Vacation in Prague
September 11, 2004
 Jamie’s Silhouette in Prague Castle |
I was on vacation last week in the Czech republic with Jamie. We ended up spending most of the week in Prague, but did escape into the countryside a little. Photographic Glut I’m too lazy to make all these pictures in the blog link to the full |
Czech Countryside
The Shows
I can not recommend
Prague too highly if you like “high art” performances and/or are a
miser. There are at least a half dozen chamber music performances every
night, the opera is cheap (we paid $15/ticket for very reasonable
seats), and unconventional performance art forms abound (of note were
the national marionette theatre and Laterna
Magicka).
The marionette theatre performed
Mozart’s Don Giovanni, which might sound dry, but it was amply laced
with humour and was somewhat vulgar – true to traditional puppetry. The
entire audience was in hysterics by the end. That said, their
performance didn’t make a mockery of the opera at all. They found a
perfect balance between sucking you into the drama, and then breaking
up the boring bits with comic relief. This is particularly impressive
because, of course, all the spoken (well, sung) words were in Italian;
though I’m familiar with the material, so that might have aided with
the dramatic bits.
Prague in one photo: gothic spire,
quaint old buildings, 1960s Soviet cement block apartments
Laterna Magicka is possibly the
best performance I have ever seen. It was certainely the weirdest. It
is basically ballet with some silent (good) acting. The catch is that
they use three movie projectors projecting onto white cloth to
construct the “set”. The characters move in and out of the “movie” part
seemless and interact across the boundary. For example, a live actor
will run through the sheet and suddenly pop up in that location on the
projected image. They’ll then turn around and continue a conversation
with a live actor on the stage. Laterna also has a penchant for flying
objects and people on ropes. For example, they’ll remove the middle
projection cloth, and a character on the left projection will toss a
rose to the right. A physical rose will then go flying through the air
(and do a loop or something) in the middle. Its very hard to explain,
but the net effect is abstract, colorful, and a total mindfuck. In a
way, I would say that Laterna is a spiritual extension of (the
impressive but often tedious) non-narrative cinema that uses the
presence of physical actors to draw the audience in and keep them
interested. Its engaging high art. Very cool.
In the realm of the national
opera, we were fortunate enough to catch Verdi’s Aida, one of the
“great operas”. The national opera was having a Verdi week with a
different opera of his each day. This was definitely the most well
known, and we were able to warp our schedules to make it (thanks
Jamie!). I was not familiar enough with Aida to closely follow the plot
(what opera has a good plot and libretto anyway?!? I think if we’re
honest most operas’ plots suck. its about the music stupid). However,
the music was absolutely terrific, and the performances were top notch.
I really liked the lead tenor (who played Radames) vocal performance,
but his acting was terribly rigid. He didn’t seem able to emote and/or
move and sing at the same time. Oh well. The mezzo who played Amneris
was both a fluid actress and delivered a phenomenal vocal performance.
Aida herself was also good, though her voice lost some resonance seemed
thin in its upper register (of course, she had resonance to lose…).
Oh how easy it is to be a critic *grin*. Anyway, the long and short is
that they delivered a “world class” opera performance at prices that
mortals can absorb without getting a nosebleed.
Speaking of Verdi, we sadly
missed a performance of Verdi’s Requiem in favor of visiting the Church
of St. Nicholas…which turned out to be closed. Too bad because its
one of my favorite choral worksi, and the performance was in a large
gothic church which would have doubless contributed an interesting mood
(not to mention the effect on the timbre!).
 Rail Control Station |
 Charles Bridge over the Vltava River |
 Carved Doorway in a Sidestreet |
The Sights
My favorite sights were
non-historical: sitting on a bench and watching
the river, walking down random sidestreets in Prague, riding the
underground aimlessly and popping out at random stations to see what’s
there, visiting a department store to czech out the latest clothing
fashions (I swear I will never use that pun again, please keep reading)
and grocery items, watching people cavort around the town square at
1am, and strolling through the countryside. Jamie was more into
visiting all the “must see” locations, and this generated a little
friction for the first few days. Fortunately we resolved this and the
rest of the trip was marvelous.
Rowboats on the Vltava River
Of course, many of the
historical things we saw were incredible too. I was particularly
pleased wit the St. Vitus Cathedral and Karlštejn Castle. Many period religious structures (*cough*
church of st. nicholas) are terribly ornate. I tend not to appreciate
structures just because they are old. Many grand and/or famous old
structures do have beautiful design that tickle my fickle modern
aesthetic sensibilities. Many do not. In any case, the Cathedral, while
painfully gothic and overwrought on the outside, is composed internally
with sparse shapely arches and the best stained glass I have ever seen.
The tower of the St. Vitus
Cathedral is quite a ways up and is accessed
by a narrow spiral staircase with no windows or railing. The tower is,
I am sure, eminently defensible, but not pleasant when jammed with
people going up and down with barely enough room. It was particularly unpleasant
when the lights went out. However, the view from the top paid us back
with double dividends. Many of the best photos from the trip were taken
from the tower, which affords a panoramic view of the city with few
obstructions. Its also perfectly situated along the river to capture
many of the arching stone bridges.
 Old Town Square in Prague |
 Karlštejn Castle |
Food &
Beer
What can I say, beer was
literally cheaper than water. Food was a mixed bag. I wasn’t blown away
by “local cuisine” (I mean, ghoulash is fine, but its not thrilling).
On the other hand, restaurants were very cheap and Prague has
reasonably good foreign food (particularly a lot of Italian). Lots of
hitting cafes at night for hot chocolate or coffee. We ate at KFC once
(I take full responsibility for this, I was stressed out, hungry, and
things were closed. Jamie was dragged there). We hit a grocery store
and went through grabbing things that looked interesting. The result
was a basket piled with chocolate and junk food. The cashier looked at
us funny. I am pleased to report that the Czechs apparently share my
affinity for hazlenuts. Juice, tarts, and other fruity things were a
highlight of the trip, particularly for Jamie. I probably should have
indulged in juice more, but I was too happy to have cheap decent
espresso.
We finally stumbled upon an
absolutely stupendous “fancy restaurant” one night for desert. We’d
gone up the funicalar railway into the hills around Prague at night to
see the view of the city. We never got a really satisfactory view
(though it did provide a nice walk), but one of the stops was for a
high class restaurant. We got out on a whim and grabbed desert and
coffee there. Fresh rasberry, pear and lemon sorbets, and a desert
cheese filled with pear chunks and drizzled in a tangy sauce, open
night view of prague, live piano, a silky cappucino, cool night air.
Completely-off-the-charts sort of good. We came back the next day (our
last) for dinner, and had 4 incredible courses for $15 a head (starting
with those sorbets… yum). Main courses (Saffron, mint. Enough said.),
which we split for maximuum effect, were not just delicious but
beautifully arranged. It was a perfect way to end the trip… we left
for the airport 5 hours later.
 St. Vitus Cathedral over the Vltava River |
 Statue At Bat |
Broken Ankle
My broken ankle has mostly
mended, so I was able to get around pretty
well. Some days it didn’t feel as good as others and I wore my “robo
leg” brace, but most days I got away with a shoe-compatible brace
designed for sprained ankles. We mostly took the underground around
prague, and walked from point to point. Prague also has a nice tram and
bus system, but we didn’t figure out the routes until the last couple
days. Too bad, it would have been interesting to ride a tram around the
town. Just yesterday I extracted begrudging permission from the
physical therapist to start cycling again. She walked back in a minute
later and asked how far I was planning to ride. Busted! We compromised
on 10 miles. I’m going stir crazy: haven’t ridden this whole year.
First it was winter, and then right when spring was coming and I had
gotten my bike back into shape (lost the rear wheel in transit across
the US) I did my ankle in.
Taking pictures of people still
elludes me. It didn’t help that the
camera had a 4 second delay from when you squeezed the button to when
it took the picture; ruins the possibility of capturing spontaneous
moments, save by freak accident.
 Jamie in the Great Hall of Prague Castle |
 Jamie Outside Something-or-Other |
A 30 photo album is here, which is a subset of a larger 70 photo album. All the photos here are in the 30
photo album.
