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.
Friday, December 25, 2015
Krakow Calling
Recently I went to Poland. I had wanted to for a while since my previous experience in Poland was very short and might not count as a trip to Poland for some people.My last "trip" to Poland was through Slovakia in the High Tatra mountains. I basically walked across the border sat down, rested for a few minutes and walked back to Slovakia. This was on the highest mountain in Poland, Rysy. I'm pretty sure I mentioned it in a blog post about the Tatras.
This trip was also short, only two nights, and I'm sure I will be going again. You would think travel to Poland would be simple, and with a car I imagine it is. If you are going to go by train it's a bit more complicated. As far as I know Polish Railways and Czech Railways are not exactly friends and there are different requirements and regulations for operating trains in Poland and Czech Republic. It could be a matter of purchasing a locomotive that meets both country's requirements is too expensive, but it is actually that such a locomotive did not exist until very recently (just a few months ago). There is a lot to it, there are different kinds of electric lines in Poland and blah blah blah. In short, you can't take one train from anywhere in the Czech Republic to anywhere in Poland. You must transfer somehow. I transferred to a bus.
I didn't check Krakow out as much as I would have liked, it's a very pretty city. At least the historic center is pretty. So a trip back to see Krakow proper is most likely in order. I spent most of my time in Oswiecim which is where the Auschwitz concentration camp is. This of course wasn't the happiest visit of the year and I will have a completely separate blog post about it, just not during Christmas.
As I said the Old Town Square or Rynek Glowny and historic center are beautiful.
The central square is also HUGE. This photo maybe shows about half of it. The large building on the left is an old textile marketplace. It bisects the square and now houses tchotchke vendors for the edification of tourists. I walked through it, but nothing really caught my eye. It seems well organized, just a big hall with booths on either side.
Of course there is a clock tower in the square, as you can see, and there is a pump placed on the spot where a man immolated himself in the 1980s. Evidently Mr. Badylak chained himself to this well before setting himself alight. I apologize that the wiki link for Badylak is in Polish, no English version exists so it's off to Google Translate for you. Not every town square has such a place, I think that is probably a good thing. While researching this post I discovered that Jan Palach immolated himself basically on the steps of the national museum. So Prague has some history like this as well.
I want to try and keep this post happy, so I dispense with the self-immolation talk. It's a fun word to use though and one I don't find myself with much use for in normal conversation. I think now it is out of my system for the foreseeable future.
As you can see, most people use the square for happy things like festivals and shopping and, taking wedding photos. Like all European central squares there is also a cathedral, or at the very least a church.
This is St. Mary's Basilica. There were signs posted in front of the church not to enter, which of course every tourist ignored. I hesitantly ignored the signs as well and went inside. Once I saw the reason for the signs I quickly made my exit. They were having confession. Not just any confession but an open-style confession. There was nothing to separate the penitent from the priest. In what I briefly saw, the priest was holding his hand in front of his eyes to avoid seeing who the penitent man was. As soon as I saw this I left immediately. We'll all have to wait until my next trip to see photos of the inside of the basilica.
Behind the basilica there is another tiny square. I think it is in fact called Maly Rynek, at least the street is named that. It means "small market." To me it was a very beautiful place and in the photo above the light was amazing combined with the cobblestones wet with morning dew this quickly became my favorite part of the city center.
I should also note that the Poles are very religious on the whole, a 180 degree shift from the Czechs, and there were nuns everywhere. In the center you couldn't swing a rosary without hitting a nun. It was really nice to see such a devout population. I would see later that not every Polish girl wears particularly modest attire to Mass, which took me back a little, but whatever at least they are going, right.
The nun in the photo above was moving so quickly I almost missed her, but with the light and the wet stones I was compelled to photograph her. Had I seen her in time I could have done a better job, but I still really like this frame. So I included it, because it's my blog that's why.
There are, of course, other churches in the city and the historic center consists of many small, romantic little streets and alleys. The thing I found most interesting about the city center is that it is surrounded by a wall. It's like some sort of old fortification. The fact that much of it is still there and there is now a giant park surrounding the center is very cool.
I honestly don't know the names of these two churches. They were the first ones I saw as I was walking to the center for the first time and I thought they were beautiful and that the light was wonderful. I like the two different styles so close together. This mix of architecture is a bit more classy than how it's done in Sofia.
They also have a castle in Krakow. I didn't really visit it. I just walked up to one of the gates. It was closed, so I decided that I will check it out during my next trip. It is really close to the city center.
Krakow also has a river, the mighty Vistula. It's navigable, and happens to be the longest river in the country. I was staying on the other side of the river from the center so I crossed it a few times. The bridge opposite the one I always walked across was lit in a cool way.
The other tourist attraction I wanted to see in, or rather near, Krakow is the Wielicka Salt Mine. It's in the small town of Wielicka (pronounced Vee Leech Ka) about nine miles south east of Krakow. The easiest way to get there is to take the train. Head into the station, catch the hourly commuter train and pay the conductor something like 5 Zloty for the trip. The train station in Wielicka is about 100 yards from the entrance to the mines.
The village itself is also beautiful. It's mostly a suburb of Krakow as far as I can tell, but I don't think the fine residents of Wielicka would appreciate that assessment.
Miners are religious, many of them are anyway. It's comforting to put your faith in God when your "office" could become your crypt in an instant. This is the big church in town. I don't know the name and Google Maps is quite devoid of information about the village.
So, the mine. I was greatly anticipating this part of the trip and I was not disappointed. I was in fact quite impressed. I only have one complaint about the tour and I should have expected it. It's popular, so they kind of rush groups through the place. It takes about three hours, which is a longish time but I always kind of felt like we were being hurried through. I don't think tours would be like that in the off season though as there are nowhere near as many visitors.
So salt used to be kind of a big deal. That whole part of history where the Romans sowed salt on the fields of Carthage, whether mere legend or not, was akin to destroying your enemy's agricultural abilities with gold. I've disliked some people, but never enough to bludgeon them with gold bars also, I don't have the means.
Back to salt being important. The book Salt will confirm that cultures throughout history in all corners of the world have put great value in salt. I know for a fact that gathering salt is a tremendous part of a Zuni male's coming of age ceremony. Due to the major importance of salt, this particular mine was crucial and it was owned by kings. It was an honor to be a miner here and the men were treated well. It was not some slave labor camp, at least that is what Paul the tour guide told us. The mine was also significant for people to visit. I liked the tour, why wouldn't some ancient celebrity like Copernicus, who evidently did visit the mine.
They carved a statue of him in the mine. They carved a lot of statues in the mine. From what the guide told us, famous visitors generally get a statue. Most of the statues are carved out of the salt that is in the mine.
Like this guy for example. He visited the mine and was famous. You all recognize him, right? Really, I think this is a bust of one of the kings who owned the mine at one time or another. You can see that these statues are impressive, but some like this one look like they could be better. The guide told us that all the statues in the mine are, and were, created by the miners. They didn't hire sculptors or artists to make any of the salt sculptures in the colliery. With some of the sculptures I find it a little hard to believe but hey, it's what the man said.
What surprised me the most is that most of the support structure for the mine, for the longest time, was wood. As you can see in the photo above a lot of wood, but nonetheless -- wood. At some point in the not-too-distant past they got with the program and started using roof bolts, because it's better. All along points of the tour you walk through corridors like the one pictured above only the wood is white. Again the tour guide told us, these white logs had not been painted but are coated with a crystalline layer of salt. Which, as you can imagine, gets out of hand after a century or so.
The above photo is a bit more of a rare case. This was an area with a bit more seepage. All mines leak, that's a way of life much like all damns leak. The problem is salt is a little water soluble and this has the potential to cause some structural complications. So, while this is not a mine that is an active profitable mining operation, this is still an active mine from a maintenance perspective. They have to keep working it to keep it safe and there are about 300 miners who do so. They actually make more money ushering tourists through in groups of 50 now than they do from selling the salt. Which you can buy here if you really want. It's like $3 for 2lbs and is made from the water they remove from the mine. I bought some rock salt from one of the many road side vendors and it's good stuff.
All along the tour there are displays of the history of how they used mechanical-advantage machines in the mine. There are many, many examples all complete with dummy horses and people. The mannequins for the people appear to have been purchased from a company that only makes Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon dummies for archeology museums, or this is what Poles looked like in the 13th century.
If you are an engineer, or a miner, or a physicist or just like to tinker with machines you can appreciate how remarkable all this stuff is. It's all just pulleys and ropes and mechanical advantage, no hydraulics here.
We got to see some of the largest devices of their kind on the tour, and by that I mean something like "the largest Polish-made, peg-wheel mechanical doodad" in the world. It's kind of a specific title. We were also told by our guide that sometimes the machines may have been impressively huge, but were not as efficient as they could have been or were maintenance nightmares. I can imagine that the huge device above was troublesome when those tiny pegs always needed replacing.
In the mine there are some gigantic excavated chambers. I've been underground a few times, okay a bunch, and I have seen some giant chambers both manmade and natural; I can tell you that these Polish miners knew their shit.
It is very difficult to accurately depict the size of some of these chambers. Some of them are so large that I think it would be possible to fit a building or two inside. I'm sure there were some where you could put a house.
See, famous visitor gets a statue. This one is copper and corroded a touch from all the salt in the air. I quite enjoy the way the sculptor was able to incorporate movement into this piece. That will be the end of my art critique.
Other than the Chopin chamber, with a staircase that is exhausting to look at and fortunately we didn't have to climb, this was one of two other chambers with a pond (they call them "lakes" but come on) in it. I think I remember the guide telling us that the lower levels, which we are unable to access, contain more and larger lakes. By the way, each level of the mine is a little larger in square kilometers, whatever those are, than the village which rests above it; and there are nine levels to the mine. In other words, it's gargantuan, it's much bigger than Paris for example.
Remember when I said the the Poles are a religious people? And then remember again when I said that miners are a religious sort? No? Come on people keep up it's not like there is a mountain of text here. Anyway, when you mix the two you get a few, who at some point over the course of the 700 years that a mine is working, will want to build a chapel.
Pretty cool, right? It's nice I like it personally. The floor there, it's not tile. That's right, it's salt. They just carved the floor out of the bottom of the chamber. So, this chapel is beautiful, but not quite enough I guess. Someone needed to carve a church into the mine, or many out of the mine. It depends on how you look at it. If you feel the church was always there and the creators just brought it out, then...
While the tour was excellent, I did say I felt rushed the whole time. There was our guide, at the front, and then there was a docent at the back helping to herd us along. I can understand this because we were right on the tail of a large group of Russians and there was an equally large group of Chinese-speaking people behind us. It's a well-oiled machine, but I think during the winter it's a bit more chill. When the tour is over you will have the option to hop in the mine elevator, you descend via a very long staircase, or continue to the mine museum. The photo below is basically where the tour ends, but around the turn of the century they used to have boat tours from this point.
You might be thinking right now, "isn't the whole place a big museum?" Yes, it is, but if you take the tour of the specific underground museum you will get to see more things more closely and without the rush through of the larger tour. The museum tour consisted of my guide and two Brazilian guys. That was it.
If I hadn't seen the museum I would have missed this beauty, a custom mine cart build specifically for the emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire so he could take a tour. The Emperor sat up front, note how the opulence diminishes as you get to seats for his advisors and then staff.
The museum has an exceptional art collection and the guide told us that the salt in the air preserves mostly everything. He said the air is very clean because of the salt in it and that it's cleaner and healthier than the air outside. There is now even a spa in the mine where people with respiratory issues can take advantage of this clean air.
So that is about it. I would like to say that my tour guide, I think is name was Paul, is one of the best I've ever had. He conducted the tour professionally with just the right amount of sarcasm. His English was first-rate; so good in fact that for the first 20 minutes of the three-hour tour I thought he was a native speaker, he is not. If you go to Krakow, take this tour it's worth it and it will cheer you up before or after you go to the concentration camp.
So that is basically the end of this. I want to close with a frame I made for no reason other than I thought it looked nice. I like it. I don't even remember if I took it in Krakow or Wieliczka, but who really cares.
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
The Heroes of Anthropoid
First Lieutenant Adolf Opálka.
Warrant Officer Jozef Gabčík.
Staff Sergeant Karel Svoboda.
Sargent Jan Kubiš.
Sargent Josef Bublik.
Jaroslav Svarc.
Josef Valcik.
Jan Hruby.
These are names most people will not know. Having been present for more final roll calls then I care to think about the format seems fitting to begin a discussion about these brave men. It's also veteran's day, which as it turn out isn't just a day for U.S. veterans. You'll notice not everyone has rank here either. That is because some of them were civilian resistance fighters. Some were assigned rank posthumously but I can only find mixed sources about that. These are the names of the heroes of Anthropoid.
These men were participants in Operation Anthropoid which was essentially a suicide mission to kill Reinhard Heydrich the deputy protector of Moravia and Bohemia for the Nazis. As an update, I have heard there is a feature film being made about this event called Anthropoid with some major stars. It was filmed in Prague mostly.
He was also a high-ranking SS general and all-around nasty guy. I believe he was known as "the Butcher of Prague." Hitler liked him a lot.
Read the Wikipedia entry about the assassination, it is quite a fascinating tale. The saddest part of the whole ordeal is that after the assassination the Nazis were very upset, especially when they were not able to bring the perpetrators to justice immediately. The Nazis were so enraged in fact that they destroyed entire villages in attempts to both locate the assassins as well as punish those they thought to be harboring them. The Nazis killed nearly everyone in the village of Lidice and destroyed all the buildings, it literally does not exist anymore. Some estimates say that almost 5,000 people were killed as reprisals for the assassination.
The assassins and a few other accomplices hid in an orthodox cathedral, but were eventually discovered, thanks to a traitor in their midst. It is the Cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius. There is a Catholic church dedicated to the same two saints, but it is in a completely different part of town.
They hid in the crypt below the cathedral which is now a national memorial to these men. Most of them took cyanide capsules or shot themselves to avoid being captured by the Nazis who laid siege to the cathedral for days but were unable to get into the crypt. The last words of these men were reportedly "Nevzdáme se. Nikdy. Jsme Češi" or "We will not surrender. Never. We are Czech."
I actually have walked passed the cathedral quite a few times, but was not aware of what this simple memorial on the outer wall was all about. This is the only window in the crypt and the Germans hit it with a good amount of MG-42 fire. There are many such memorials in Prague and I don't stop to try and read all of them because, I can't.
If you know what you are looking for it is not very difficult to find the entrance to the crypt. There are some flags with paratrooper wings and an orthodox cross outside blowing in the wind. It's actually a pretty cool design. The two assassins were paratroopers for the Czechoslovak army in exile you'll find all that information in the Wikipedia entry I hope you read.
Here is a better photo of the entrance to the crypt. It says, "National Memorial to the Heroes of the Heydrich Terror." You can also see the cathedral in this one too. There is even a memorial near the entrance to the cathedral. When you see all the monuments in this one place you really start to get a better idea about how important these guys were. They are without a doubt national heroes, deservedly so.
This is the "traditional" entrance to the crypt. It was blocked by a giant stone and therefore impossible for the German soldiers to move. I believe they had to use dynamite to dislodge it enough to be able to get into the crypt. This entrance isn't used anymore and was not used by the men who died there. They used a small access hole in the ceiling of the crypt (or floor of the church). The slab that was blocking this entrance is in the crypt pretty much intact.
The modern entrance door to the crypt is designed to be like an aircraft wing. It symbolizes the paratroopers and some other things. There is a small museum before you get into the actual crypt with lots of interesting historical information about the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia and the events leading up to it.
Inside the crypt there are bronze busts of each of the men. With them there is an explanation of who each man was and what he did, also when he died. These men were buried in a mass grave in Prague, so this is their final resting place. These are their tombstones.
I suppose it is somewhat fitting to have one's final resting place in a crypt. You could joke that they didn't have to go far to find a final resting place, but I really don't think that is appropriate in this case. It's also very clear that people from all over come to pay their respects to these heroes.
This destroyed section of wall contains well, wishes and prayers from dozens of people. The stairs contain all manner of small memorials. Most of them are in Czech, but not all of them are.
As you can see this note is written in English and has been placed in one of the crypt spaces behind the busts of the men. Like I said, people come from all over to pay their respects. It is a simple and unostentatious memorial. You really do have to be looking for it to find it, but once you know what you are looking for it is easy to get to and see.
Of course directly across the street from the cathedral is a pub, Krčma u Parašutistů. Basically "Paratrooper's Pub." If you happen to be a jump-qualified soldier, this might be a good place for you to have a beer. They have food too, but I didn't eat anything. They have a lunch menu, so maybe I'll go there for lunch someday.
Inside it is a fairly typical Czech pub, although with better light and more decor then what is normal for most Czech pubs. As you can see there are some decorations celebrating the Czechoslovak paratroopers and some Czech dudes enjoying a beer. This is about as authentic as it gets while still being something that won't turn tourists off. So, if you go to see the memorial, do yourself a favor and walk across the street for a beer at least. The prices aren't tourist-trap prices so at least you have that going for you.
As a special treat, I have found a youtube video of a recreation of the assassination of Heydrich. It is right here:
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