So This past weekend we had a trip to Prague in the Czech Republic and then to Dresden back in Germany. We arrived in Prague after about a 5 hour train ride. Prague is absolutely beautiful. Without a doubt my favorite city in Europe. Unfortunately Czech is the most screwed up language that we've encountered thus far. And not nearly enough people speak English for the tourist destination Prague is.
initially we walked around and just explored some the local works of Czech Cubism as direct reaction to the Modern Movement in the Czech Republic. Prague is a beautiful city because it is not the typical Roman city with temples and classical buildings nor is it the Gothic town with large cathedrals with spires and sharp edges. Prague is a purely medieval town. There is the Prague castle and tons of old medieval fragments from the bridges, tunnels and clock tower. When one walks through Prague all of the Orange roofs and old medieval buildings give this quaint feel to this bustling urban area. We were staying at the Czech Inn which is funny in itself. But it was a really nice place and probably the nicest hostel we've stayed in.
So Saturday morning it was up early for our 9 hour walking tour of Prague. It was a gorgeous day so it was spectacular. We walked all through the streets. Through tight alleys and wide green spaces. We eventually made it up to the Prague Castle which is more of a Baroque fortress but is beautiful anyway. Our tour guide Milosh (Me-low-sh) was very knowledgable and pretty much sounded like he was the original planner of the city. We walked down from the castle with the sun still beaming over toward the Lenon Wall. On the way I passed my first Lock Bridge and search frantically for a place with a lock that I could lock on there but to no avail. Just beyond that was the Lenon Wall. This amazing thing is a wall that was graffitied after John Lenon was shot with an anti communist message and has since become the only wall in Prague where you can legally graffiti and write whatever you want on it. There are layers upon layers of history on there. Right on the other side of the wall is where a tree where Mozart sat to compose some of his earlier music.Some of the other attractions we visited in Prague are St. Charles bridge the beautiful medieval bridge and the Dancing House by Frank Gehry. The it was time to experience Prague's nightlife. I'd relate here if I was legally allowed to but certain factors may prohibit me.
The Next morning it was up even earlier because we had a tour of Adolf Loos' Villa Müller. It was a pretty cool place although very boring from the outside. It was organized so that from the central stair you could see into all the rooms of the house at once. This technique is called Raumplan. After that I spent the afternoon searching for a padlock only to be alerted that it is padlock to lock it on the bridge without the other person there. So we all headed back to the Hostel and hopped a train to Dresden.
We got into Dresden late and went to grab some food then went over to a local Irish pub for some live Irish music, Guinness and Cider. After enjoying ourselves there it was off to bed to be up early especially since the clocks went ahead.
So the day in Dresden was led by our man Helmut. He took us all around the city and described us his time living in Dresden as a youngster. He recalled to us the first time he heard rock music since it was banned in East Germany. He said "it was better than the first sex, not that that's particularly good anyway but it was incredible to hear rock music." The rest of our day preceded seeing many of Dresden's church and other buildings that were destroyed by allied bombing or narrowly survived. It was at lunch that I was talking with Helmut about some of the communist era buildings and he said something very profound. We were talking about how these buildings were supposed to be "permanent" but he said "what is permanence in the scale of a few hundred years of the life of men". This resonated with me for a second and made me realize how special every opportunity I have and every person in my life is and how fast I could lose it all. Nothing is permanent but it doesn't matter as long as you enjoy the time you have. Our final stop in Dresden was a Synagogue built where one was burnt down by the Nazis on November 9th. It was a magnificent space but they did not have enough yarmulke for all the men so we had to walk in with scarves and handkerchiefs and anything else available on our heads. The space was very serene and perfect for contemplation. But we had no time as we had to run back to the HBF to catch our train back to Berlin.
We got in at 9:30 exhausted from a long and action packed weekend.
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