Prague, Czech Republic: Day 11

After two nights in our large double room at the guest house, we had to move to a single with a double bed in it. When we made our reservations 2 months ago, we knew that this would have to be the arrangement since Guesthouse Lida was already pretty booked up. So we got our bags ready to be moved and headed out on the town. Our plan was to stay on the east side of the river and to tour the Old Town and New Town quarters.

We started by heading to the Old Town Square to watch the astronomical clock strike the hour (and to watch all the tourists go crazy during it- clapping and cheering…). We had a book that guided us through the different periods of architecture that we were looking at in the square, the history behind the statue of Jan Hus (that rabble rousing protestant from centuries ago), and the history of the Gothic Tyn Church (pronounced TEEN) on the square. The square was beautiful. Prague is so historic (being one of few countries not damaged by bombs of WWII), it has some of the oldest buildings in Western Europe along with examples of gothic, baroque, rococo, and art deco right next door to each other. It seemed like every where we turned there was something else that was very picturesque and that makes everyone “love Prague”- by far the most gushed about city, in my experience.

We slowly wandered down to the new town area- as the winding streets of Old Town lead you in that general direction- and found a bit of relief from mobs of tourists. We went to the expensive, but very worth it, Communism museum (very few tourists). We probably spent 2 solid hours there, looking at the artifacts and doing a lot of reading of the English guide signs. I am tempted to say it was my favorite thing in Prague overall. It was so informative, historical, and made me think a lot about what it means to Czechs to finally have freedom after 45 years of repressive, totalitarian rule from the Soviets. (Czechoslovakia was only free to make their own government once before in the last 300 years- between the fall of the Hapsburg Empire after WWI and the invaision of Hitler in 1939).

After the museum it was very fitting to head over to King Wenceslas Square- where the "Prague Spring" protests of 1968 occurred, and then where the Velvet revolution took place, which lead to the fall of the communist puppet government in 1989. We even got a chance to see the National Museum pillars where communist bullets hit during the Prague Spring revolts, that were purposely filled with a different color to never truly “cover up” what happened in the square. It was very touching, and very inspiring to be there and to see so much recent history.

The country is clearly still touched by the Soviets in many ways- the tram and metro system, as well as many very ugly and functional buildings from the 1970s. I think of DocMI who was there 10 years ago while we were in college and wonder how much it has even changed since then. Fascinating.

After an outdoor café for lunch, we headed over to the Mucha Museum. Mucha, a native, was a famous art nouveau graphic designer and artist in Paris and the U.S. a little after the turn of the century. A lot of his works, especially advertisements, were on display along with a video about his life. He was a firm believer in the Czechoslovakia’s national identity and design money and paintings in support of the new country after WWI. Sadly he died right after Hitler’s invaision, seeing his country’s dream squashed by the Nazis.

We returned to Old Town Square in the late afternoon to walk down the “Parisian Street” that is tree-lined and does look a lot like Paris. I remarked to husband that it is indeed much like Paris- snotty and pretentious- all the high end stores like Hermes, Chanel, and many other luxury names have all taken up residence there. Capitalism has definitely taken over, it is on that street that you see the high end visitors of Prague, in all of their glossy, shiny glory.

Tuesday evening we returned to the Castle quarter to see a few sights without the help of all the tourists that leave around 5 pm. (The huge masses of tourists killed my traveling excitement in Prague to a certain extent) We went to an area called the Golden Lane, which are tiny houses built into the castle walls that have existed since the 1500’s. This area is charged for during the day, but not in the evenings (and it is good since husband and I agreed it is worth about 5 cents and no more). The Castle and surrounding churches and smaller castles were pretty in the fading daylight, as was the Charles’ bridge.

Our Chili Beef Goulash that night at Josefina’s was authentic, but left us both ready for the nice fruits and vegetables of Denmark and other destinations. But at the end of a long day of walking, it was great to just be fed. We returned to the guesthouse in time to wash some clothes in the sink and fall in to bed in our new tiny, tiny, but workable room with wet clothes hanging from the skylight above us.