammed the door again. we stood there stunned and giggling until he re-emerged (with pants this time) and apologized profusely.

10.  probably my favorite story from the trip: one night as rebecca and i were walking back to the czech inn after a failed mission to find somewhere to get ice cream, two czech police officers came up to us and started speaking to us in rapid czech. when we said we didn't understand, one officer asked to see our passports and explained in broken english: you cross street without sign. what? then i understood. we had just jaywalked and were now being issued a ticket for it. rebecca and i had to avoid eye contact for fear we would burst out laughing a the ridiculousness of the situation.  the police officers explained that because we were tourists we would only get the minimum fine: 100 czech crowns.  this is the equivalent to less than 6 american dollars. it gets better: we decided to stop in a supermarket to get some ice cream and who should we see there but the two police officers who just fined us buying beer with the money they just made off us!!

berlin

last week was spring break, so my friend rebecca and i took a small tour of eastern europe: berlin, prague vienna. in berlin we stayed with my friend gina who's studying there this semester and she was a lovely hostess and tour guide for the weekend.

we saw parts of the wall. 

and we went to the deutschoper to see the premier of a new production of wagner's tristan & isolde.  apparently germans are quite serious about their opera.  we arrived only 2 minutes late but the opera had already started and we were the only late arrivals.  the orchestra and the singers were excellent but i didn't really like the staging. it was a modern reinterpretations with confusing visual metaphors that completely eluded me and which i thought were distracting (at one point a naked man was digging a grave while the title characters sang a duet).  the other audience members were equally unenthusiastic about the staging - they even booed the director when he came out for his bow!

we also went to the history museum which was very interesting. we learned all about the history of germany before world war i. it had lots of fun artifacts including the incredibly gory crucifix above and the contraption below which was supposed to protect one from the plague (way more legit than those surgical masks people wore for bird flu).

we also just wandered around and saw monuments like the brandenburg gate and the reichstag.

i definitely want to go back to berlin someday. there are so many art museums there that we didn't have time for. 

il duomo

begun in 1296, designed by arnolfo di cambio, building continued for 170 years, the famous dome was of course designed by brunelleschi.  apparently when they were brainstorming how to build it, someone suggested that they simply build it over a huge pile of dirt with gold buried inside and then have peasants remove the dirt to find the gold.  they eventually nixed that idea in favor of brunelleschi's ingenious engineering skills and the result remains marvelous to this day.

campanile di giotto: giotto is thought to be the architect of the bell tower.  

19th c. gothic revival façade by emilio de fabis

ghiberti's baptistry doors. 

my host mom said that even though she's been living in florence for 15 years, the duomo has never ceased to amaze her.  needless to say, i'm sure i'll never get tired of it either :)

ps. i went to ash wednesday mass there yesterday. in the u.s. on ash wednesday you usually get a black smudge-y cross on your forehead but here the priest just sort of sprinkled some ashes in my hair. who knew ash wednesday would be different in italy?

manon lescaut

before this year, i had only seen one opera before in my life.  in the last five months, i've seen four.  the most recent was puccini's manon lescaut here in florence at the teatro communale.  i've been a fan of puccini's music for a while but nothing compares to hearing a live orchestra and seeing the performers on stage.  it was absolutely lovely.

the story, based on a french novel, tells of a student, des grieux, who falls in love with manon, a beautiful girl on her way to a convent.  des grieux convices her to run away to paris with him, but she later desserts him because he is poor and takes up with geronte, a rich older man, but she is bored and unhappy with him.  des grieux turns up and the two renew their vows of love to one another, but geronte discovers them and had manon arrested.  manon is sentenced to deportation to louisiana but des grieux manages to convince the ship's captain to let him on.  in the last act, manon and des grieux wander through the dessert trying to make their way to a british settlement but exhausted and weak from thirst, manon dies in her lover's arms.

not only were the orchestra and singers exceptional, but i just fell in love with the libretto.  some of the lyrics are just so poetic that when combined with the overpowering music that they brisent le coeur. i wish i could remember all the italian (thank goodness for supertitles).  there's one moment in act 2 when des grieux reappears and manon begs for his forgiveness and he just looks at her and sings, "o tentatrice!"  it's such a wonderful moment because he knows that she will be his downfall but he takes her back anyway...so tragically beautiful!!

these are some clips of pavarotti singing parts of act i. sooo gooood.  the operas i've seen while abroad have definitely inspired me to see more opera in new york.i can't wait to go to the met when i get back!  i never thought i would get so emotionally invested in the stories but the music is so powerful that it just draws you in. what can i say? i'm hooked.