There is a big note in my journal which says the following:
NEVER EVER EVER IGNORE A NOTICE ON A WEBSITE THAT RECOMMENDS SEAT RESERVATION ON A TRAIN.
I got the 10.45 train from Berlin to Prague, EC175, and it was packed. The train was long but it seemed like it was going to leave slightly before time so we, the passengers, bundled onto the nearest carriage aided by a kind stranger with my bag again – thank goodness! Moving slowly through the long carriages with large bags turned out to be quite a sociable thing, there was lots of stopping and waiting for the people in front to find seats. I was speaking to two American girls who had been travelling since the beginning of June, they were also heading to Prague and it was a good opportunity to discuss what we were going to see.
The train left at 10.45 and I managed to find at seat at 11.10. I was sat in a busy carriage with three German girls, one of whom was using a seat for her feet. I challenged her and asked if it was free, possibly a little more fiercely than necessary but I was finally sat, hot, flustered and writing the big note in my journal. The reason why I hadn’t booked was that I didn’t want to be restricted to an area that may have been boring. The train ride was long and I read for a lot of it. Then I got talking to two English girls for the last couple of hours. They had done the hostel option and one of them was super organised, they had met at university doing a Fashion Merchandising course. I wasn’t supposed to know what that entailed so nodded and smiled. It was nice to be able to swap stories about Amsterdam and Berlin. I had seen a sand sculpture of a golden Labrador lying on a blanket in the street which I did a double take of as I thought it was an actual sleeping dog. The girls they said they had seen the same but we couldn’t remember where we’d seen it. They had also done the canal bus but had gone to see Anne Frank’s house and were disappointed as there was a large group of children there who insisted on running around everywhere and ruined the atmosphere. I realised that I hadn’t really had a lot of conversations since arriving in Amsterdam and it was nice to laugh about memories.
Prague station was big and I felt a bit lost and drained from the long journey. I changed some Euros into Czech crowns which meant nothing to me. A kind stranger, who spoke excellent English, helped me phone a taxi and waited with me until it arrived. I arrived at my hotel, found my room then a local pizzeria. The language barrier was causing a small problem which was solved with pointing, nodding and presenting me with a calculator for my bill. Went to bed exhausted and bemused; I had sat down for the majority of the day, had let the train take the strain yet I was knackered! Woke up in a far better mood, at breakfast I got talking to a couple from Paris, he was Canadian and she was German. They gave me some good tips on seemingly ‘free’ items in a restaurant and where to get the tram. I had found a free tour of Prague, https://www.discover-prague.com/en/royal-walk-free-tour and decided to do the 2pm tour and relax for a bit after breakfast.
My hotel was nice but curious; the leaves below had been placed in a hole in my room wall.
Another curious thing, this is the lift panel in my hotel. I was on floor 3…
I had a wander around the surrounding streets of my hotel and saw a sight which has to be seen to be believed:
It is not as clear as I would like but this is a seven storey building with a single ladder extending from ground to roof. The length was something to behold and if I didn’t have somewhere to be I would have stuck around just to watch a chap on the roof bring heavy items down the ladder to the two men at the bottom.
I triumphantly bought a tram ticket from a lady in a tobacconist. I say triumphantly as, like with the dinner the night before, this was accomplished through nodding, pointing and attempts at the other person’s language of which she did far better! I got the number 17 tram to the Old Square, found a lot of stalls selling souvenirs and food. I opted for a potato dish which was sold by weight instead of by portion. The price I thought I was going to pay with money I didn’t understand turned out to be more. I still couldn’t get a handle on the exchange rate which was around 30 Czech Koruna to 1 British Pound. It sounds very simple when reading that back but I already had a purse full of change as it was easier to hand over a note rather than counting unrecognisable coins out that all seemed to be a similar size and colour. I shared a table with an Australian couple who had been in Prague for five days; they pointed me in the direction of the Astronomical Clock but warned me it might be a little disappointing as it didn’t do very much.
I found a tour guide, Paul, who told me to go and watch the Astronomical clock do its thing and come back to him. I watched and I have to say I agreed with them. It was quite sweet to see little mechanical characters rotating around each other, nodding and clicking but I was a little disappointed that that was it so headed back over to the tour guide.
That was not it! Paul explained about the clock but I am going to use the words of a website; the rotating characters were the twelve apostles. ‘Death holds its hourglass and beckons to the Turkish man sculpture, which shakes its head in response. There is Vanity portrayed as a man with a mirror and Miserliness as a man with a moneybag, shaking a stick. The other statues, that don´t move, are an Astronomer, a Chronicler, a Philosopher and an Angel. When the apostles finish their journey, the golden cockerel at the top crows and quivers its wings, the bell rings and the clock chimes the hour. The Astronomical Dial shows the medieval perception of the Universe: the Earth is the centre. The blue part of the dial represents the sky above the horizon, the brown part the sky below it. There are Latin words ORTVS (east) and OCCASVS (west) written above the horizon, and AVRORA (dawn) and CPEPVSCVLVM (twilight) below. There is a Zodiac ring, which represents the stars in the sky and it moves according to it. The two clock hands bear the signs of the Sun and the Moon.
There are three circles on the dial, showing different time: the outer circle with Schwabacher numerals shows the Old Czech Time (“Italian Time”), the circle with Roman numbers shows the Central European Time and the inner circle with Arabic numerals shows the “Babylonian Time”: the length of an hour differs there according to the season – it is longer in the summer, shorter in the winter. The Prague Astronomical Clock is the only one in the world able to measure it. Furthermore, the little star by the zodiac ring shows the sidereal time. The newest part of the clock is the Calendar Dial. There is the Prague Old Town symbol in the centre. The rotary outer circle describes every single day of the year, and the current date is indicated at the top. There are also medallions with zodiac signs and with pictures depicting every month.’ https://www.prague.cz/astronomical-clock/
Once we’d heard the history of the clock and the extent of what it did, I was more impressed. The fact that the clock had been made in the 15th century was incredible but it had been doing its little mechanical dance every hour on the hour from 9am to 9pm for nearly 600 years. I wanted to watch it again to fully appreciate it but that would have to wait for another time. Paul took us around the Old Square, to view Prague Castle from a bridge below it. We could also see Charles Bridge, named after King Charles IV, and he told us that egg yolks were mixed into the mortar to strengthen the construction of the bridge which had been built in the 14th century. We were taken through the Jewish Quarters, into the outer section of St James’ church where a 400 year old mummified forearm hangs from the ceiling. This website sums up why: ‘It belonged to a thief who tried to steal some jewels from the Madonna on the high altar one night. But the Madonna grabbed his hand and didn’t want to let it go. The thief had to wait there until the next morning. The next day, when the Minorites came to the Church, they tried to separate the thief from the Madonna, but in vain. They had to cut his arm. Then the Madonna let the hand go. The monks hung the arm to remember this event and as a warning for other thieves.’ https://www.prague.net/church-of-st-james
I didn’t take a photo as the angle was quite obscure but I did see this hanging!!
Paul took us to Wenceslas Square which is one of the main city squares and the centre of the business and cultural communities in the new town. We were told of the Soviet invasion and the effects of the Second World War on Czechoslovakia. Paul was an American but had lived in Prague for twelve years. He knew his history very well and gave us an insight into the culture and lifestyle. The tour lasted for two hours and by the end I was weary. I had taken in a lot of information again and walked MILES. I found a nice café for a cup of tea and some chocolate cake before heading off to locate Charles Bridge.
I found it and my God it was busy. There were street merchants with stalls selling art and jewellery, beautiful statues and carvings adorning the walls of the bridge and many many boy scouts:
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n my way back to the Old Town Square, I overheard an English woman saying to her husband, I assumed, ‘I just want a cup of tea’ and I smiled and walked over to her and pointed in the direction of the café I had found earlier. I suggested that she get the chocolate cake too. I remember saying before that the gluttony wouldn’t continue on my holiday but sitting down between 3pm and 5pm with cups of tea and chocolate cake had become a bit of a habit. I justified it with the amount of walking I was doing…
I had a meal in Crazy Cow purely because I liked the name, found the correct tram and looked forward to getting back to the hotel. It was the correct tram, however it was heading in the opposite direction to my hotel so I got off at the next stop. Found a group of people who spoke English and they pointed me in the right direction – I did say my navigation skills were rubbish, even worse after a couple of glasses of wine in the Crazy Cow!
I got back to my hotel and turned on the TV to relax, ‘Shaun the Sheep’ in Czech was on and quite bizarre but I found a music channel playing songs from the eighties: Czech music but it was better than nothing. Prague was a beautiful place with an interesting history; the buildings had a gothic feel to some and a medieval feel to others. Like Berlin, there had been a Communist element in the city and this had been reflected in newer buildings that were grey, industrial and modern. Set against a pretty background, those buildings were ominous and looming yet part of Prague’s history so they remain.
The next day I got a tram to the station. I had been on holiday for seven days, had visited three counties in that time and had done a LOT of walking. My next stop was Brno where I intended to do sod all for a couple of days, if I couldn’t see it from my hotel window I didn’t care. I was annoyed at my tiredness and thought back to the stories I had heard from friends who had done this before. They had mentioned no such tiredness but then I realised they were in their twenties when they went on these travelling escapades whereas I am not. My step sister had told me to allow downtime and I thought I had but I was also eager to see as much as I could. The train journey was just over three hours and I was fortunate to find a nice window seat. A rather sweaty man had sat next me to me, across from me sat a young lad who looked a bit like Jarvis Cocker and a chap with an odd chin beard sat diagonally from me. I got to Brno and was disappointed not to see the platform elevators which had been prevalent in Berlin and Prague. I found the hotel and Reception staff that spoke pigeon English. They contacted a local pizzeria that could deliver and I headed up to my room.
View from my hotel window!
Rather odd pizza combination, chicken and peach but it was heartily recommended by a girl at Reception. It wasn’t bad.
I had not read anything about Brno other than in my Lonely Planet guide and thought it would be an opportune pause between Prague and Budapest. I pretty much rested up, listened to Radio Two using the free Wi-Fi, and had cups of tea with proper milk from the restaurant and lots of dozing and relaxing. Unfortunately there was a language barrier that prevented me from trying any local restaurants but Reception helped me out with a food delivery again. The hotel was nice and the staff were, helpful but I wouldn’t suggest staying in Brno unless you can speak Czech. I was travelling to Budapest the next day so practiced how to say please and thank you in Hungarian;
kérem (kayrem) is ‘please’ if asking for something
köszönöm (gusonom) is ‘thank you
My train journey was going to be four hours with no changes so I downloaded some more books for the kindle and watched some Red Dwarf in Czech – like Shaun the Sheep in Prague this was bizarre. Lister’s accent was weird, Rimmer sounded cool and the Cat was squeaky and decidedly uncool. Kryten sounded pretty much like Kryten but it was some odd viewing!
Sarah Downes
