Freud, Kafka and that Other Guy (Part One)

After my two-day whirlwind tour of Paris, it was off for a more sedate wander through the next, and final, two stops on my European sojourn: Prague and Kutna Hora.

Arrival

Arriving at Prague airport I had one of my few "Oh God..." moments when I took some money out of an ATM at the airport. Because I had to pay the balance of my accommodation, as well as get into the city centre, I decided to withdraw 3000 Czech koruna (sounds like a lot but is only about NZ$250) . I figured I would probably get it in 200 koruna notes or something small and manageable like that.... but no. I was given a 2000kr note and a 1000kr note. The transfer to town was going to cost 150kr, and they had no change. Luckily I could also pay in Euros and had the exact amount I needed to pay otherwise it would have been a long, long walk.

Once I did get to town, I applied the age-old traveller trick of going to a supermarket and buying a handful of items then paying with a big note so as to get change. Worked a treat.

Accommodation

My accommodation was a hostel I had recommended to me called Sir Toby's which was a wee way out from town in a suburb called Holesevic. Given that the hostel's instructions to get to it were rather confusing (to put it mildly), I took a taxi. It is at this point that I give the first FUN FACT about Prague. There are only two cab companies that are guaranteed by the local Govt not to screw you payment-wise. Thankfully they are bright yellow Skodas so you can't miss them. I did see some of the other, non-guranteed taxis around and they mostly looked like beaten-up Ladas so you're a mug if you use them.

The hostel was really cool, in a non-touristy part of town. The staff were super-friendly, and on my first night there I won a pub quiz, with the aid of a couple of Aussies. I scored a free Pilsner and tickets to a concert later that week. The hostel was really busy and had a fantastic mix of people there. They also had handles of Pilsner Urquell for less than NZ$3.

FUN FACT number two: Prague is cheap. When I was there, NZ$1 bought you 13kr which sounds neither here nor there until you realise that a 10kr coin is the Czech equivalent of our $1 coin.

Highlights

I was in Prague for four days and covered quite a lot of ground so for the sake of brevity, I will give a few highlights here.

Walking Tour

I decided to do a walking tour which was fantastic. Payment was in the form of a tip at the end and the tour guide I had was really informative. There are soooo many tours available (and enough tourists to fill several QEII cruise ships) so you just pick one. Someone at the hostel tried two tours by different companies and found that both were essentially the same in terms of length and content.

Some cool things I learnt include:

Black Hand

The Black Hand


In one of the Churches near the Prague Castle we heard the story of the black hand and saw it hanging from the roof. Apparently, several hundred years ago a thief broke into the Church and tried to steal some jewels and gold from a statue they were adorning. The Statue grabbed the thief's hand and would not let go. The thief was found the next morning and despite efforts to free him from the statue by locals, in the end he was forced to stay stuck until his hand went black and fell off. The hand was kept by the Church and put on display to ward off other thieves.





The Golem


In one of the Synagogues in town there is reputed to be a Golem in the attic. Golems are huge creatures made from clay that are brought to life by scrolls placed in their mouths with instructions written on. During the time of the Nazi occupation, a German Commandant decided to go into the attic, despite warnings not to do so, so as to dispel what he saw as a foolish myth. He was never seen or heard from again.

The Five Star Priest

On the Charles Bridge, which is a historic pedestrian bridge linking the Old Town with the road to the Castle you can see a statue of a priest with a halo of five stars. The story goes that he took the confessions of the Queen, and such confessions tended to take several hours... The King thought that something dodgy was going on so tried to get the priest to tell him what she was confessing. The priest refused, citing Church law on the subject.  Eventually the King grew tired of being constantly thwarted so decided to stick the priest in a cage and drop him in the Vltava River and drown him. According to myth, five stars appeared in the air above the spot where the priest was drowned, showing other-wordly approval of the priest's refusal to break the confession oath.




Kafka


Franz Kafka is really big in Prague and there is a museum dedicated to him. Outside the museum you can see a sculpture featuring two men urinating into a pond shaped like Czechoslovakia. This represents the Communists urinating on the country during their forty-year reign. One thing that was quite forcefully pointed out was that Czechoslovakia and its modern incarnation have a long history of democracy and the Communist rule was an ugly blot on the region's history. And don't you forget it!

I could go on but I think I'll leave it there for now. In Part Two I will talk about the Castle, the concert, the Vietnamese market I found, and I might even squeeze in Kutna Hora.....

Charles Bridge