Feeling musically poetic, I've decided to breakdown my honeymoon into 4 main parts, the Alto (low female), the Soprano (high female), the Tenor (high male) and the Bass (low male). "Lows" doesn't mean the places sucks, but naturally the "highs" are slightly better. Overall, the "lows" and "highs" complement the entire piece, making it complete, making it perfect.
Therefore, for the start of our trip, I would say Prague is like... the Alto. It wasn't the climax of the trip, yet, it set the pace of it. It was important to set the "body" of the trip, because it created crucial expectations.
Before I proceed, please pardon me for my honesty and forgive me if I had unintentionally offend anyone in my post/future posts.
Frankly, I liked Prague the least. But I had nothing to compare when I was first there, so to me, it was pretty gorgeous, till we went on to other parts of Europe. It was over-rated, nothing too scenic, and the streets were rather confusing to navigate. The chiming of the famous astronomical clock (only astronomical clock still in operation which chimes every hour) at the Old Town Square was a letdown, nothing much to see but merely moving bits of the clock. We climbed the Old Town Hall Tower (where the astronomical clock is mounted on) at night, and the view though restricted, proved to be quite stunning, allowing us to see many of the main attractions at night; notably the Petrin Hill & the Observation Tower, Prague Castle, St. Nicholas Church Old Town Square, the Tyn Church, the Powder Gate/Tower and the promninent red-tentages of the Xmas market directly below it. The churches were mostly lit up at night so it made identifying them a breeze.
Vysehrad, a historical fort located in the outskirts of the city centre was a walk well worth it. It was kinda like a private park, which gave stunning views of the city and is walled up. It was very peaceful with not more than 20 pax sighted walking around the huge compound, but was well worth the trip down. The Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul was situated up there and was the first church we entered during our Honeymoon. We had to pay a fee (very common in Europe), and even the toilets up there unofficially demanded one too. There was a toilet attendent sitting in a small cubicle separating the gents and ladies and upon entering, he looked me. Coins were seen on the little opening of his cubicle and when I asked him if I had to pay, he said up to me... needless to say I gave in to pressure...
One of the photos below shows a crow kept in captivity... despite the deceiving size in the photo, it was the biggest crow I have ever seen! It was like Lord Crow, the size comparable to an eagle! SEEEERIIIOOOUUUSLY!
The interior of the church was... peacefully well furnished, with a little room leading to some "treasures" - religious items. Just outside the church is the Vysehrad cemetary, supposedly containing many famous people from Czech history. Unfortunately we didn't do much research in that area, but were so awed by the many elaborate tombs that we snapped like a hundred photos there - some of which, I'm sure are tombs of those famous people (thanks to probability).
Most interestingly, in Vysehrad there also stands the Rotunda of St. Martin from the 11th century, Prague's oldest surviving building. I'm showing a 9-gag face right now because I don't think we saw it (we might have, I don't know...), but at least to comfort myself, we were that close... that close to it... (Shoot me now please...)
Though we walked quite a bit to reach there, we also explored a rather interesting route whilst on our way there - a university. Not sure exactly what university, I'm assuming it was Prague University and we even used the toilets at a Urology Hospital. It was my dear who caught the nature of it, I only knew it was a hospital, but was surprised to see a bunch of old folks sitting along the narrow corridors. We attracted many inquisitive stares alright, freaked out my dear a bit, but I was frightfully enjoying every moment of it because it felt like a setting for a zombie movie (reminded me of Dawn of the Dead).
The mood was dead still, but the adrenaline and shuffling of my feet broke the silence. Of course I acted cool about it, pretending to be looking around purposefully, but thinking back, if I had known it was a Urology hospital and if I were an old man sitting down waiting for my turn to see the Doc, and seeing this young out of place Asian couple pacing around, it must have been a real silly sight. It was so obvious that we were this young clueless Asian couple who "lost" our way. Tsk.
Apart from Vysehrad, we also checked out the Prague Castle, passing by the Dancing House while on our way there. There was nothing particularly interesting about the Dancing House, apart from its curvy architecture.
When we reached Prague Castle, unfortunately it turned dark very soon (around 4.40pm daily) and since the Castle was on a hill, it was shrouded in mist. A fairy tale setting, impractical but extremely romantic. It was freezing up there as well, and not wanting to make it a wasted trip, we tried exploring every portion of it, even the toilets... which costed us a bomb. It's relative, it's not a BOMB BOMB but a BOMB in an toilet context, 1 euro! Or was it 1.50 euros? We didn't think much of it until we converted it to Sing $... which makes it around $1.70 - $2.55 per pax... holy smokes!! And that seems to be the "market rates" of the public toilets in Europe. Actually it ranges from 50 cents to a dollar 50.
My dear was captivated by the Cathedral over there, which did look rather majestic and magical in the mist, but my feeling of awe, just like the cathedral, was shrouded in mist. The Cathedral is actually St. Vitus Cathedral, a Gothic, biggest and most important church in the country! Wow!! (Just googled it) Now that I've just re-researched it... geeze... did I miss something big back then? Grr....
But my memories of the entire compound was, in a nutshell... dreamily romantic, which I guess kinda compensated for what I missed out. I also had the same feeling once before in Taiwan, at Qing Tien Gang, where it was also extremely mist-ifying.
Our accom was near Wenceslas Square, one of the main city squares of Prague. There was a Christmas market set up in the middle of it, and the square itself isn't too squarish, it's a long rectangulish stretch of monumental pavement with retail shops on both sides. Hmm.. In fact, I think they were strip clubs (based on wiki), no wonder they felt dodgy at night.
 |
| Memorial to Jan Palach and Jan Zajic |
On our final day there, we walked across Old Charles Bridge, lined with spots of blackish statues obviously deprived of maintenance. There, street buskers were rampant, saw a stylish old man wearing what looked like a flat straw hat and turning a ginormous musical box (that's easy business). All he had to do was take his hat off and bow to anyone generous enuff to drop a coin or 2 or intrigued enuff to wanna take a shot with him (a group of Asians did just that, can't say I wasn't jealous).
On the other side of the bridge is Lesser Town, yet another attraction but we didnt manage to cover it due to our tight schedule. Lesser Town as its name suggests looks less developed, with its buildings more spaced out and it looked rather bustling.
My dear was feeling so emo about not having the time to check it out, but I was more than contented with what we covered and wouldn't trade any parts of it for a town that looked "browner" on the other side.
The last most memorable bit about Prague is walking along Vltava River bank. There was a broad pavement which was exceptionally pedestrian-friendly... make that both pedestrian and vehicle friendly. So much so that it's the first bank that I've ever seen in my life which allows vehicles to drive onto. Cars could drive onto the bank by the connecting pavement from the roads.
Locals, parents, were seen carrying plastic bags filled with bread and feeding the river birds with their kids (2 instances). Swans, ducks, seagulls, pigeons all swarmed to them hoping to get a bite... It was one of the most "hidden" heartwarming scenes that will put a smile to any tourist's face. Here in Singapore, people are criticised, even fined for feeding pigeons. But over there, it's an opportunity that parents create for their kids, for them to experience the wonder of being surrounded by birds, non-aggressive ones, at the same time learning to appreciate and respect them.
Hmm... perhaps this "hidden" last memory kinda salvaged whatever bad vibe I had when I was there, mostly safety issues, leaving me with a conflicted myriad of emotions...
No comments:
Post a Comment