Art Nouveau/Deco building in New Town. Was controversial at time of building.
"The Bridge": Karlov Most in Czech, complete with statues, stalls, buskers...
The City Hall: where Jan has a desk.Well, I'll start with something immediately funny, went to sign into blogger and the page is in russian, so I can't read it but by now know what button does what, kind of funny, hey?
Wednesday
Afternoon and evening wandering around Stare Mesto (old town) with no particular destination in mind, ended up in Wenceslas Square, Old Town Square and outside the birthplace of Franz Kafka (the pilgrimmage begins!). I then took a tram ride by the river Vlatava and then back into town. Then home via Tesco and shoe shops (no Ferragamos available in Prague suburban shops). The most you'd pay for regular (ie not imported sneakers) shoes is about $80, but can get then as low as $10 - and they don't look really cheap and nasty either.
Thursday
Unexcetional morning. Afternoon I go into town but it takes longer because of traffic. Get a txt from Jan asking if I want to meet up for a drink or dinner. Finally make it to Musek train station and find my way to the museum of communism. 180 kc to get in...
I am greeted by statues of Lenin and Marx and all manner of communist paraphernalia. I am starting to get a feeling for just how different their lives were and how by emigrating to Australia my grandparents and father led completely different lives to what they would have had if they had stayed, and survived. Jan has started to tell me a bit about communist times, but there is a lot more to learn. Living in an old communist apartment building (like I am now) gives you the feeling a bit too. The Czech Republic now is a long way from communism (in Prague at least), longer away from the war years and forever away from the time of the austro-hungarian empire that my grandmother always raved about (even though she wasn't alive then). It is hard to get a feeling for it because things and people here are different now.
As I move through the museum there is a board that draws my attention entitled "Chemical Warfare". It shows pictires of 2 women getting ino spacesuits and pictures odf other people in said suits with gas masks. But it is the wording of the accompanying text that really gets me thinking:
"War hysteria, amongst other measures, served to frighten the population through civil defense drills in factories and other locations. From the point of view of propaganda the most powerful tool was the exercise of defense against weapons of mass destruction. Thwe instructors painted an image of perverted enemies who wouldn't stop short of dropping atomic bombs on schools and hospitals, spread epidemics of deadly diseases, and pollute the atmosphere with poisonous gases or contaminate the drnking water. The horrific appearance of gas masks and other means of anti-chemical warfareplayed on the public imagination of an apocalypse supposedly in prepartion by western powers against communist regimes."
This of course brings to mind various subsequent and recent strategies, ideas of history repeating itself and knowing the past and seeing the future. Seeing those words sets off alarm bells and makes me reflect on the impact political alliances have on populations in times of war and of peace.
I move through to the "interrogation room" and it doesn't really affect me. In 1999 I visited the stasi museum in Leipzig - a far more chilling recreation in part because it is in buildings that were used by the stasi. NB Stasi museum is mentioned in Anna Funder(sp?)'s book "Stasiland".
The exhibition concludes with boards describing the Prague Spring and Velvet Revolution.
Jan txts again and we meet up outside one of his offices - at the Prague City Hall (he works for the councillor for social justice obtaining EU funding for projects in Prague). We walk a bit then his girlfriend Martina joins us and takes over from Jan as tour guide. We walk around the town square and then through Josefov (the jewish quarter) with Martina's expert commentary in English all the way. J ansd M talk to each other in Czech a bit but mostly in English. Martina also studied Deutsch and says so we could also speak German, and Jan (who "only" speaks Czech, English and French) says, English is a nice language...
Martina goes to meet a friend and Jan takes over tour guide duties as we stroll by the Charles University Law Faculty (nicer looking than USyd or Mac - no way!!!), then by the river and around new Nove Mesto a bit to U Pinkasu (the house of Pinkas). This is the first Prague opub that served Pilsener Urquell, back in 1843 - it was 1st brewed in 1842 in Plsen. So that is what we drink, naturally. I eat a salad and Jan a sausage and mash. We part and I get home about 11pm.
Wednesday
Afternoon and evening wandering around Stare Mesto (old town) with no particular destination in mind, ended up in Wenceslas Square, Old Town Square and outside the birthplace of Franz Kafka (the pilgrimmage begins!). I then took a tram ride by the river Vlatava and then back into town. Then home via Tesco and shoe shops (no Ferragamos available in Prague suburban shops). The most you'd pay for regular (ie not imported sneakers) shoes is about $80, but can get then as low as $10 - and they don't look really cheap and nasty either.
Thursday
Unexcetional morning. Afternoon I go into town but it takes longer because of traffic. Get a txt from Jan asking if I want to meet up for a drink or dinner. Finally make it to Musek train station and find my way to the museum of communism. 180 kc to get in...
I am greeted by statues of Lenin and Marx and all manner of communist paraphernalia. I am starting to get a feeling for just how different their lives were and how by emigrating to Australia my grandparents and father led completely different lives to what they would have had if they had stayed, and survived. Jan has started to tell me a bit about communist times, but there is a lot more to learn. Living in an old communist apartment building (like I am now) gives you the feeling a bit too. The Czech Republic now is a long way from communism (in Prague at least), longer away from the war years and forever away from the time of the austro-hungarian empire that my grandmother always raved about (even though she wasn't alive then). It is hard to get a feeling for it because things and people here are different now.
As I move through the museum there is a board that draws my attention entitled "Chemical Warfare". It shows pictires of 2 women getting ino spacesuits and pictures odf other people in said suits with gas masks. But it is the wording of the accompanying text that really gets me thinking:
"War hysteria, amongst other measures, served to frighten the population through civil defense drills in factories and other locations. From the point of view of propaganda the most powerful tool was the exercise of defense against weapons of mass destruction. Thwe instructors painted an image of perverted enemies who wouldn't stop short of dropping atomic bombs on schools and hospitals, spread epidemics of deadly diseases, and pollute the atmosphere with poisonous gases or contaminate the drnking water. The horrific appearance of gas masks and other means of anti-chemical warfareplayed on the public imagination of an apocalypse supposedly in prepartion by western powers against communist regimes."
This of course brings to mind various subsequent and recent strategies, ideas of history repeating itself and knowing the past and seeing the future. Seeing those words sets off alarm bells and makes me reflect on the impact political alliances have on populations in times of war and of peace.
I move through to the "interrogation room" and it doesn't really affect me. In 1999 I visited the stasi museum in Leipzig - a far more chilling recreation in part because it is in buildings that were used by the stasi. NB Stasi museum is mentioned in Anna Funder(sp?)'s book "Stasiland".
The exhibition concludes with boards describing the Prague Spring and Velvet Revolution.
Jan txts again and we meet up outside one of his offices - at the Prague City Hall (he works for the councillor for social justice obtaining EU funding for projects in Prague). We walk a bit then his girlfriend Martina joins us and takes over from Jan as tour guide. We walk around the town square and then through Josefov (the jewish quarter) with Martina's expert commentary in English all the way. J ansd M talk to each other in Czech a bit but mostly in English. Martina also studied Deutsch and says so we could also speak German, and Jan (who "only" speaks Czech, English and French) says, English is a nice language...
Martina goes to meet a friend and Jan takes over tour guide duties as we stroll by the Charles University Law Faculty (nicer looking than USyd or Mac - no way!!!), then by the river and around new Nove Mesto a bit to U Pinkasu (the house of Pinkas). This is the first Prague opub that served Pilsener Urquell, back in 1843 - it was 1st brewed in 1842 in Plsen. So that is what we drink, naturally. I eat a salad and Jan a sausage and mash. We part and I get home about 11pm.
