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!!