Prague

The drive into Prague included cobblestone streets, cars and pedestrians going all directions at once, trams honking at vehicles stopped on tracks, and one man yelling at my Hungary plates. Once there, however, we were really there: Prague, a place I was planning to see since friends returned from there in high school, and again after my first year of teaching, when I shared a room with a Praha man who was touring the U.S. and somehow found himself in Brewster, near Wenatchee, where my car had broken down. Here, in Prague, I was happy to shelve the car and get on foot, a means more relaxing and above all slow enough to absorb the city's facades and structures, tastes and history.

Prague.

Above, in the distance, is the Charles bridge, a 650 year old pedestrian bridge, with fantastic figurines of saints perched at its sides. In the morning, a woman in an orange jumpsuit slowly crosses the bridge with a small broom, sweeping cigarette butts and soft leaves into a pan. A crew of men smoke in the recess by a statue of Christ before lowering a scaffold over the side to scrub old archways. Painters roll tables and easels by handtrucks and prepare to display their talents with caricatures or straight portraits of Angelina Jolie's lips and Barack Obama's ears. A few drunken leftovers laugh their way across the river. Tourists stretch out with their cameras. Workers and students commute to the other side. And lovers stroll.

At night, the city was alive with residents and tourists alert with festivity. When we arrived, the children were eager to stay at home after the sun went down, and we were still nervous about the rare car that would jet down the streets and throw pedestrians onto the narrow paths at the base of buildings, but my first glimpse of the Old Town Square was so magical, I ran back to our apartment, only 200-300 meters away, to bring everyone over.

Everyone was just in time to see the tolling of the great astronomical clock, which celebrated its 600th birthday last month. Every hour, mechanical saints revolve above the clock face, bells toll, and a man robed in motley red and yellow emerges from the tower and trumpets the time, first in one direction, then the other.

The Old Town Square was a reference point, in time and space, but also in history. It wasn't only the carriages and the gothic spires over the stoned cathedral than made me feel the nearness of the late middle ages, and the bustle of a prosperous city long ago; it was the way the tall old buildings faced each other in generous angles, the way streets radiated out in horse-thin spokes, it was the spacious intimacy of the square.






But the city was beautiful in every direction. As my friend here Nora said, Prague was spared the WWII destruction that Budapest was not; and as the Lonely Planet guide said, it's hard not to be awed by the "overachieving" architecture. After three nights, I still couldn't get used to the fact that from our bedroom window we could see a church from the 14th century filled with baroque treasures.

Walking in Prague was an utter joy.

We also had a memorable meal in a brewery recommended by Lackó (above left) and one late night concerto concert in a cold and beautiful cathedral by the Charles Bridge. Below is the Jewish Town Hall, centering several synagogues and cemetery in the Jewish quarter. I was interested in encountering history on Prague's golem, especially because our librarian at Roosevelt had extensively researched the automaton, but I was content to stay outside and keep walking. 

Feel free to walk around yourself, IN YOUR BRAIN. This web-tour is pretty good.

On the second day we walked up the stairs to the enormous castle complex, the Pražský hard. Much of what you see in the background of the picture below is a part of this.

We spent several hours wandering the palaces and cathedrals that dated from the 10th century.

By the time we emerged, we were very hungry, and took advantage of the slighter stubbier version of kürtöskalács they eat in the Czech Republic, trdelník.

I'm willing to go back to Prague someday, if anybody wants to join me.