Tours

I woke up around 10 to see Jacquelyn getting ready to leave. She was going to do a free city tour, and after feeling extremely unproductive with our aimless and uneducated walking the last couple of days, I jumped out of bed and said I'd come with. We haven't done any free walking tours this whole trip, but Prague has a lot of interesting history that I know next to nothing about. Laura woke up and originally didn't want to come, but when I asked her how we should meet up later in the day, she said she'd just come along as well. We got ready in a record 15 minutes and were out the door.

There were two city tours, one at 11 and one at 11:45. We were trying to make the 11 AM tour, but Leah had actually recommended the 11:45 tour. Turns out we got a little lost and completely missed the 11 AM tour anyway, but were right on time for the 11:45 tour. The tour guide's name was Keith and he was hilarious. Probably one of the best tour guides I've ever had. The group started off huge, but people dropped off and there was a core group of probably around 20 people. He told us tons of interesting facts, stories, and legends. There were legends for everything!

I'm going to write out what I can remember learning from Keith's city tour so that I don't forget. Feel free to skip down if you don't want to learn about Prague...

ASTRONOMICAL CLOCK TOWER - This was where the tour started. The Astronomical Clock Tower is one of the huge landmarks in the Old Town Square. There are two clocks, and they are both gorgeous. The higher clock on the building has a large navy blue outer ring numbered one thru 24. Inside it's numbered one thru 12 twice in roman numerals. There's a smaller disc on the face of the clock that shows each of the astrological zodiac signs. There are also sun and mood hands that show which phases they are in. So this clock says a ton, if you can figure out how to read it. On either side of the clock are representations of things that people are scared of. The left side has two figures, one for vanity (holding a mirror) and one for greed (holding a bag of money). The right side also has two figures, one for death (a skeleton holding a bell to 'call your time'), and one for Turks (a man in a turban; they were scared of people coming in from the East bringing different cultures, customs, languages, and invading in general). Interesting that the things people were scared of in the 14th century aren't so different from what people are scared of now. Below this whole clock is another circular face which almost looks like a spinning wheel at a fair where you win whatever the hand lands on. However, this clock is a name clock, and it's out ring is divided into 365 slots. Each 'day' has a list of names. In the Czech Republic, you have to pick a name for your kid off of this clock. If you don't want to name it something on the name clock, you have to get special permission from the government! Then, in the Czech Republic, birthdays are a not a big deal. Contrary to the US, it's expected that you get flowers/candy/etc for the people you love on your birthday. So our tour guide was joking that instead of saying, "it's my birthday next week!" people here say, "oh, yeah it was my birthday yesterday; sorry, forgot to tell you." Haha. Anyway, since birthdays aren't such a big deal, name days are what get celebrated. So you could be born on January 5th and have a name in the May 20th name clock slot, and May 20th is what you celebrate, along with everybody else named from that slot (each slot has multiple names to choose from). Crazy! I had no idea something that like existed and was practiced, but it's kind of a neat idea, but very restrictive though...

MUSIC HALL - I totally forget the name of this building, but it's the last standing building that Mozart himself actually conducted in. All the other ones have been either torn down or bombed. So that's a cool claim to fame for Prague!

POWDER GATE - The Powder Gate is the last gate still standing that used to protect the old city. There used to be I think 16 total, but the other 15 were all torn down. Which is really sad, because the towers are so pretty! Prague is called 'Golden Prague' because much of its architecture has gold figurines on the buildings. The tower is right next to the building that Vin Diesel ate at during filming XXX and the main Czech bank is across the street. On the top of the bank is a huge lion statue with a man riding it holding a torch. This is the lion the sniper in XXX was hiding behind. Useless, since I haven't seen the movie, but if I ever do watch it, I'll be able to say I was there! The bank is also cool because vaults in the basement hold the majority of Czech's gold. A little weird to be standing right next to where most of a country's money is...

The tour took a break at a pizza place, and since I didn't quite feel like myself talking with Jacquelyn and Laura I spent most of lunch turned around listening to Keith chat with other tourists from Argentina and Mexico. I also didn't hear an accent with Keith, so I again figured he was from the west coast/Seattle. Guess what? He spent 6 months of the year in California, and the other 6 months of a the year in the Northgate/Ballard area. BINGO! I felt like a genious again! Well, now though he lives in the Czech Republic because he fell in love with a girl. We keep hearing these cross continental love stories! And both times it has been the American moving to Europe :) Haha.

I spent some time chatting with Keith after lunch which was fun, he seemed like a really cool guy; and it's nice to chat with somebody in Prague that's familiar with my university stomping grounds. You say UW and he says, "Oh yeah, the Ave and 45th!" which kind of sounds musical coming from a stranger halfway around the world. Through the first part of the tour, I hadn't really seen Laura and Jacquelyn separate from each others' sides at all, and for some reason having a conversation with both of them at the same time seemed more difficult and less fun than usual. There's no point in staying around that if you don't have to. There were tons of people on the tour our age, so if I was the one not immensely enjoying myself around them, then I realized it was my prerogative to change that by meeting other people. It's not like I was only allowed to talk to them or something, just because I'd come on the tour with them. With this liberating realization, I decided to start doing my own thing and go talk to somebody else. I made the scary leap again and introduced myself to somebody also walking alone close by to me. And, once again, this absolutely turned out for the best! I just so happened to meet a really nice girl named Nicole from California studying abroad in Berlin. I told her we were going to Berlin next and she started bubbling with things to tell me about the city, places to go, etc, and offered to write them all down for me. SCORE!!! People-recommendations are the best! I ended up talking to her in between learning about Prague for the next couple of hours, for a few minutes at a time in between all the tour-guided-destinations. It seems like we had a lot in common and it was really easy to keep a conversation going with her (I love those kind of people). At one point she said she wanted to plan a trip sometime based solely on what activities there were to do outdoors, and....cuisine. And that's when I knew that I had found a very good person to talk to for a couple of hours!! :)

FRANZ KAFKA - We stopped at a statue of Franz Kafka next. I felt like an idiot because I haven't read any of his works and I know he's famous but couldn't tell you why. The statue was of a headless and neck-less man with Kafka sitting on his shoulders. Not sure if I remember this correctly, but I think Kafka had a dream about this character, and in his dream, got on the headless man's shoulder to help guide him around. But the headless man doesn't have ears or eyes obviously so it's a very surrealistic statue. Reminded me of the good ol' magical realism days of high school. Keith also told us about how Kafka was (another) artist who only became famous after he died. He had tuberculosis and knew he was going to die soon, so he gave all of his works to his best friend and told him to never publish them, even after he died. But of course once he died, his friend read everything and decided to publish all of it! Great friend!

JEWISH QUARTER - First we saw the Spanish Synagogue, which was interesting because it is a synagogue but it was built in Moorish architecture. Prague officials used to only let Jewish people live in the Jewish quarter, so I guess the Jewish and Christian people didn't get along that well; but the Moors were being really nice to Jews so they built a synagogue in the Moorish style as a way of saying thanks. Also, a lot of people ask why the Jewish Quarter is even still around (and so beautifully preserved), they don't get how it survived WWII. Turns out that Hitler loved Prague, and thought it was a beautiful city. He thought the Jewish Quarter was a perfect example of how Jews used to live, so he specifically chose to keep it completely intact, with the goal of turning it into a museum after the war to show how an extinct race used to live. Gross. There's also the Old-New synagogue in this quarter. The funny story here is that it's a really old synagogue made with bricks from something famous in Jerusalem (original temple? I don't remember). When the Messiah returns to earth, the synagogue will be destroyed and the bricks will be returned to Jerusalem. So it's name "al-tnieu" I think is Hebrew for "on condition of", because it's only going to be a synagogue on condition of the Messiah not returning to earth...But, in German, "al-tnieu" sounds like "alt-nieu" which means Old-New. So it's called the Old-New Synagogue, but that's not it's real name, that's its lost in translation name! Pretty funny. A legend about this synagogue is that there is a golum (not the LOTR one) that lives in the attic. Legend has it that an SS officer didn't believe this, and went up to the attic to try and prove everybody wrong...and he never returned...Behind the synagogue is a Jewish clock which instead of numbers has the first 12 Jewish characters (aleph, bet, etc) and is read from right to left. Not to be used for timekeeping by the untrained eye! Also close by to this is a super old Jewish cemetery. When it started filling up with people back in the day, the Jewish people asked the Prague officials for more land to bury their dead. Prague officials said, "no way." So the Jews began stacking their dead, separated by a thin layer of dirt. A little gory, for some reason I feel like dead people deserve their space. Anyway, the head stones in the cemetery are all different heights, because of all the stacking. So where a head stone is almost covered, it means a lot more people are buried underneath it. The more of the headstone you can see, the less people are buried there. They would sometimes stack people as much as 12 high, and there are around 100,000 people buried in this tiny, unnaturally hilly cemetery.

MUSIC HALL - I totally forget the name of this building as well, but I think it's the Ruldofinium. It's supposed to be the building with the best acoustics in the world. Lots of philharmonic and other concerts are held there. Annnd the funny story with this one involves all the statues of people that line the roof. There are 12 statues I think. During WWII, Hitler told somebody to go up to the roof and knock down Mendelssohn. The officer didn't know which one Mendelssohn was, and the statues weren't labeled. Somebody told him to go knock down the one with the biggest nose. He did and it smashed to the ground. Turned out it was Richard Wagner that he pushed off the building though, who happened to be Hitler's favorite composer!

With that, the city tour came to a close and it was around 2 PM. I had found out at the lunch break that Keith leads another free tour called the castle tour starting at 3. I really liked Keith, had (obviously) been learning a lot, and was having a great time chatting with Nicole. So I told Laura and Jackie that I was going to hang out until three and then go on Keith's other tour and they were more than welcome to join me if they wanted. They also liked the tour and it's not like we had anything else to do, so they said they'd come along too.

An hour later, everybody rendezvoused at the "meeting point" in the Old Town Square. We were Keith's posse for the day - the three of us and Nicole and her 9 other friends who were all studying in Berlin together. Maybe a few other people came along, but it was pretty much that group of around 15 people.

So, onwards to what I learned on the castle tour!

CHARLES BRIDGE - The Charles Bridge was the first bridge to connect both sides of the river that runs through Prague. It had been built a couple of times before this current bridge, but it has always fallen down. So Prague really needed a bridge, and it decided to use an anagram for good luck or something. So the bridge began construction on 1357, in September (9), on the 7th day, at 5:31 PM. And somehow - this worked! The bridge is still standing. There was an old myth that the construction workers used eggs to help the cement mixture stay together and be strong. A while ago, a sample of the concrete was actually taken in to be analyzed - and they found egg proteins! Eggs are so cool. Their uses never cease to amaze me. The Charles Bridge is lined with Catholic statues, the most famous of which is St. John who was a priest at the St. Vitus Cathedral which is connected to the castle. He got thrown off the bridge for not telling the King what the King's wife had confessed to him. Bummer.

CASTLE GARDENS - There are some gorgeous gardens at the base of the castle that we had looked for yesterday but didn't find. That was our first stop. Within the gardens are fake stalagmite. Why? Because the King wanted some fake stalagmites in his garden! Really weird. They're dark and pretty ugly. There are some faces also built into the wall of fake stalagmites, which is also really weird. Next to this wall is the King's personal aviary...Then there's a covered area filled with paintings in which the King in the hero in every scene. We had been told to keep an eye out for peacocks, and I turned around in this under cover area to find an ALBINO peacock just hanging out on a ledge. Really bizarre! Usually you freaking know it's a peacock because they're so colorful, but this thing was pure white, all over. And he just sat there very nicely while we all gawked and took pictures.

KAPUCIN ABBEY - This was a building used by monks that were known for wearing their cloaks' hoods. In Czech, the word for hooded is something like Kapucin (kap-a-cheen) and somehow the word cappuccino is derived from this. This building was also really interesting because there are little black things in the wall...which we learned are cannon balls! In the walls! What? I think they were put there on purpose, but I'm a little confused about why.

CHANGING OF THE GUARDS - This was way less eventful than in London or somewhere else, but still cool to see. Walking through the gate that the guards stand at, there is a sign inscripted with the dates the castle was built and dedicated to the King or somebody at the time. The builders asked for more money to finish the castle, and the King said no. So on the inscription, they misspelled "year" which in Latin is "anno" but they spelled it "ano" which means "ass." That was their way of getting back at the King for not giving them more money! And nobody noticed this error until fairly recently; what a funny thing to discover!

ST. VITUS CATHEDRAL - When talking to Keith at lunch, I was asking about good rainy-day things to do after the city tour. He asked if I had been to the cathedral yet and I said that the line was so ridiculously long yesterday that no, I hadn't gone in. He said that was a must. So here I was again. Sure enough, due to the weather or some other reason there was absolutely no line. On the outside of the cathedral, Keith showed us where the architects had built themselves into the decor of the cathedral. There are two sets of men in business suits on the face of this amazing cathedral. It was the architects' way of congratulating themselves. I've definitely never seen people in business suits carved on to an ornate religious building before...the first set of men are the architects looking over plans, and the second set are the same architects patting each other on the back and holding a miniature model of the cathedral! Pretty funny. This cathedral is MASSIVE. I've seen so many churches and cathedrals, but this one was really pretty. The stained glass was gorgeous and it was very ornate. They have a whole huge tribute to St. John (the one that got thrown off the bridge), but the only remains they somehow have is his tongue? But it's a huge, silver and gold decorated display. The other unique part of this cathedral is that it has a jewel room. The walls are lined with semi-precious stones, and then there is a door with 7 locks. Seven different people have one lock each. Behind the door are the crown jewels. That room was really cool.

STATUE OF YOUTH - So this is really funny. The statue of youth is a naked boy but his penis is gold from tourists rubbing it. Which is hilarious. Apparently though when the statue was unveiled, it was in communist times and the communists didn't want a naked boy displayed, so they made the artist take off the whole thing. Then the people protested - like really, all out protested - and finally the communist government agreed and had the sculptor reattach the little penis. Rubbing it apparently is supposed to bring good luck to your relationship. This was one of the more funny status I have seen!

Through the second half of the tour, Jackie had come up to talk with Nicole and me which was really fun. She seemed a little bit more open or more interested in conversing at least. I really enjoyed getting a chance to talk with her, she has tons of crazy stories and really loves to tell about her traveling adventures. It's always fun to compare and contrast. I also noticed Laura talking with one of Nicole's friends, so it was nice to see all of us branching out a little bit. At the end of the tour, I got Nicole's contact information and we were hoping to meet up with their group either later in Prague or hanging out with her when we're in Berlin in a few days! So yay for new random friends!

MONK BREWERY - After the tour, we went back to a place Keith told us was where monks brewed beer. You can pretty much only get this beer at the castle, so we sat and drank some monk beer. I also got onion soup with cheese toast in it, which was wonderful on a cold day!

We came down from the castle and Jacquelyn went back to Leah's to get her stuff (she was taking an overnight bus). Laura and I went to a black light theatre show, which is something Prague is supposedly well known for. It was the weirdest show I've ever seen. There were no words, just dancers/actors, random props, and music and the black lights. It was a cool idea, the black lights would be different colors and have weird effects on the props. Other actors were wearing all black so they were on stage but you couldn't really see them, just the props 'floating', and things like that. But I didn't realize it was going to be telling a story - I thought it was just going to be a show. It was really difficult to follow though, it seemed like some kind of dream sequence but honestly I had no freaking clue what was going on. At the end of the show though everybody else clapped and cheered quite a lot so I guess it was good? I left feeling very confused about why I just spend $20 on that...

It had been cold and gloomy all day and I'd seen the street sellers selling not only sausages but mulled wine! On the street! Where else in the world can you buy mulled wine off the street? It was glorious. I sipped on that as we waited for Jackie to meet back up with us. After I was done, I totally caved and got a street sausage for a late dinner. It was amazing, and it was only $2. While we ate, we watched the people who were already drunk at 10 PM hanging out in the main square. The best was this group of middle aged drunk women, one of which started pole dancing on a street pole. Never thought I would see that in this lifetime.

When Jackie met up with us, she only had about an hour to kill before leaving for her bus. We went back to the bar that Leah took us to a couple nights ago (the Ropemaker's Wife) and each ordered a small glass of Pilsner Urquell. That is the famous beer here because a Czech person was the first person to ever filter beer and make a light pilsner. However, I don't like light beers that much but I still felt like I had to try it. Hence, I suffered through that small terrible glass.

When Jackie left, Laura and I decided to head home. That was a great decision; we'd been walking for like 7 or 8 hours in the cold and rain so it had been a really long day. But at least it was productive :)


Quotes:
"It's probably more worth it if you just turn around and take a picture of everybody's face that will all have the same expression of, 'What? Really, that's it?'" - Keith, about how anti-climactic watching the hourly performance at the Astronomical Clock Tower.

Accomplishments:
Learned SO much about Prague.
Made a new friend!

Travel Tip:
Don't be scared to talk to new people.