Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Done so much catching up today you'll have to click on 'older posts'
Just a warning to those who haven't logged on for a while... when you've read the posts you can see you'll need to click on 'older posts' to catch up all the latest entries... been a busy girl tonight... still got at least 6 more to catch up on and 5 to top up in Poland... jeeze... tomorrow night maybe...
Boys spin on Prague
Sunday morning activities for non-church goers seem to be common world-wide - throwing a line in and taking your wheels for a spin.
Wandering over Charles Bridge I spied these fishermen doing their best in what I can only imagine are heavily fished waters.
Wandering over Charles Bridge I spied these fishermen doing their best in what I can only imagine are heavily fished waters.
Competing for fish with the swans
Trying to earn petrol money hiring out the much malined soviet Skoda (other resourceful men were hiring out topless Bentleys) - How do you double the value of a Skoda? Fill it with petrol :) See the Czechs have an Australian sense of humour...
Orchestral concert in St Nicholas Church
One of those true tourist days part 2A - Saturday evening I finished my day attending a musical concert in the St Nicholas Church on the Old Town Square. Now in comparison to the Krakow Philharmonic they weren't great, but the acoustics were so good that the 8 piece group sounded pretty good. In fact when they dropped back to 5 pieces - 1st & 2nd violin, viola, cello and bass they sounded even better - the other three pieces were two extra violins and a baroque violin (looked and was played like a mandolin but had guitar like qualities). They played Handel, Bach, Vivaldi and Mozart. 8 pieces in all. The atmosphere of the guilded church and painted cupola full of angles certainly helped the impact!
St Nicholas Church exterior
St Nicholas Church interior (bit out of focus but best I could get)
Small chandelier in St Nicholas Church during concert
Architecture of Prague
Feast for the senses. Skip this post if you don't like buildings and designs. I love old and I love design. Australia is just so young...
Franz Kafka childhood home on Old Town Square
Giant metronome (more public art) in the Letna Gardens signifying the passage of time. It replaced a huge statue of Lenin
Parizska - Mayfair of Prague
Stuck my head through a doorway of a derelect building and wow!
The Castle by balloon
Charles Bridge from Old Town side of river
Old Town laneway
Castle from Manes Bridge
Rudolfinum Theatre
Park on the river with late roses
Astronomical Clock - Old Town Square
Church of Our Lady of Tyn (my hostel was in a lane under this)
The lane to my hostel
One of those true 'Tourist' days Pt2
Back to Saturday... left my introductory tour of Prague at the intersection of Charles University and Estates Theatre in the Old Town. I took so many photos of this scene. Day and night. Such a potentially beautiful scene but really hard to get the atmosphere and light right... Saw many people there with tripods so not just me... The theatre is the one Mozart premiered Don Giovanni in.
However, the real bonus for me was that the university had a photographic exhibition on profiling the student sit-ins of 1968 and 1989. One of their professors who was a keen amateur photographer with the confidence of the students took these records, hiding the exposed film and only exhibiting it now - confident at last that those in the pictures wouldn't be persecuted.
Very, very interesting and touching, disturbing. It is hard to describe the feelings these black and white images stired in my core. One that particularly moved me was one of young students 16 or 17yo surrounding Wenceslas statue demonstrating their solidarity against odds far beyond their influence. The contrast between their youthful, innocent faces and the reality of the odds of their battle brought a lump to my throat. Would I, as a teenager of that period, have had the maturity to act on my convictions if faced with such challenges and choices? I know I wouldn't have. Life in my teenage micro-environment was far too secure and protected to have developed such consciousness. Even those who marched against Joh's anti demonstration laws in the 70's faced little recourse compared to the truely life and death choices of these fresh faces.
On to more enjoyable and artistic persuits...
Next stop was the Museum of Czech Cubism in the House of the Black Madonna. Cubism seems to be a particularly popular genre in Prague. I remember being attracted to the style when studying art at school. It seems that only in Czech did they design buildings, public infrastructure (like lamp posts), furniture and houshold wares in the style. Other European artists restricted themselves to painting and drawing... In many ways in my opinion, it is a style that preluded art nouveau - there are many similarities, paticularly in archtitecture. Cubism was 1895-1925ish, Art Nouveau 1920's -1939. The Black Madonna itself is cubist inside and out. Stairwell, windows, fittings, etc champion the style so it is a fitting venue. The building also features the Grand Cafe Orient - a cafe presenting cubism in a retail environment. The cafe itself sat empty and locked up for 80 years and only started serving again in the last few years - with furnishings and fittings untouched since the early 1920's, the peak of cubisms reign.
Next adventure of the day was the Museum of Decorative Arts. Tucked away in the Jewish Quarter, with the ladies loos overlooking the ancient Jewish Cemetry it was a hive of fascinating insight into Czech privileged domestic life. It was more like an ethnographic museum to me, but a fantastic collection never the less. Much less state treasure seems to have been looted from Prague than other European cities during various occupations.
One of my better efforts - Uni on the left, theatre on the right
However, the real bonus for me was that the university had a photographic exhibition on profiling the student sit-ins of 1968 and 1989. One of their professors who was a keen amateur photographer with the confidence of the students took these records, hiding the exposed film and only exhibiting it now - confident at last that those in the pictures wouldn't be persecuted.
Very, very interesting and touching, disturbing. It is hard to describe the feelings these black and white images stired in my core. One that particularly moved me was one of young students 16 or 17yo surrounding Wenceslas statue demonstrating their solidarity against odds far beyond their influence. The contrast between their youthful, innocent faces and the reality of the odds of their battle brought a lump to my throat. Would I, as a teenager of that period, have had the maturity to act on my convictions if faced with such challenges and choices? I know I wouldn't have. Life in my teenage micro-environment was far too secure and protected to have developed such consciousness. Even those who marched against Joh's anti demonstration laws in the 70's faced little recourse compared to the truely life and death choices of these fresh faces.
On to more enjoyable and artistic persuits...
Next stop was the Museum of Czech Cubism in the House of the Black Madonna. Cubism seems to be a particularly popular genre in Prague. I remember being attracted to the style when studying art at school. It seems that only in Czech did they design buildings, public infrastructure (like lamp posts), furniture and houshold wares in the style. Other European artists restricted themselves to painting and drawing... In many ways in my opinion, it is a style that preluded art nouveau - there are many similarities, paticularly in archtitecture. Cubism was 1895-1925ish, Art Nouveau 1920's -1939. The Black Madonna itself is cubist inside and out. Stairwell, windows, fittings, etc champion the style so it is a fitting venue. The building also features the Grand Cafe Orient - a cafe presenting cubism in a retail environment. The cafe itself sat empty and locked up for 80 years and only started serving again in the last few years - with furnishings and fittings untouched since the early 1920's, the peak of cubisms reign.
House of the Black Madonna
Stairway in the House of the Black Madonna
Cubist Furniture
Cubist Homeware (for sale at AUD$300 per piece)
Sample of the Grand Orient Cafe
To get photos of the Cafe I treated myself to coffee. And it was Grand. Like walking back into 1920's. The espresso came on an individual 'silver' tray with a shot glass of cold water and hot milk on the side. Served by waiters in 'black and whites' with aprons and carrying multiple trays on each journey onto the floor. With the fittings ulight shades, chairs, tables and even coat hooks all original, it was easy to transport yourself back to the helicon days of the flappers.
Cubist apartment building
The view from a loo
The building had been designed and built specially for the collection and included fantastic wall papers, ceiling decorations and stained glass. The first floor was a contemporary exhibition and my favourites were children's trikes with their front wheels replaced with kitchen chair legs - I'm going to try this for myself and try and make some very cute garden/verandah furniture - definitely complementary to Mark B's eclectic collection! And the love spoons - I've always loved spooning, and the artist bent a pair of spoons into a smooth snake-like shape that fit perfectly together. Simple, obvious, but overlooked by others...
Other floors profiled the domestic furniture, crockery and cutlery of the rich and shameless from 1500's onwards. Gold cutlery services; early knives and forks - when forks looked like serving forks of today and each person owned one set and carried them with them (fancy eat'n irons to go with the fancy eat'n table...); glassware; crystal (very common in this culture as lead crystal comes from Bohemia); silverware; pewter; clocks, decorative wear, etc.
There was a whole display of religious challaces gold and silver; encrusted with jewels. Their woven stoles, capes, head pieces, robes, alter clothes... embroidered with silver and gold thread. I can't imagine what such things would weigh. Many were several mm thick...
Another floor profiled early paper, graphic design, posters, hand written/copied books and texts from 5th century til late 19th century. The earliest were bibles and religious texts but there were first editions of printed books and pamphlets from 1600's, demonstrations of design techniques. I kept thinking of you Rachel - seventh heaven for a graphic artist.
And then yet another floor of buttons, boots, fabrics, clothes, embroidery, lace from 4th century til 1970's including wedding gowns and religious trobes. Hand woven, hand made, hand embroidered. People were very small 700 years ago - the shoes were TINY and the waists of the women... in fact the men's clothes were very small too - looked like 5'6" was av male and 5'3" women. Narrow shouldered and small footed. The lace in particular drew my attention - how did they manage such detailed work with only candle light to see by...
Argentinean steak and Czech trout
Treated myself to an Agentinean steak for dinner (actually financially the treat would have been NZ lamb chops). The lamb was 3 times the price of steak - about 600Kr - AUD$40 - get real! The steak was very tender and for a change had veges other than potato :) The interesting bit was I bought a Budvar Dark beer -500ml stubby - the best beer I've had. Very smooth creamy pilsner. Will try and get a couple to bring home with me. As you all know, beer is not my drink but this was very pleasant, particularly with red meat.
Sitting in the pub under the Penzion Alfa doing my blogging tonight (Wed) and had two glasses of local Moravian white wine. Needed a break from the beer. Whoa! She's sweet! Like drinking lolly water. Forgot these guys are heavily influenced by Germany. Sweet, fruity wine. Not as sticky as a Moscato but sweeter than a modern Australian Moselle. In fact couldn't finish the 2nd glass over a four hour period... My host though is such a lovely lady. They don't do dinner but she made me a toasted sandwich and also helped me find the bus timetable for my Thursday adventure... smoke withstanding, I thoroughly recommend this B&B :)
Argentinean steak with fresh veges and sauerkraut and Budvar Dark
Lunch in Tabor was a trout fillet with veges. I'm learning... ask for veges other than potato and they have to find you some greens... I paid 30Kr for the bowl of brocolli and only 72kr for the fish and vege on the main plate. Interesting to be served grilled fish with gravy, but it actually was very good. I'm guessing it was based on beef with some fish stock. Not sure but tasted good. The fish was a bit 'fishy' but fresh, not over cooked, and no bones. They didn't have the Budvar Dark but tried their Kozel Dark which wasn't bad. Beer is definitely the drink of the masses. In fact the famous Pilsner comes from the next town down the train line...
Broiled trout with brocolli, veges and Kozel Dark
Sitting in the pub under the Penzion Alfa doing my blogging tonight (Wed) and had two glasses of local Moravian white wine. Needed a break from the beer. Whoa! She's sweet! Like drinking lolly water. Forgot these guys are heavily influenced by Germany. Sweet, fruity wine. Not as sticky as a Moscato but sweeter than a modern Australian Moselle. In fact couldn't finish the 2nd glass over a four hour period... My host though is such a lovely lady. They don't do dinner but she made me a toasted sandwich and also helped me find the bus timetable for my Thursday adventure... smoke withstanding, I thoroughly recommend this B&B :)
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