May 23,2007

Prague

Kristen left this morning to continue the business trip to the Symantec offices in Ireland, so we shared a cab that dropped me off at a backpacker’s hostel and she carried on to the airport. The idea today was to continue where we left off yesterday and finished the primary tourist sites at the Prague Castle.



So, back over the Charles Bridge, through the winding streets and up the hill to Prague Castle I ventured.



(Nice to have statues pointing the way.)



(And finally the cardio workout of the day on the "Prague Stairmaster".)


The beautiful thing about Prague is that one can avoid the hordes of tourists by simply starting out the day at about nine in the morning. Pick your favorite site to see in relative peace, because that will be your only solitude of the day. Notice the difference a couple hours makes in the foot traffic on the Charles Bridge.
(Morning)

(Afternoon)


For me the top pick was St. Vitus’s Cathedral. In itself it was beautiful. For some reason these structures don’t particularly evoke a spiritual connection for me but trigger an architectural appreciation. The Gothic Era of construction is especially impressive, with detailed carvings poking out of almost every crevasse.



One of my favorite details of the period are the gargoyles that line the roof seam, attached to the buttresses. Their mouths serve as the rain spouts and when water is flowing their exaggerated expressions don’t seem so wildly out of place. Did you know that they get their name from the gargling sound that water makes as it runs through the pipes and exits their stone mouths?





The early tourist venturers were treated to a much clearer morning than yesterday afternoon’s finish. Climbing one of the Cathedral towers provided a crisp view of the city and was well worth the climbing effort.

(Viewing deck just below copper tower top.)






(Note how close the countryside is to the old city center.)


A couple of art galleries are housed within the castle walls. First is the Prague Castle Picture Gallery, home to many Italian paintings of the 18th century. The good thing is that this gallery was part of the general admission. If you have been to any of the major European galleries this will be a fifteen-minute experience for mental cataloging of many minor artists and a few random masters.

(Sorry no pictures allowed inside.)


The second and National Gallery is worth the effort to browse. You will gain an appreciation for the artistic style of Czech artists and their melding of Austro-Hungarian influences with the greater impact of Italian and Dutch schools.



I love the active motion of the religious statues. It is almost as if these church relics are in the mood to dance. This approach seems more human to me and approachable vs. literally stone-faced sterile statues.



One of the conscious decisions or strategies in making this trip is to see enough so that if I never return there is still satisfaction in the depth of experience while still leaving ample activity unseen so that I could return and share new experiences with someone else. The Prague Loreto falls into this category. It is on the “must see” tourist list and is a beautiful building, but I am consciously saving it for another day.



I'm always a sucker for a good city scape.

May 22,2007

Prague

During the morning, Kristen was off at her conference presenting the decision process for selecting and implementing the latest in financial close tracking systems. Meanwhile, I was back in the room resting and blogging.

We decided to make a second attempt at viewing the city. We wandered the narrow streets and crossed the Charles Bridge towards Prague Castle.





By the time we arrived it was a quarter to five so the castle was only open for another hour and fifteen minutes. We tried to enter St. Vitus Cathedral but were turned away, as the last entrance was permitted five minutes prior. A little bummed but undaunted we headed to the old royal palace.



What remained of the royal palace were the main meeting hall, the royal court, and the chapel. Fire had almost completely destroyed the complex and reconstruction has been historic in design, but filled with restaurants and shops as the previous relics are gone.



An interesting side alley was the Golden Lane, named for the goldsmiths that populated the area in the middle ages. The houses are incredibly small, accompanied by the explanation that people were much smaller hundreds of years ago. Probably what makes this area a definitive tourist stop is that Franz Kafka rented one of these mini domains from his sister for a year. Beyond that they overflow with more and more tourist trappings to which Prague is quickly becoming overly associated.





Our final stop, in the Prague Castle compound, for the day was the Baliborka Tower or torture chamber. That there was such a place didn’t surprise, but the tiny size did. There was probably space for only about ten people. This was kind of surprising, given the size of the Austria-Hungarian Empire, compared for example to Tower of London that is at least a thousand times larger.



As we walked out of the tower, we saw two very funny scenes with the guards. The first was watching two young guards, watching two young women. It was so funny to see every part of their bodies facing forward and their eye strained to the right.



The other scene was with the changing of the guard. A random tourist was walking across the square in front of the Cathedral and just happened to naturally fall into step with the guards. It was only a moment, but I got lucky with the shot.



The clouds began to break as we walked down from the hilltop position of Prague Castle. There certainly is something magical about the layout and architectural design of this city. My only regret is that I didn’t get here fifteen years ago before it turned into an upscale Euro-Disney.





Finally, this is what all the international legal action is about. The Czech Republic has the highest beer consumption per capital in the world. Seeing that Budvar is clearly labeled Budweiser, I am surprised that the American distant cousin has won the right to used the name in the European Union.

May 21, 2007

Prague

The eighth floor of the Hilton would be the extent of my travels today. Kristen prepared for her presentation and I simply rested. The day went quickly and before you knew it, it was done. The good news is that the medication appears to be reacting well to the malaria reappearance and this episode should be no worse than the flu.

May 20, 2007

To Prague

Sitting in the hostel living room this morning, I wondered how to fill the day until 3:00pm. There were things to see like the communist statue park, where Hungary’s Russian statuary was all collected in one place, but travel would take too long and returning on time would be risky. Then I heard one of the other guests mention seeing the second largest synagogue in the world. With this piece of information my morning was set.

The Dohany Street synagogue, named for the tobacco factory across the street, was only a ten-minute walk and from street appearances I almost missed it. Externally, the temple is built in a Moorish style and resembles more of a mosque than synagogue.



Once inside, with the aid of a guided tour, the reason was clear. In the mid-1800’s when the edifice was under construction, the Jewish community in Budapest was under an assimilation strategy. Intermarrying with gentiles was promoted and the synagogue was constructed in a style that would be attractive to Muslims and Christians alike. Internally, the building appears to be a chapel, complete with pipe organ and unused side pulpits. A Christian woman is still hired to this day to play the organ in support of the synagogue choir. This may be the only temple in the world with an actual choir.





Symbolically, both the eight-pointed star of King Solomon and the six-pointed Star of David are used, sometimes interlaced. After decades of integration the community realized that within a generation the Jewish roots would be lost, so a more conservative approach was taken with a return to tribal benefits, e.g. only Jewish couples could be married within the edifice.





The integrated community was not spared from the wrath of the Nazi regime. In the final nine months of Nazi control 600 thousand ethnic Jews were killed or roughly 10% of the estimated total atrocity. During the Nazi occupation the synagogue was spared destruction by the fact that the occupation authorities knew that it would frustrate the Jewish community more to use the synagogue as a Nazi government building, thus desecrating the complex. The ultimate extension of this was when three thousand Budapest community Jews were murdered in the courtyard and dumped in a mass grave. There are only three places in the world where people are buried on synagogue grounds and two are in the former eastern block, the other being Prague.





There is a willow tree made of stainless steel in the back courtyard, named the Raoul Wallenberg Memorial Park. Each leaf represents a person killed during the Nazi occupation. The tree was a donation by Tony Curtis, whose family comes from the Budapest Jewish community.



After the end of World War II the Hungarian Jewish community did not fair well with the communists either. The synagogue was turned into an unkempt museum, which means that it sat idle, subjected to weather and time. Fortunately, prior to the Nazi occupation a woman in the national museum secretly kept the historical toras and sacred relics in the basement. The communists did not destroy them but left them in storage.



After liberation from Russian oppression the synagogue was returned to the community in need of restoration. Estee Lauder, also of Hungarian Jewish descent stepped up and donated heavily to restore the building. Services are now held weekly in a side synagogue, with the high holidays celebrated in the main edifice and a packed house.





As the second largest synagogue in the world one would expect a colossus, but the building only holds about three thousand, including standing room. The largest synagogue is in New York City.



Budapest is a beautiful city with just enough Eastern Block era rebuilding happening to not be a tourist trap. It is very inviting, with a beauty that sets the city apart. If you have an interest, come quickly before there is a Mc Donald’s on every corner and the native charm is exchanged for trinkets and trash shops.



The very nice coincidence of the trip thus far is that even though my ticket was booked ten months ago, my sister just happens to be speaking at a “Tech Finance” conference in Prague. So instead of hostels, it will be the Hilton for the next three nights. What a welcome treat this is!



Pulling up to the hotel in an airport mini-van, Kristen was waiting outside. What a natural and cool surprise! We dumped off my backpacks in the room, ate a snack from the executive lounge and headed out into the city for a random evening exploration.



Prague is definitely more upscale than Budapest and has reaped the benefits of almost 15 years of strong tourism. Every imaginable fashion brand shop is present here, but the Gothic architecture still seems to overcome the influx of western commercialism. The city has amazing historical buildings and bridges. As we wandered across the river to the old part of town a familiar feeling struck.



I had been conveniently ignoring the periods of diminished energy, attributed the neck pain to several bad nights of sleep, and the unsettled system to changing diet. No sooner had we crossed the bridge than the warmth in my mouth told me that malaria had redeveloped out of its liver “hiding place”.



The beautiful thing was that Dr. Joy had the foresight to send me off with two courses of medication. So there was a sudden end to the evening and a beautifully comfortable Hilton bed was exactly the right place to be.

May 19, 2007

Budapest

Some days you just need to take a break. Today was the perfect example. In the morning I walked around Andrassy Street to try to find a “bridge piece” for my glasses. One side of my nose was soar and “bingo” when there’s no pad left the raw metal doesn’t feel that great after a while. The funny thing is when I was in Tanzania I found the transparent piece of soft plastic on the floor. It looked like there was an obvious purpose for the little orb but I couldn’t figure it out. So, I made the conscious decision to leave it behind on the table in my room. Maybe this piece had meaning to someone else. Actually, it would have meaning to “me and turn into a multi-national search for a part acquired in Hong Kong, with my new glasses, and found nowhere else since.

The afternoon was spent watching the English Football Association final between Chelsea and Manchester United. The Budapest Irish Bar was the official location and it was reasonably packed with supporters. The weighting was considerably lopsided as there were only four Chelsea supporters and the rest Manchester United boosters. So the four of us basically sat on our hands as the match wore on. The first 45 minutes were incredibly dull, so much so that the commentators were even making comments about the fans falling asleep. This was followed by a very active second half but the score was still nil, nil. Finally, with three minutes left in the second overtime, Didier Dogbra outwrestled the Man-U defenders and keeper to barely flip the ball into the right side crease of the net. Four spontaneous cheers rang out in an otherwise silent pub. We were back to sitting on our hands for the next nail biting three minutes, then smiled at each other through the haze of smoke and Manchester grumblings.



Having overexposed many of my nightscape city photos from the previous evening, I set out to rectify the blunder.





The very tricky part about shooting Budapest at night is that some buildings are lit with warm yellow hues and others in stark cold white. If there is a shot with both, then the balance is a tough compensation game.





The world of 35MM film seemed to be much more forgiving, but with the synthetically managed control of digital, even with the freedom of setting exposure, the metering doesn’t appear that exact.







Returning to the hostel, I was hungry. John had found the perfect gyro place. Ever the food skeptic, the challenge was “on”. We walked about a mile to the Istanbul Gyro Shop. He was absolutely correct. These were the best gyros ever! The separation point from the seemingly endless consumption in Greece and Turkey was that these had shredded cabbage, tomatoes, onion, chicken, and the combination of tahene (sp?) and spicy red chili sauce. Wow!

(This pick was taken during the following day, but the same restaurant.)