Playing catch-up: Bohemian Carnevale, the National Gallery, and the Charles Bridge at Twilight

It's been a rough week for me in terms of modern amenities: our apartment's hot water sort of exists sometimes, and my computer is currently "taking a break" (which might end up being permanent). No hot water is a good excuse for not showering, right? As for the computer issue, it's been a bit difficult but hopefully I'll be able to figure out in the next few days what my next step should be. Luckily, my roommate Vanessa is letting me use her computer, so I won't get any more behind on my blogging!

To make up for the delay in this post, it's extra long, super colorful, and jam-packed with videos (four of them!)!

There's a two-week long "Bohemian Carnevale" going on right now that apparently is a vestige of when Czechs were actually a religious (Catholic) nation. It's basically, as I understand it, a huge celebration leading up to Lent. In practice, it's a huge party with lots of parades and costumes and masks and performances. These "horses" were among my favorite--I'm not really sure how they work because, as you can see, the legs of the people "riding" the "horses" are on the outside of the horse...so I'm not sure what's connected to the stilts! There's definitely not another person inside there. Thoughts?

Petting my favorite horse--we match!

They really do a good job of imitating the way that real horses look when they walk; I'm still impressed when I watch this video.

High-five for the shorty!

Low-five for the super-shorty :)

This was probably the weirdest thing I've seen so far. The program for the Carnevale advertised a "racing of the golden pigs." I was really hoping that there would be real (golden) pigs set loose in Old Town Square. Alas, golden pigs are probably as rare as red heifers. 

Just thought this was really cute and/or belonged in some sort of weird absurdist magazine or something like that. 

They are literally running across the square with pig heads on.

I really wanted to dance with the bear, but I was too nervous to cut in.

I guess there can only be one sun, and since the real one wasn't  shining, this  really tall one on stilts took over (with the astronomical clock tower in the background).

As advertised on Facebook :)

Classic tourist picture, since everyone should have one. I'm really good at asking strangers to take pictures of me. 

This weekend, all of the branches of the National Gallery (seven buildings in total, I think) were free. I still haven't really figured out why, but I didn't argue. Instead, after coffee with my Czech roommate Zuzana (of Belgian chocolate fame) I walked her to the train station because it was a beautiful crisp winter day with the first blue sky I've seen since being here. Then I headed out to the Sternberg and Schwartzberg Palaces in the Prague Castle complex, both of which are branches of the National Gallery. For the first time, I brought Aunt Emily's camera with me and got to play around with it a bit, though I have a lot to learn!

The view from the top of the Prague Castle complex. Red roofs have cleared a spot in my heart right there next to beautiful doors. 

This is the first building in the Castle complex, complete with guards outside and a beautiful view of the city below.  I didn't realize how surreal it looked until I saw the picture on the screen.

In the Schwartzberg Palace, I was very pleasantly surprised when I walked into one of the gallery rooms and heard notes of music wafting through the air. Then, of course, I saw the crowd, and pushed my way to the front of the room so I could see what was going on. Still not sure why there was a concert in the gallery, but I'm not complaining! It was beautiful background music for looking at the art. 

There was also dancing!

Coolest thing ever: a spork (middle) from the 17th century! And it's foldable! Someone want to get this for me for my next hiking trip?

Upon leaving the gallery, I saw a huge line and figured I should get in because whatever they were waiting to see was probably cool. Finally I got the woman in front of me to explain, using hand motions and sparse English (felt a little like being a Chalutzim counselor) that the attic of the palace had recently been restored and contained the collection of Czech armory. This is the guns/rifle case...you can't really see any of the guns in this picture, but I thought the reflection was really cool. 

Instead of taking the tram back from the Castle, I decided to walk because it was still beautiful out and the sun  was about to set. I passed this adorable little bakery that looks as authentic as it professes to be, though it's right by the Charles Bridge so who knows.

Looking east from the Charles Bridge.

The Prague Castle at twilight

From the Charles Bridge

With one of the Charles Bridge statues in the foreground

And, of course, a shoutout to Charlotte Sall--thank you for being my first Skype date since I've been here!

Serendipity: Jazz in Old Town Square

Yesterday we went on a tour of the Jewish Quarter, but I pretty much have no pictures because, as our tour guide said, "Jews are stingy and they want you to buy postcards, so they don't allow pictures in the synagogues."

It was nice to go on an official tour and to learn some of the history, but we sort of breezed through the five of the six synagogues that still exist (most of which are museums) so I'm going to go back when I can spend as much time as I want.

This is the Old Jewish Cemetery. The first record of Jews in Prague dates back to the 13th century I think, and there's something like 12,000 headstones at the cemetery. As you can see from this picture they're all stacked one right on top of another. That's because people are actually buried "bunk-bed" style, and I think there's five layers of graves that built up over the centuries.

After the tour I went to find the post office to mail Naomi her birthday postcard (second time's the charm, I'm hoping--I forgot to write her address on the first one). On my way, I passed through Old Town Square and decided to hang out for a while to listen to this great blues-y jazz group that had set up there. The vocalist has the raspy blues voice down-pat! (If you go to around 1:10 in this video, you'll get to see a "tour" of the Square). 

There must have been something going on, because in another part of the square I found this guy playing with fire.

I realized that it was only ten minutes to the hour, so I stuck around to watch the astronomical clock do its thing, which was pretty cool. And then I stayed listening to the jazz band for another half hour or so until it started drizzling.

Last night I made challah dough, and today I baked them. I have yet to taste them, but the honey-egg glaze I made for the top made them toasty-brown--hoping that'll compensate for the ridiculously long time I let the dough rise because of class! And yes, I only made three--that tray is how wide our oven is and we have only one tray. Shabbat shalom!

A note about Czech class: I'm really enjoying it, and am actually writing down some of the activities the teacher is having us do because I think they'd transfer really well to teaching Hebrew! I feel like I'm picking it up pretty quickly, which is nice, and yesterday I asked for directions in Czech....I didn't get a chance to see if I understood them, since the guy just pointed on a map. But today our class went to a restaurant together and we had to order in Czech. I felt kind of bad for the waiter, but our teacher said she warned him. 

An Official Walking Tour of Prague

I lucked out--my official tour of Prague was today, in the partly-cloudy-but-increasingly-sunny 50 degree warmth; much nicer than earlier this week, when the other group went!

We started off the tour looking up at the top of Václavské náměstí (Wenceslas Square--though I'm not sure how "Václavské" turned into "Wenceslas" in English) looking at the main branch of the National Museum (apparently, this weekend all seven branches have the entrance fee waived! Hopefully I'll get to one or two of them). 

This is looking down from Wenceslas Square, which is in the heart of "New Town," built by King Charles IV (he's recurring theme) around 1348. It's called "New Town" because it was new in comparison to "Old Town," which dates back to the 10th century, I believe. At one point, the Square was a horse market. Later, it became the site of all popular uprisings and protests in Prague; in 1969, Jan Palach set himself on fire there to protest Communism a few months after the Prague Spring. In 1989, the Velvet Revolution that overthrew Communism in Prague kicked off there. About 500,000 protesters gathered in the Square then. Now it's just a commercial shopping area--complete with a Starbucks and a McDonald's. Pay attention to the horse statue of Saint Wenceslas because in the next picture...

it's upside down! This sculpture/hanging statue is in the atrium of the Lucerna Palace shopping area, that was actually built by Vaclav Havel's father (grandfather?) and is still owned by the family [I think]. It's meant to be a parody of sorts of the horse/Saint Wenceslas (which is apparently the English of Vaclav. Then why don't we call the former president Wenceslas Havel? Who knows.) statue from the top of Wenceslas Square. David Černý is the artist, and the dead/upside-down horse is generally considered to be symbolic of the end of Communism.

The Old Town City Hall (as opposed to the New Town City Hall, which is half a block from my apartment, and has since been replaced by the New City Hall in Old Town) at the heart of Staré Město (Old Town). Old Town goes back to the 9th century. That was a really, really, really long time ago. 

Among the most iconic parts of Prague--aside from the Prague Castle and the Charles Bridge--is the astronomical clock on the side of the Old Town City Hall. It rings every hour on the hour (we missed it by about 15 minutes. Good thing I'm here for 4 months!), and the little skeleton on the top right dings his bell. The clock includes a ring that tells time according to the old Czech 24-hour method, Roman numerals for the way we tell time, and then some other outdated ancient method that I can't remember right now. There's also a ring with the Zodiac signs. And then below the clock is a full calendar of "svátek," or Name Days, which are a big deal here, although lots of people are now giving their kids non-traditional names.

This is a view of the Prague Castle from right at the beginning of the Charles Bridge. The Prague Castle complex (it's not just the castle-looking thing, but also all the buildings around it) is where government operations take place even today; the president works from the castle-looking thing, even though his power is secondary to that of the Prime Minister who works from the small-ish white building all the way on the right. But, the President chooses the Prime Minister. 

Closer-up of the Prague Castle. Though the sky looked like it was threatening to rain, luckily it didn't, and the color was beautiful against the rusted-reds of the roofs.

One of the many statues on the Charles Bridge named for, you guessed it, King Charles IV! Imagine having a city where almost every prominent building/structure/institution was named after you...

Peeked in past a wrought-iron gate and saw this old mill with a funny-looking goblin dude looking over it.

(Galya and Noa, this one's for you!) A tribute to John Lennon on the Lennon Wall--yes, it's that Lennon, not the other Lenin. I'll have to go back with a Sharpie so I can leave my mark!

On the way up to the castle complex! The building on the top right of this picture is the Schwarzenberg Palace; today it houses a baroque art collection and belongs to the state. Historically, however, it belonged to the family of Karel Schwarzenberg, who just lost the presidential election, to the dismay of many liberals. 

Looking down at Prague from the top of the castle complex!

And again.

The entryway to the president's compound. The statues on top of the gate are kind of terrifying--one is a guy about to stab someone, and the other looks like it's a guy playing Quidditch and about to use the bludger bat to block a ball from smashing his face, but actually he's about to use the bludger bat to beat someone. Other than that... the guards are part of the military, and switch every hour. Like the palace guards at Buckingham Palace, they don't smile.

Entryway into the second courtyard of the Castle compound. I lost track of how many courtyards there were, but it was a lot.

Ellie wins the prize of being the first (intentionally-photographed) human to make an appearance on my blog! This is in front of the St. Vitus Cathedral, built in the 1340s, which is also in the Castle complex. It's enormous. We walked past the side of the cathedral to get to the entrance (those doors aren't actually open to the public) and the gargoyles peed/spat down collected rainwater on us!

Stained glass in the St. Vitus Cathedral painted (!) by Alfons Mucha, the Czech Art Noveau painter.

More stained glass, not painted by Mucha. Every five--which happens to fall this year--the crown jewels are put on display to the public. I just might have to brave the long lines to snag a peak!

Side exterior of the St. Vitus Cathedral. If you look closely, you'll see that there are actually two clocks--the top one tells you the hour, and the bottom one tells you the minute.

This picture is meant to illustrate the contrast between the old part of the cathedral and the new part. One the right side of the picture you can see the blackened exterior of the building, which is actually from the original struture in the 14th century. On the right the exterior is much cleaner, and was built/restored in the 19th and 20th centuries. The gold-painted mosaic, however, is original I believe.

AND NOW FOR A CHANGE OF PACE, SOME OF MY FAVORITE DOORS SO FAR:

Tucked away in the back of a garden next to a pre-school that used to be a church. 

Next to the Old Town City Hall/astronomical clock building.

I forget where I saw this.

Next to the Lennon Wall.

St. Vitus Cathedral.