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 Before we left Jamie said she was bringing a digital camera. I delivered my usual spiel about how "anything worth remembering doesn't require a photograph to remember it". Alas, while my relationship with the camera  was initially frigid I warmed up to it. Eventually it possessed me, and I'm afraid I might be hooked on photography now. Jamie can attest that I tried to stop: "this is the last photograph, last photograph, really. this time." Currently I am staving off the desire to drop $1400 on a Nikon D70 digital SLR. Bad Seth! So that is my excuse why this blog entry is a series of photographs instead of a long winded trip journal. Actually, that doesn't sound so bad. Nobody reads long textual things anyway. In fact, I doubt anybody has read this far (except my grandmother) and have instead prefererred scanning through the photos. I'm too lazy to make all these pictures in the blog link to the full sized image, but they're all found in my "best of prague" 2004 designer collection. I've also got a larger 70 photo album.

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.


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.


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.