Praha! Ha!

Over the weekend, I went to Prague.

It. Was. Fabulous.

Here's the story: I was getting sick of Amstetten. I figured, what the hell, I will look up hostels in Prague and see what the rates are. I will look up train tickets for Prague and see what the rates are. I need to get out of Austria for a weekend and have a little FUN while I'm in Europe - not that Austria is not fun! But when I get the travel bug, I can't help myself.

 So, I send out an email to the other TAs in Austria to see if anyone wants to come with. In the meantime, I book a bed in the hostel for 3 nights. No one gets back to me. I sit around twiddling my thumbs thinking, "Oh crap. I will have to go to Prague on my own because no one wants to go with me...maybe they all think I'm crazy? Maybe no one wants to travel with someone they don't know..." etc. But, finally, Joyna emails me back, and we set our plans to travel to Prague together!

 My first thought was - "Awesome! Someone to travel with!" And my second thought was, "I have no idea who Joyna is! What if we don't get along at all? Will we like each other? Will this weekend suck?" And, fortunately, we got along like a house on fire. It was great - almost...meant to be. We agreed on everything, didn't quarrel or have problems wandering around (and getting lost) in a country where we don't know the language.

The National Museum

The Astronomical Clock - it turns 600 this year!

Astronomical Clock tower

awesome building on Old Town Square

 We ended up taking a free walking tour of the city on Sunday. It was really great because 1) we got to see a lot of the city, 2) it was FREE 3) the weather was great and 4) our tour guide (Mark) reminded me of one of the characters Callie and I created together (Martin). This guy (an actor) who follows a girl to Paris, and ends up having random adventures because, basically, he has no inhibitions and can make friends with a brick wall...Mark has been in Prague for 6 years trying to break into acting (the English-speaking ex-pat community in Prague). Interesting, no? By the way, I am not making this up! Sometimes reality is too good for fiction.

Restaurant U Bulinu - the owner's family has a genetic condition that causes horns to grow...

Joyna waiting for our food :)

some Gothic church - there's practically one on every corner in Prague!

statue to some martyred saint

Don Giovanni premiered here 

The last standing theater where Mozart played!!!

Legend has it that when Don Giovanni premiered at this theater, Casanova himself - as an old man - sat in the audience and watched a fictionalized version of his womanizing as a young man! That's pretty damn cool, eh? Also, Amadeus was filmed in part here, and in other areas around Prague (although it was supposed to take place in Vienna). Our tour guide has sort of an obsession with the film, but I don't really care for it (and would never endorse it - the direction sucked and there were too many damn accents, which totally pisses me off in movies)...nevertheless, I adore Mozart. There was a little squealing and jumping up and down when we got to this theater - which is still used as a theater, by the way! WOWIE!





<-- this is the tower at Charles Bridge (Karluv Most)

Funny story about the bridge. It was originally made of wood and collapsed in the 14th century. So, Charles IV, the emperor of Bohemia, told his royal engineers to fix it. Legend has it that they mixed eggs in with the cement (sort of the same chemical concept as baking a cake). This seems to have worked, because the bridge is still standing! Also, scientists recently took a sample of the bridge to test this legend...and discovered chicken embryos in the concrete! I guess the engineers were on to something...

And from there, we walked to the Jewish Quarter, where there are a number of synagogues and (according to legend) the Golem. I read Meyrink's The Golem and saw the silent film for one of my German classes, and I totally love the legend of the Golem.

In the 1500s the Holy Roman Emperor was terrorizing the Jews of Prague (not necessarily a new thing, even at this point...) and so a rabbi called upon God/his rabbinical powers/the Kabbalah and created this form of a giant, powerful thing - the Golem - out of clay to help him rescue the Jews of Prague from persecution. He breathed life into the Golem, and the Golem protected the Jews...very cool.

There is also a klezmer band based in NYC called Golem!

Spanish Synagogue

"Darling - I'll call you later"

Old Town Sqaure

Various views of the Prague castle: 

And...views from the Charles Bridge:

me in front of bridge

me on bridge

another view from the bridge

guy playing music from Evita on water glasses 

Joyna in front of hilariously proportioned door

opera house at night

guy on top of tower blowing horn at the hour

inside St. Nicholas Church

outside St. Nicholas

St. Nick's from afar

AND...PRAGUE CASTLE! Inside, that is...

courtyard

St. Vitus cathedral

rose window

inside St. Vitus

Alfons Mucha stained glass window

other stained glass window...

back of St. Vitus

changing of the guard

engraved building

some monastery

...and...view of Prague from hill/monastery (where we ate dinner)