The Last Weekend

The end has come.  The last weekend was filled with simple walks through the town buying Christmas presents and withstanding the freezing cold.  There is little in me that wants to leave, there is not much want for a break from it all.  I have been very comfortable living here and truly considered it my home. I’ve loved the city, the buildings, the culture, the history, the metro.

Everything I did not understand about Prague and the Czech Republic 2 years ago when I was here I feel I understand now.  The history is so much more clear.  Prague itself is filled with history and places to go.  The history itself is not taught in America, yet it is so much connected to the rest of Western Europe.  Sadly, few understand it like they do England, France, Italy, and Germany.  For the country that was supposed to be the Marshall Plan’s industrial jewel of Europe, it has been lost in a way and thought of as “the East,” but as Kundera said, in terms of politics it is the East, in terms of culture and history it is the West.  Now that the politics are the West, I think more people should discover this place.

Bled

Our final day was a stop in the town of Bled, Slovenia on our way home. What makes it a picturesque town is the castle on the hill and the island with the Assumption of Mary church standing on it.  Our visit was brief.  We walked through Bled Castle, which was much more authentic than the castle in Ljubljana.  Then we walked along the lake.  Being pressed for time and with the biting cold, we didn’t make it to the island.

Ljubljana

Ljubljana: the city you cannot pronounce without a little practice.  I had heard before about what a beautiful town Ljubljana was.  In all honesty, it did not live up to what I had heard about it, but the trip was still worth it.  We arrived at night at our hotel not too far outside the real part of the city.  The hotel itself was cheap, and the room was incredible with a full buffet breakfast (which wasn’t great, but at least it wasn’t just bread).

In the morning we headed into town in the car and parked by the Dragon Bridge, making that our first tourist experience in the city.  We then headed towards an open air market before going towards a Franciscan church and walking along the river by more outdoor shopping booths that lined the walkway. Eventually we came to the Three Bridges, which is just what it says: three bridges all next to each other.  Eventually, we walked on all three.

We then made our way towards the Ljubljana Castle on top of the hill, which the river surrounds on three sides.  After the walk up, the biggest disappointment came.  The castle is pretty much the walls with the rooms turned into strange exhibitions.  One room houses some furniture and another is a long dungeon like room lined with paper mache dragons that were made by schoolchildren.  And that is basically it for the castle.  The next step we decided would be to visit Tivoli Park, the largets in Ljubljana on the outskirts that has a home once occupied by the Austrian General and Czech nobleman Radetzky from Strauss’ Radetzky March.  After this we decided to try and make for a church on top of a hill about 10 miles outside of Ljubljana called The Church of the Holy Mother of God, over 6 miles up.  We drove up and upon reaching some cars, were uncertain whether we could continue driving, so we started to walk.  For most of the way we saw no one else.  Then people started walking around us not on the path but through the woods.  Having no clue how much farther the church and seeing the sun nearly gone, we decided to head back before reaching our goal.

That night we went back to the city center and had dinner where I had venison in a cherry sauce and dumplings rolled with cheese, which was incredible (bypassing the several varieties of horse available on  the menu).  We tried a typical Slovenian beer, which tasted like Beck’s, so not that great.

Bad Dürrnberg

2 1/2 hours after our departure from southern Bohemia was our arrival to Bad Dürrnberg, Austria, situated just outside of Salzburg.  What makes this place famous is the salt mines and the tour.  No longer in use (obviously), the mines are a major attraction for tourists. Getting to the mines was difficult. Driving up the mountain and finding exactly where the unmarked entrance was lead us to park the car at first up a steep hill in the snow when parking was not found.  Eventually, we found the parking right next to the hidden entrance.

The tour first puts you on a small, but long little train.  You sit on it by straddling the single bench.  It then heads into the narrow cave before finally dropping you off at your starting point.  You then watch a rather cheesy video about the bishop of Salzburg and the mines.  A guide tells about the different aspects of the cave and mining the salt and at one point you cross over into German territory.  One interesting part was when she showed us two tunnels, one significantly larger than the other.  They were once both the same size, but the weight of the mountain had caused the smaller one to shrink into itself.  At one point we were at a spot where a Neanderthal was found by miners not long ago with their bodies perfectly preserved by the salt, but, having taken them out, the bodies quickly decayed.

The best part about the mines are the slides.  This is how the miners went to the lower levels, but now the tourists get to slide down 2 of them (we went twice on one slide).

After the tour we went down the mountain and nearby to a restaurant, which served the most disgusting piece of meat I’ve ever tasted.  Only after piling on the salt and pepper could I finish this piece of meat, the stench of which was like a live cow permeating your nostrils.  Once this day was over, we headed to our true destination: Ljubljana.

Český Krumlov

And so we headed south through Bohemia, through Austria, and into Slovenia.  The first stop was a small southern Bohemian town called Český Krumlov, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage list.  It is very small, yet very beautiful.  There is not much to do but enjoy the scenery. The Vltava river wraps itself around the town along the side of the castle.

We stayed in a very small pensione whose name translates into “the mouse pit,” which is why in the breakfast room there is a small hole down to a pit with little fake mice in it.  The back of the room had a balcony facing out into the nature surrounding the town.  We arrived late and walked briefly through the town.  The next morning we again walked farther up to the castle through the winding streets lined with little shops. Our stay was brief, only that one night before we left for Austria.

K.

A city that is in love with a writer.  A writer with many demons whose throat closed up on him until he could no longer breath and who ordered his best friend to burn all of his writings.  Fortunately, Max Brod didn’t listen to Kafka and published his works.  Prague is Kafka.  His writing sums up the city in a way that cannot be described – the eeriness, the strangeness, but all in a way that makes it fascinating and wonderful.

Kafka has long been my favorite writer and perhaps he is what first fascinated my about Prague.  Although, I never expected him to be everywhere in Prague.  No other writer is loved by his people this much, except perhaps Goethe and Germany (after all, this is a country that has a sign marking where Goethe threw up).

The Kafka Museum is a walk through creepiness.  It’s dark and  winding as you learn about Kafka’s life, his struggle with his father, women, his job, bureaucracy, and himself.  Few have had such documented inner turmoil.  For his writing Kafka often stayed up through the night writing endlessly and often finished an entire piece in one sitting. Further he would write page long sentences, as the German language loves its long sentences.

Kafka statue outside the Spanish Synagogue

The Land of Velvet

November 17th is a critical day to Czechs and Slovaks.  It began on October 28th, 1939 when an anti-Nazi demonstration lead to the death of a medical student, Jan Opletal.  After protests, 1,800 arrests and 9 executions by the Nazi’s they finally closed down the universities on November 17th.  50 years later another protest against another oppressor began the unraveling of the Communist government in 2 weeks without any deaths and minimal violence.  As was said, what took 10 years in Poland, 10 months in Hungary, 10 weeks in East Germany, only took 10 days in Czechoslovakia.

Events culminated on the day of the general strike, which saw 80% of the people participating, supporting, or being prevented from supporting the strike.  The move proved the illegitimacy of the government, and after several more days and a fleeting hope by the party to retain power, the government resigned and the first cabinet with Communist members in the minority was sworn in by President Husak before he resigned.  Vaclav Havel became the President, Alexander Dubcek, the hero of the Prague Spring 21 years before, became PM.  And in June, the first free elections would be held since the 1940s.

On the 20th anniversary, people filled Wenceslas Square, much like they did to hear Havel speak from the buildings in 1989.  Around the corner on the National Avenue where the protesters first met the police, there is a plaque of hands giving the peace sign above the date 17.11.1989.  And now around it are thousands of candles and signs.

The Czechs have long been occupied, with a little taste of freedom every once in a while.  There was the long time of Hapsburg rule before 20 years between the wars, then the Nazis, then the Communists.  They are incredibly peaceful and choose their heroes as philosophers and not warriors with a few exceptions.  After studying the events, it was a rare and incredible situation that occurred.

Through the news stories, one interesting fact should be noted.  In the US we are taught that Ronald Reagan basically took the wall down with his own hands, and I’m sure the 20th anniversary stories in the US were all about him.  However, after reading the European news, watching the interviews, taking 3 classes that all dealt with the events, Reagan played a minimal part and was never even mentioned except in one class briefly.  There are a variety of factors that went into the ending of the Cold War, from Gorbachev to Solidarity to Pope John Paul II to Charter 77.  Unfortunately, you don’ t learn about these in America.

The Chamber of Deputies

While Washing D.C. has the Capitol, London has the Parliament building, and Berlin has the Reichstag, Prague has a small palace in the Castle area that looks like all the buildings around it, but actually houses the Czech Parliament.  Walking by in this small street, no one would know this is where laws are made.  For our Czech politics class we visited the Chamber of Deputies, much like the House of Commons – the lower house, but the one with all the power.  The Senát, then, is like the House of Lords.  The Chamber has a Speaker.  The government is headed by the PM, who is now Jan Fischer, who replaced Topolanek after a vote of no-confidence in March.  Elections have been postponed until June 2010 to replace the interim government.

The Chamber has 200 members and currently 5 parties seated left to right by ideology (communists all the way to the left).  To be a member you have to be 21 and are elected for a 4 year term.  Fridays are off for the members to visit their constituents (not quite possible for the California delegation to go home every weekend).  The Czech Constitution itself lays out the rules of meeting and so on and, like every other country’s Constitution, is much longer than the US one.  What I find the most interesting aspect of the Constitution is that things are enumerated which we take almost for granted.

Unfortunately the Chamber wasn’t in session, but luckily we were the only ones in the building. The tour consisted of a video of how the government works. Then we headed through the building complex towards the Chamber itself, then through a Hall of government documents (mostly copies) from the Golden Bull of Sicily to the Munich Agreement and beyond.

Masaryk

Coat of Arms

The Chamber

The Royal Line

Pivo

Jedna pivo prosim – One beer please.  That is the only sentence you need to get by in the Czech Republic.  This country drinks the most per capita than any other in the world, besting Germany by almost half as much in a year.  Here, beer is cheaper than water.  The rule of thumb is if you’re paying more than 35 crowns for a half liter of beer (2 dollars), then you should get the hell out of that place.

The beer of choice is Pilsner Urquell, made in Plzen, a town between Prague and the German border to the east.  Usually, if you just ask for beer, that is what you’ll get. However, plenty of others exist.  What is nice about Czech beer is that even the cheap ones taste good. You can never go wrong with what you decide to try.

Something Strange You Say?

You’re walking around Prague and you see something strange.  Prague is strange already, but you see something REALLY strange.  What is it? Well, it’s probably got something to do with David Cerny.  This Czech sculptor is the epitome of people saying ‘Huh?’

For example, you decide to go to the perfectly Art Nouveau Municipal House to see a concert and you run into a sculpture of a pig on the end of a diving board causing it to bend down.

For example, you go towards the Kafka Museum and see a statue of two men standing across from each other on a  platform.  But, once you get closer you notice that it is a fountain and the two men are peeing into a pool.

For example, you see small black protrusions on the TV tower only to learn that those protrusions are black alien babies crawling up and down the side (why alien? Because their faces are only an crevice into the head).

For example, you’re shopping off of Wenceslas Square to find the statue of the Saint himself hanging from the roof, however his horse is upside down.

For example, you’re going to Mala Strana for some food and you see a man who looks suspiciously like Sigmund Freud hanging off the side of a building.

That is Prague in a nutshell.