Prague in Gala

19 – 23 April 2018

After a bus ride of five and a half hours I finally arrived in Prague at Florenc Station at around 11 pm. Of course I had a certain image in mind when I thought of Prague, but I must admit that my first encounter with the city was quite different than I had expected. On my way to the hostel I suddenly arrived at a setting fit for a movie scene (probably a thriller too). In front of me was an abandoned street, or more accurately, there was no street anymore. The asphalt was removed and there was just a road made out of sand and some stones. The buildings alongside the street were dark, and only a few street lights illuminated the place. Further along there was a rusty railway bridge going over the street and the houses. It felt eerie and fascinating at the same time. Apparently there was a lot of construction work going on there. Luckily I safely arrived at my hostel, where I went straight to bed.

After a bit of a restless night (it takes some getting used to people walking in and out at night) I went to the city center. It was still early in the morning and there were hardly any tourists. Shop owners were starting to prepare their shops and suppliers visited the many restaurants and bars to provide them with food for the many tourists who would come to eat later in the day. I walked through some cosy cobblestone alleys and finally I stood in the middle of the Old Town Square, next to the iconic towers of the Church of Our Lady before Tyn. I took some photos and then I went to a nearby bakery, named Jizerske Pekarny, to get some (cheap!) breakfast. Prague can be a really inexpensive place, if you know which places to avoid. Most restaurants around touristy areas (like the main square) charge you a lot more for food than a restaurant a few blocks away, sometimes even for double the price. In a place like Czechia they take advantage of people who are unfamiliar with their Czech crowns and the current conversion rate. During my time of visit one euro is worth twenty-six crowns.

When I was having some coffee and something to eat at the bakery, I went on Couchsurfing to see if anyone was willing to hangout. So, a little while later, I was walking around the town with a guy from Egypt. We crossed the Charles Bridge, where I took some photos. I had planned to go on a walking tour that morning and he joined me for the first fifteen minutes or so, then he had to go someplace else. We had a good tour guide from the United States, who, like so many, fell in love with the city and decided to stay.

At the center of the Old Town Square stands the statue of Jan Hus, an important figure in Czech history and even for Europe’s. Hus was the first to openly speak out against the Roman Catholic Church and the selling of indulgences (the tickets to heaven). His speeches attracted quite a crowd and soon the Catholic Church regarded him as a serious threat that they had to deal with. Their solution was as follows: they invited Hus to a very important congregation in Constantz, where some Catholic bishops of high importance would listen to what he had to say. So you can imagine that Hus must have been quite excited that the Catholic officials were finally going to listen to what he had to say, and he therefore accepted their invitation. But instead, they read him his death sentence. At that time the punishment for heresy was burning at the stake. His death caused quite the commotion among his followers and a formal letter of complaint was written and signed by over fifty noble lords and knights throughout Czechia. The Hussites, as his followers are called, soon revolted and in the events that followed, officials got thrown out of the town hall’s windows and died. This was the start of the Hussite Wars. Later, the much more known Martin Luther would adopt some of Hus’ ideas and start the reformation in Europe. But you could say that the real foundation of the reformation was laid by Jan Hus in Czechia. This is what makes Hus a prominent figure in Czech history and why they have erected a giant statue of him in the middle of the square.

The walk also took us to Prague’s Jewish quarter. During the Second World War, this Jewish ghetto was different from the others. Reason for that was that the Germans used it for propaganda. The quarter had its own (fake) theater and other public buildings. When the people of the Red Cross investigated the rumors about the terrible conditions in the Jewish Ghettos, the Germans showed them around the place in Prague on the condition that they were not allowed to talk to the Jews. When the people of the Red Cross could not confirm anything about the bad conditions, they stopped their investigation and cancelled their planned trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau, one of Europe’s worst camps.

But there is also a more inspiring story from the Jewish Quarter in Prague. During the war, a lady went to the Jewish Quarter and there she became a teacher in art (this was not that common during that time). During her classes, the children made drawings of their everyday situation and their lives as a way to cope with their conditions and to have some sort of daily route to make their lives more ‘normal’. Just before she got deported to Auschwitz, she put the paintings (there were over a thousand by then) in two suitcases and hid them under the floorboards of one of the houses. Unfortunately she did not survive the camp. After the war her husband went to the house and found the suitcases with the drawings inside. All these drawings can now be seen in a museum on the edge on the Jewish Quarter and they now tell the story of life in the Jewish Quarter during the Second World War through the children’s eyes.

In the afternoon I joined the same tour guide for a trip to Prague Castle. I preferred to see as much of the city as I could on my first day, so that the following days I could just wander around the streets of Prague, without having the urge to see everything anymore. I would also have to rely more on my natural sense of direction, since my phone died on my final night in Wroclaw. Luckily I did have a backup phone with me, but unfortunately that phone was my old phone for a reason. It is extremely slow and has trouble loading apps, especially Google Maps; an app that I have really come to rely on. But my adventurous side at least sees it as an extra challenge and I’m paying a lot of extra attention to my surroundings now.

That night I finally went to the concert that I was so excited about. At the concert they were performing the music of Two Steps From Hell (I know the name might sound a bit dark, but their music is legendary). They are a mayor player in the music industry and they compose music for movie trailers, but their music can also be heard during major events, like the soccer World Championship or the Olympic Games. Chances are that you’ve come across their music at some point. It is very rare for them to perform their music during a concert, which is why thousands of fans from around the world booked tickets for this concert. Their initial concert (the one I went to) got sold out pretty quickly, so they even decided to organize an additional concert. I really had a great night and I even got to meet the lead composer and co-founder, Thomas Bergersen himself. It was a great ending of an already great day.

The next day I decided to join a group on Couchsurfing, who were going for a hike in the hills of Český Kras, roughly an hour outside of Prague. There were three people from Czechia, one from Italy and one from the United States. At first we crossed a field, after which we went into the forest and had to climb a steep hill. The landscape was beautiful and the first viewpoint we reached provided a beautiful view over the entire area. In the far distance we could even see a bit of Prague. After we regained some energy we continued. Along the way we passed the Aksamit Gate; some sort of natural archway made of rock which led to a small open place with a tree standing in the middle. There was also a large pit, in which you really don’t want to fall. When we continued we reached a large field atop the hill, with some groups of trees. A shepherd, accompanied by her black dog, was just placing a new fence to create a new area where her sheep could stay next. A bit further we saw her herd of sheep laying in the shade created by some trees. When we reached the edge of the hill we had a good vantage point from where we could see the large stone quarry nearby, it was quite an impressive view.

In the afternoon we arrived at the Koneprusy Caves. A guide showed us around the different levels in the caves. There is quite an interesting little tale about the discovery of the cave system. A young boy once fell down a shaft and ended up in the cave, where a bandit was just counting his loot. The bandit gave the boy some gold under the condition that the boy would tell no one about the cave. Once the boy reached his village, he told the people about the cave and the bandit, and he showed them where he had fallen down the shaft. But once he got there, he couldn’t find the cave anywhere and the people from his village who had accompanied him to the cave got angry, beat up the boy, and took his money. As with most of those tales, this one too has a moral: never break your promises.

The rest of the afternoon we spent walking to a village called Srbsko, situated in a valley of the Berounka River. Here we sat down at a restaurant and had some well-deserved beers and some food. Then we got the train back to Prague, where we arrived around 7 pm. When I got back to my hostel I took a much-needed shower and went to bed.

On Sunday I went to visit an Anglican Church in Prague, St. Clement’s. Here I met some really nice people, who also had some good tips on cheap transportation in Czechia and on how to earn some extra money (by teaching English to Chinese kids via webcam). Who knows, I might check it out someday. Since the previous days had been quite exhausting because of all the hiking all day long, I decided to take it easy today. I bought a one of those typical cinnamon rolls you see everywhere and I had one with vanilla cream and strawberries. I know this is just food for tourists, and they’re overpriced too, but. . . They looked delicious and I just had to try them. And it was pretty tasty. With my cinnamon roll I continued walking across the Charles Bridge, where I also spent some time sitting on the edge of the bridge, looking out over the river Vltava. I continued to walk alongside the river for a while and I even spotted a swan on her nest and some sort of beavers nearby. The swan didn’t seem to like one of the nosy animals and picked at him as soon as he came too close to the nest.

While walking around the city, I was also considering to go the closing gala of the Film Music Festival that same night. I quite enjoyed the last concert and I saw a ticket for only 399 Czech crowns, which is around 15 euros. Eventually I convinced myself to buy the ticket, since this concert would be held at the beautiful Rudolfinum Theatre.

So that night I went to the gala in my grey pants, a white collared shirt and with my no-quite-so-fancy hiking boots. I just hoped the people there would keep their gaze up. In the lobby I wanted to buy some champagne, but I was surprised to hear that they only accepted cash (which they told me only after they gave me the glass). So I gave them all my remaining cash money, which was about half the price. But the nice lady behind the bar was really friendly and said it was fine and I could take it. There’s a certain irony in getting champagne for half-price, I think. It was a bit hard to mingle with the guests when you feel like you’re really underdressed and look like someone who’s just lost his way and just by chance stumbled into the National Theatre. But I started talking to the photographer of the Film Festival, who was a very tall and friendly man. He showed me some of his photos that he had taken during the Two Steps From Hell concert, and they looked amazing. After our chat, I went to find my spot on the balcony. The reason why my ticket was so cheap, and I knew this in advance, was that my view was partly blocked by one of the pillars in front of me. But when the concert had just started, my neighbors to my left still had not showed up. So I took the liberty of taking their seats and ended up having a perfect view during the entire concert. The concert was beautiful, though maybe a bit long. When the concert was finished I went to have some drinks with my new friend Marcos from Brazil. We had some beer and nachos and on his advice I took a typical Brazilian cocktail: Caipirinha. I stayed up all night, since I had not booked another night at my hostel.

When I arrived at my previous hostel very early in the morning (my bag was still there) I took a nap and later had a shower. One last time I walked around the beautiful cobblestone streets of Prague and enjoyed the smell of cinnamon that you can smell everywhere. For an hour or so the weather got really stormy with wind, rain and lightning. But then the weather got back to normal and everything smelled refreshed. That evening I left Prague and went to Tabor, my next destination and the first town to visit during my journey through Bohemia. . .