Praha, Prague. It was a wonderful trip overall, even if it did rain two of the three days I was there. (That’s why I am a firm believer in Wellington boots.)
I stepped off the Euro-Train and onto a deserted, crumbling concrete platform. There was nothing about me to signify location, except possibly the faded graffiti on the walls. I placed my right foot in front of my left; sometimes curiosity requires trekking ignorantly forwards. The Czech Republic I recently learned has only been established as a country and republic since 1993 when it split from Slovakia. Before that time it was controlled by a Communist Militia Party, and before that it was under the control of the Nazi’s. (Recommended reading: The Unbearable Lightness of Being) For the majority of travelers Prague is the first ex-communist country that they will visit. Coincidentally it is also the first ex-communist country to be included into the European Union.
The city is laid out in a maze of perpendicular alleys. Every corner of the city is permeated with the odor of oil-fried dough and the overly sticky sweetness of sugarcane. Even the medieval sizzling of venison over open fires in the Old Town Hall only satiates the begging of the stomach temporarily against such constant enticements. Overheard the faded plaster buildings and corroding granite town houses are adorned by musky limestone lintels and weather- beaten gargoyles. The majority of the buildings wears a facade of graffiti, luring the eye to the slightly pitched R’s and downward spikes of the Z’s criss-crossing street sayings. The additions of spray paint on Romanesque art fuses the gap between archaic history and the not-so-distant past. 
The city’s iconic destinations, the Karluv Most (Charles Bridge) and the Zahrada Na Valech (St Vitus Cathedral) dominate the skyline. Planned for magnificence the burgundy sea of roofs peter off into sloping deciduous forests and puce colored vineyards along the base of the Castle’s megalithic stairs. Navigating the bridge entails zigzagging about the throngs of desperate artisans. Each one emphatically and boisterously defending his personal Czech art, while at the same time forcing replicas of replicas into the unwary tourist’s hand.
However, once inside the cathedral reverberating music transcends all other distractions. Organ music resounds, glorified by the arching fanned-vaults of the ceiling, echoing across images of heaven and God’s eye, then back down to my ear. Here a dance of centuries takes place; the old and the new, as the overlapping of art deco stained glass, (the replacement windows for those shattered during Nazi occupation) crosses into the fifteenth century, simplistic lead moldings. Proper form and progressive function co-exist on top of this imperial city.
My own adventures inside this city included seeing the Czech Philharmonic (a dynamic lesson on the importance of cacophony and syncopation as beauty). I danced my way through all five stories of Karlovy Lázně and the underground tunnels of Vinarna U Sadu. i climbed the highest watch tower in the city at minimal fee, finishing the last steps on all fours, and traveled city to a cathedral made entirely 60,000 human skeletons all collected from the time of the Bubonic Plague
Upon leaving on a 15 hour night train I met Louise and his father Louise from Argentina.These two men and I were shocked to meet Michael, an elderly German who predicted that Germany’s rise to power would come again and soon. Michael was my first encounter with open hostility to Americans. I spent the first few hours of broken conversation defending my country, but as he continued to talk I learned to simply listen. This was a foreign way of thinking, but it is still another point of view on my country. As a traveler/student I want to absorb all world opinions that I can. Perhaps when I am back stateside this information I have amassed will encourage broader thinking in my views…
(The fact that Obama won the Nobel Prize yesterday morning does not help my standing as a United States Citizen. I have been thrice offered insincere congratulations in less that twenty-four hours.)
intrepid trekking 