Off the Map

An account of New Years in Prague

[Ed. Below this post are links to photos from this expedition, and farther below is a post about travels in the Black Forest]

Prague: A more romantic, historically and culturally engaging Eastern European city I could not imagine. And during New Years to boot.

Accompanied by 3 of my closest friends (Shout out to Justin, Michael and Alaina!) and armed with train and youth hostel reservations, I set off for a land outside all travel and language experience (Czech is an interesting language - at once silly and harsh). Prague was much extolled by Americans and Germans alike before our departure, and as such had great expectation to fulfill. Allow me to say: We were not disappointed.

Actually, I suppose I was a disappointed not to have to trench thru 3 feet of snow in -20 degrees during one of their legendary bouts of Russian-style weather. Ummm... on second thought, no, I'm not. Winters can be harsh enough that the city Trollys actually have heated seats... For those of you perpetually curious about the weather, we were very lucky indeed! It was rather balmy (by Prague standards), and we even had 2 days of sunshine! It was surprisingly warmer in Prague than my home, Regensburg, when we left! Of course such luck biases my views of the city, but what can one do?

We managed to pop our heads in a couple of museums while there. One focused on the history of the Czech Republic and their geographic surrounds - both from a natural and human standpoint. Rather interesting to see how the area was first inhabited, but not so engaging as the National Art museum's exhibit of Modern Czech Art. The exhibit was actually only one man's work, but he's prolific enough for it not to matter. Visitors were engaged by a staggering variety of displays, from painting to wood sculpture, which recreated commonplace objects with alternative means. As the gallery summary stated, it was a challenge to perspectives ordinarily taken for granted.

Prague has a history of surrender. Almost every time an enemy gets near the gates, that's it. They give up and wait it out. Most recently with the Nazis in WW2 and the Soviets shortly thereafter. Fortunately for the denizens, both forces turned out to be temporary. Though one may argue the citizens of Prague are pansies, they have one up. I imagine its one of the largest cities in Central/Eastern Europe relatively untouched by war. This means the buildings are beautiful! The palace surrounding the town's main Cathedral is particularly breathtaking.

Prague has bagels (Germany does not). Prague has 12%, finely-crafted beer for under a Euro (all Pils beers worldwide originated from Plzen, CZ, 30 from Prague). Prague has gourmet meals for $5 US (accounting for exchange rate). Prague has absinthe. Prague has lots of dance clubs (www.mecca.cz - where we partied the night after New Years, and were heavily photographed by the resident photo-man), and plenty of bars. Prague has open and friendly people - people who come up to you in the street unrequested and offer their help in perfect English. Prague has wide streets (for a Euro city). Prague has three natural beauties: its expansive, hilly parks; the wide and pretty Vltava river; and the gorgeous, self-comfortable women.

I'm sure you've all heard the horror stories about the Prague Pickpockets. They are true - a girl in our hostel room had some money nipped from a purse hanging under her coat - though we managed to escape unscathed, thankfully. We were, however, sitting one lovely evening in one of the aformentioned parks, determining our dinner destination, when a disheveled Czech, perhaps 40, walked up to our bench and stood over us. We discerned that he was indeed crazy after asking him a number of questions that spurred no physical or vocal response. We promptly got up from the bench and walked to the busy, well lit street. He followed. We crossed the road. He followed. We walked by other people. He followed. After a brilliant suggestion from a well-trained Alaina, we ducked into a Cafe and waited him out (he eventually wandered off somewhere else - probably mumbling incoherently to himself in the process). But please don't let such creepy tales deter you from a visit!

New Years itself was off the hook. Straight up. We spent the evening on Charles Bridge, over the Vltava, but were far from the only ones. There must have been a million people packed into the old city and concurrent bridges that evening. People from every nationality, race, religion, language, age and socio-econ class. We were fortunate to snag a prime location on the bridge - and when the clock hit 12 ... whizbangbangpopwhirrkapow!!! During the next half an hour no matter where you looked, be it the hills, downtown, or the river, fireworks were going off like the 4th of July. On either side of the bridge were boats shooting fireworks over our heads (I was shaking out ash from my hair for hours). As if this weren't enough, the people on the bridge were simultaneously popping bubbly and shooting rockets off over our heads. Completely insane. But the most memorable scene of the evening was watching fireworks exploding right next to the illuminated, classic buildings of the Old City while ecstatic crowds packed around me joined together in celebratory and spontaneous song.

posted by Jason @ 8:17 pm