Showing posts with label Prague Castle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prague Castle. Show all posts
Sunday, January 17, 2016
Christmas is Over
Another Christmas has come and gone. We have to wait almost another year before we can go through all of it again. For some that might be just fine, for others not so much.Last year I actually bought gifts for people as I traveled during the year, little trinkets here and there but things I knew people would enjoy and couldn't get anywhere else. I think that might be grow-up gifting. However, I can't be sure.
My last Christmas-type post was from Hungary two years ago. I went back to Budapest this last summer to watch the Formula 1 Grand Prix. It was hot and I was so busy with the race that I didn't even make it to Buda. I might write about the trip at some point. I'm already trying to figure out which race I should go to next. My biggest tip is this: If you are going to the Hungarian Grand Prix, take a car.
So, Christmas.
For a population that claims to be one of the least religious in Europe, not even the least religious but the most atheist in fact, the Czechs really enjoy their Christmas. I think the largest religion counted at the last census here was "Jedi Knight" if that tells you how seriously the Czechs as a whole take religion. Things have changed a lot since Jan Hus was burned as a heretic, sparking a religious war.
They do it differently than we do in the U.S. and I suppose that is just fine. Everyone does things a little differently and it seems in some instances the Czechs stick to the true meaning a little better. That isn't to say they don't commercialize the holiday here. Czechs don't have that pesky "Thanksgiving barrier" when it comes to the acceptable time to start gearing up for Christmas.
As such you will start to see shopping malls and store starting to decorate in the middle of November and a little earlier. Things don't really kick off until the last week of November though. That is when all the Christmas markets start to spring up.
Markets of all variety appear to be a European thing. This year in Prague I saw what I thought was a higher number of markets than usual. I'm used to seeing three. This year it looked like I was seeing them everywhere.
This one is at Namesti Miru, it means "Peace Square" and it really close to my apartment. I passed it every day on my way to and from work. We don't always get colorful sunsets here so this was a treat. It is a pretty large market and it is there every year.
As my morning tram ride to the Metro, then on to work, continues I passed this little market too. It's at I.P. Pavlova. There is a little square there which usually has a small farmer's market. This was was pretty local and basically a place to get some svařak. Svařak is mulled wine and it's good especially when it's cold outside. It also gets progressively weaker and more expensive the closer you get to tourist areas, so for the best stuff a local market like this one is usually the best bet. This is the first year I had seen this market.
I think the market in the photo above was my favorite. It was basically a few svařak booths and some klobasa stands. It was at Jiřiho Z Podebrad and was also super local. Jiřiho Z Podebrad, or Jiřák as the locals call it, is also the site of another very small farmer's market. It is a very popular square for other little festivals too and most of the time the place is a bit too hipster for me. This time it was not. If you needed a tree and some svařak this was the perfect place to go. Again, this was the first year I saw this market too. This square is even closer to my apartment than Namesti Miru, but it's also a lot smaller and less visited.
It's been a few years since I visited the Castle at Christmas time. The last time I did so there was a tree behind St. Vitus Cathedral and that was about it. This year though:
There was a lot of Christmas market goodness nestled in behind the cathedral and the dozens of booths were totally set up for tourists. That's all fine and good. As far as I know Prague doesn't really have a reputation for having an impressive, or many Christmas markets like Vienna or Nurnberg, but the Prague Castle is a brilliant place to put a tourist-centered market. There all those tourists are there anyway, why make them go through the hassle of walking all the way to Staromestke Namesti? Of course just outside the castle there were some more localish booths.
I suppose this one counts as a market. It was maybe 10 booths. It didn't have a homey, local feel but it was a lot more intimate that some of the giant tourist markets.
But if you were one of the tourists who decided to take the arduous walk to Old Town Square, you would have passed another small market at Kampa.
This market was basically under the castle side of the Charles Bridge, which if you're walking from the castle to old town, or vice versa, is the way to go. I can't believe I hadn't seen a Christmas market here before, but maybe I just missed it. There is usually a market here for Easter and then another one in the fall for something. There might also be one in the middle of the summer, but I'm not at Kampa much so I can't say.
The photo above is of the market on Old Town Square, Staromestke Namesti, it's by far the biggest one. As you can see, of the left of this photo, there is a giant Christmas tree. It's a real tree and I think it is the nation tree or something. Every year it is decorated with a different theme. I wasn't particularly fond of this year's theme and I'm not even 100% sure what it was. The market is so big I took several photos and even one during the day.
As you can see it is also really really crowded. I'm not a huge fan of large crowds so I didn't stay there very long. I also think I took the night photos on a Saturday evening, which if you're trying to avoid tourists is a huge mistake.
The best way to see the size and scope of the Old Town Square Christmas market is to climb the tower and shoot down. I thought about it, but I decided against it and just continued on with my walk.
The other large market is on Vaclavske Namesti, Wenceslas Square. It is hard to say how large it is because it is not as compact as the one on the old town square. The Vaclavak, another local term, is spread out and included booths in the center of the road up to the nation museum.
That is pretty much if for the Christmas markets. I'm sure there were more, but I will stick a map here so you can see where the markets were. They are gone now. Euros tear down their Christmas markets pretty quickly. None of this leaving your lights up until June stuff here.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of the markets in Prague. There may have been more I just didn't see them.
As I said, for an atheist country the Czechs do get into the spirit in a nice way. Sure one could make the arguments that the markets are commercial and the Czechs are worshiping the almighty Crown, but I think there is more to it than that. If that were strictly the case you wouldn't have things like this:
This is the second year I've seen this. It is caroling in the main train station. If you look closely you can see some people with sheet music. I honestly don't know who it is doing it, maybe the national opera company or something. I think there are a few volunteers, but the music was definitely professional. It's nice, it's free and it's not something you would expect atheists to do. As you can see this portion of the train station was packed and everyone stopped what they were doing to enjoy it. That is beautiful Christmas spirit in my eyes. I hope I don't miss it next year.
Otherwise Christmas was very mellow for me. I took a walk on Christmas Eve and a few other things. I was mostly out to "see" and take some photos. So now I'll provide some themeless random stuff I shot on my walk.
This one was actually before Christmas Eve, but I liked it so it's here. I personally enjoy the light and how that yellow window seems to be the only thing not monochrome. I do not think this photo would be as good in black and white. I generally despise selective desaturation when it's done in photoshop, but to me, since this was a real scene I quite enjoy it.
There was this little restuarant on Kampa I passed on Christmas Eve. It was occupied mostly by Russian families doing this DIY klobasa thing. Russian Christmas is in January. I had some svařak and sat by the fire. If I'm going to pay full price for klobasa it's going to be cooked. I'm not that romantic anymore, I don't think that lady is either.
Come on, open fires are cool. Why not have a tight shot of fire and sausage?
My trip took me to Karlovo Lazne where I could see the Karluv Most, Charles Bridge, and the castle.
I experimented with an HDR photo or two. This one turned out the best. Or, rather, this is the one I put the most work into. Yes, there was some color in the sky. No, there was not THAT much. It's a blog, not a newspaper.
Okay, last one. Evidently I have a thing lately for photographing street lights. I don't know why. I think two is the max I can get away with per post unless they are superb. I think the first one really is.
I debated explaining how Czechs do Christmas with Ježiček, Mikuláš, Anděl and Čert as well as how the tree is adorned with sparklers (because what is Christmas in any country without a serious fire hazard) but mostly sparkers are taken outside these days.
Maybe next year I'll try and go in depth about all those traditions. As for this year a walk and some markets will have to do.
Monday, December 24, 2012
Back to the Hrad
So the other day I made a trip back to the Prague castle, or Pražský hrad in Czech. Hrad means castle, I think you can figure out the other part.I really like the castle. It's a little difficult to explain my appreciation for the place. I'm not particularly awestruck when I visit, but the more I learn about it the more impressed I am by it. It's just a really nice place to walk to and wander around aimlessly watching people and just "seeing" as Mark Holm would say. I think as I get more comfortable going there I will shoot more. Right now I just like going and "seeing" to fill my mind, not my CF card. That isn't to say I don't always crack a shutter when I go.
For this trip I walked from home. It takes about 15 minutes and I went a different way than I usually do this time. I'm not too sure I can reproduce it on a map as the streets here are still confusing me a bit, but I'll give it a try. That's the one trouble with cities that are over 1000 years old, the planning departments didn't really have much vision.
As near as I can tell this is basically the route I took. Google says it's a little over a mile. I walked across the Charles Bridge and as I neared the castle I started going up some stairs next to the south castle wall. It was really a very nice walk in the snow and this route isn't quite as populated as the main route so I felt a little old world and more special since there were not tourists all over the place.
I was lucky as well, I made it to the top of the hill about 15 minutes before the once a day, bells and whistles, full fanfare changing of the castle guard. They do it once a day at High Noon. The whole ordeal takes about 15 minutes and I have decided I need to do a blog post on nothing but guard changes at the castle. They change the posted guards every hour, but it's nowhere as special as the once-a-day party. Sure it's no First Cavalry Division change of command, at least I didn't see any one with a basket of carrots, but it's pretty good. I debated not staying for it, but I'm glad I did.
After the changing of the guard I went and bought a ticket that lets me get into some of the other restricted areas of the castle. The ticket was 350kc and let me in to a bunch of other places. I could have forked over another 350kc for a self-guided audio tour thingy, but I just did what I usually do and did my own thing.
The castle area has been inhabited since prehistoric times and was officially founded in 880 by some price or some such. I absorbed a lot of information and don't want to get it mixed up so I suggest reading this if you're really interested. It is worth the read.
I think one of the things that stirs me about this place, and many other places I see here, is when I think about all the amazing historic sites I visited in the southwest and realize that people over here were building impressive fortifications that are still being used today at the same time Native Americans were building stuff out of mud and rocks that really, in my opinion are not nearly as impressive compared to this stuff. Sorry folks, I'll change my mind when I see a grand kiva with flying buttresses.
I checked out the permanent exhibit called "The Story of Prague Castle." They don't allow photography in the exhibit, so no dice and I didn't want to risk upsetting the nice old Czech ladies in every room to enforce the rules. I don't know if you've ever been cursed out by a Czech woman, it's not pleasant. There are all manner of artifacts and such in the exhibit and perhaps some of the most interesting things were the graves which had been moved to the exhibit.
When I say graves, I mean actual graves. They didn't just take a plaster cast of the skeletons and recreate them, no. They dug all around the grave and figured out some way to support the bottom and moved the whole kit and caboodle into this exhibition. There were several such graves in there. One of the recurring themes was that the bodies where thrown in the graves with their hands tied behind their backs. This was typical of a certain time period and the literature informed me it was most likely to stop the people coming back from the dead. It was interesting to know that people were worried about the zombie apocalypse a thousand years ago even.
Before I went into "The Story of Prague Castle" exhibit I noticed a really cool wall covered with vines. I'm sure I'll be back to this. I think it was a grape vine. I'll find out in a few months.
To me though the best part of this trip to the castle was going up in the bell tower at St. Vitus Cathedral. The tower reaches a height of 317 feet and offers some really impressive views of the city as well as the castle complex and cathedral itself.
This is a view of the castle complex and you can see town in it too. It was snowing so things were a little hazy. I think it adds some charm. The bridge on the far right of the frame in the Charles Bridge which I walked across to get here. You can also see the Church of Our Lady before Týn pretty well in this photo. It's right at the Old Town Square and about 150 feet from where I live. So you really can see my house from here.
Of course the view from the tower also afforded an amazing look at the cathedral itself. There is an extra charge to go up in the tower of 150kc but they give you a commemorative coin, whoopee. The other catch is that you have to have the fortitude to climb a 200+ foot tiny spiral staircase.
I actually had to stop a few times while climbing this because I was getting dizzy. There are many really great things about this tower. This staircase is one of them because many people don't want to bother with it, fine by me.
The staircase of course goes right by the bells in the tower. The bells are difficult to see and the one really awesome frame I wanted to make while I was in the tower was completely obscured by a wire-mesh door.
When I got to the door and looked inside there were a few ropes for pulling bells a small desk up against a wall and off in the corner, behind the ropes, was a little Christmas tree about four feet tall modestly decorated with a few ornaments. The light was excellent, the ancient wooden floor was rustic it was a great frame. I tried for several minutes to figure out a way around the mesh door, but it was just to tight. I even tried to see if my iphone lens was small enough to not be obscured, no dice.
This really was about the best I could manage for a photo of anything that says bell tower. I had to shoot this through a window which has not been cleaned in 50 years or so. You can see the effects of the window pretty clearly in the photo. Notice the reflection at the top left and the blooming just over the window. It's like I used my Hipstamatic only for reals.
Of course I was rewarded by fantastic views of the cathedral itself when I got to the top too.
These are the spires at the front of the cathedral. I really like the way the snow is clinging to the roof next to the spire.
This spire is in the middle of the cathedral. I have no idea what it is for, but there is a ladder in it so I'm sure somebody gets to go up in it every once in a while. And it's copper, which is awesome.
I was really impressed by the roof of the cathedral. Like I said Native Americans were building mud huts when people here were making copper cocks and intricate roofs like this 200 feet up. It really is impressive to me.
The 350kc pass also lets you in to areas of the cathedral you aren't allowed in for free, I assume worship is another story I'll find that out tonight at midnight mass. It's really a pretty typical cathedral inside with altars all around it and ornate stained-glass windows. The thing I liked the most about it was probably the coolest nativity scene I've viewed in a long time.
As a post-publication note: The Bishop's processional out of the cathedral at the end of midnight Mass stopped at this nativity to sing a hymn.
I have to say, for a country with the reputation for being the most atheist in Europe these folks do love their Christmas. There are trees practically everywhere. There were several in the cathedral at certain places and then about 10 or so right around this nativity. Heck, you can buy Christmas trees at Ikea in this country, awesome.
Another place I was able to see with my ticket was Vladislav Hall. Evidently it was quite the engineering feat of its day. The fact that it doesn't have any internal supports holding it up is quite amazing. I read that it was built to be large enough for nights to have combat contests in it and there is a stairway large enough to accommodate horses.
The floor alone was stunning. I doubt horses or dudes in iron shoes did particularly well on it. I suppose they put something down to keep slipping to a minimum. Just off the hall in the same building was basically the land registry office. It is where all the disputes between nobels were registered and books were kept with who had what.
The spines of the books were painted to make it easier to pick them out from the huge cabinets that housed them all.
After all this it was time to check out the Golden Lane. It's basically a bunch of little houses and shops built into the outer castle wall. You can go up into the wall battlements and there are suits of armor on display in the wall. There were rotating arrow slits in the wall. I'm a sucker for arrow slits. I really do think they are awesome.
The wooden center part rotates. Ingenious. At this point I had spent over five hours wandering around the castle and it was getting dark and I was getting hungry, but what castle tour would be complete without a medieval torture device display?
Yup, pretty standard torture stuff. The large piece on the left is of course a rack.
A better view of the rack and you can see some of the other crazy stuff. There are some masks with horns on them which I can only assume were for forcing people to drink until they popped. At least I think that is what they were for. So after I checked this out I made my way back down the hill using the main steps this time.
It is impossible to traverse these stairs without encountering at least half a dozen beggars, street musicians or the occasional living statue dude. I suppose living statues are street "performers." This guy was playing some pretty awesome flamenco tunes and he of course had picked out an awesome spot next to a altar for guitar players. You can't not make this frame and it is my favorite from the day.
