Mistakes Aren't Always Bad

The other day I had a little time on my hands and I decided to go check out this Prague Metronome thing I've heard about. If you look for it you can see it from the Charles Bridge. I misread my map and thought it was just across the Charles Bridge, not overlooking it. Oops.
The story about it is that were the metronome is there was once a GIANT statue of Stalin. The statue was destroyed, blown up, and nothing sat in it's place for a long time. Then someone put up this metronome. Really if you want to know more about it read this. I understand it is a great place for skateboarders now.


Upon closer inspection, this thing looks like a repurposed oil derrick to me. It is good for something else too.


If you have an old pair of shoes you don't want anymore you can just hang them from the power line that feeds the metronome. The park where the metronome is is a very large park on a hill and affords some pretty great panoramic views of the city.


Anyway, like I said. I misread the map and was trying to get across the river on the wrong bridge. I thought the thing was across the Charles Bridge and I was wrong, but to avoid the tourists on the bridge I took a bridge in between the Charles and the one I was supposed to take. Sounds complicated, I know. It's not really. Maybe a map will help.


So, as you can see, I was not even close by any calculation; unless you count that I was in the same city. As I started walking across the square I felt a few drops of rain. "No big deal," I thought I'm sure it will be light and over soon. I was telling myself this because this was the first time I left the house without my umbrella. Well, I was wrong.
I made it all the way to the other side of the river and was now making my way back to where I thought the metronome was. Of course I was incorrectly going in the wrong direction. I thought this might be a nice time to walk without crowds and find the thing. I walked past several groups of tourists cowering under bridge arches and awnings etc. It was also pretty cold and I was pretty wet. It was of couse pouring now. My jeans were soaked, which really wasn't so bad as long as I didn't have to lift my legs up too high to do anything practical, like walking up stairs. If you haven't been here, Prague is not really ADA compliant. If you're in a wheelchair you are pretty much screwed. The jeans being wet really was the worst part. My wool jacket wasn't going to be a problem and my synthetic watch cap fortunately works a lot like wool. So, other than freezing when I lifted my legs up I was just a bit heavier than normal. I could stand to pack on a few pounds anyway, but we all know about water weight.
By the time I made it to the Charles Bridge I had decided that it was going to be dark soon and it was going to get colder then and having soggy britches was going to really be annoying. So I said to myself, "forget the metronome for today. I'm going to go home and change pants." Off I headed home, over the Charles Bridge because it was the fastest way, and it had thinned out just a bit. Well, by the time I made it to the other side of the bridge, the rain had stopped and I got to see the first thing I would call a sunset since I arrived here. Now, the sun didn't come out mind you but enough of the clouds parted to make things pretty. So, since I wasn't getting any wetter I decided to photograph the sunset.



See, I told you it was pretty. I shot from a few places on the bridge and these two were my favorite. I also took a photo of a statue with some nice clouds behind it.

I stopped for a little bit to listed to a song by this jazz band that plays on the bridge and in the square and tries to sell CDs. They are pretty good. I grabbed a frame of the singer/percussionist with the castle in the background and then I went home to change my pants and then go to the store.


Later I decided to look at the sunset photos from the bridge and make them the pretty ones up above there. All my photo buddies will notice that these images are worked a bit. Really, they aren't that bad. "Nothing you couldn't do in a darkroom," as they say and I'll have you know I only used one RAW frame to make these photos. So really, it's just a crapload of burning and dodging. Granted it took me a while to process these and I like them, possibly the tighter one the best but that isn't the exciting part.
After I finished making these I said to myself, "wow, these are really pretty. I'm going to make a wallpaper picture out of them." I do that a lot with photos I take a really like. Maybe not A LOT, I've done it 20 or so times. Well, I've been messing around this week with Photoshop CS6 and I remembered it has a new feature called "Content Aware Scaling." This is a scary thing for serious documentary-style photographers because it is advertised to make a photo fit a given size frame without removing anything from the photo.
I thought to myself, "these photos are just for my wallpaper. I'll give Content Aware Scaling a try since I don't want to crop." Well, I forgot to resize the photos at all and just did some of the CAS steps. It's really quite simple. The result was very encouraging for me.
If you've read my post about going to Washington D.C. you remember that I really liked viewing impressionist paintings when I was there. I loved them and I had been thinking a little about how to make my photography more impressionist. That is a tricky thing considering that some impressionists were in part rebelling against pure realism. Then when you consider that the camera is a pretty powerful pure-realist tool change gets tough. But when I looked at my wallpaper and saw this:


I got really really excited. This is pretty much EXACTLY what I have wanted to do. Which I suppose is more post impressionism or surrealism, but whatever. This photo will fit the screen on your 17" macbook perfectly by the way. This one is my favorite. It was a complete mistake and I can't wait to make it again. I am pretty excited about experimenting with this mistake and seeing what I can come up with.
The same effect applied to the first photo has a bit too much foreground in it for my tastes, but I'll put is up anyway so you can see. I have a lot to learn about how the computer makes calculations about what it keeps, it will be interesting to learn for sure.


So, if you're keeping score that is four mistakes for the day. They all combined to make me really happy with myself. I went back to the metronome the next day and took some photos of it. There were many skateboarders near it as well, just like the Wikipedia entry said.

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 you can see I had it pretty much to myself by this point. At the top of this hill before you go into the castle complex there is a great view of some of the U.S. Embassy grounds, they are truly impressive.
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.

Sailing on a river of pivo

So far I've discovered that there are lots of really neat things about the city of Prague. There are bars which are more like rabbit warrens. There is a place called U Sudu I have been to a few times. And there is another place called Chapeau Rouge which is supposed to be four stories underground with a dance club and some other kinds of venues all packed in there. But no matter what the bar they all have one thing in common, beer.
There is practically a bar on every block in this city. I don't just mean to say the center of the city is packed with bars and pubs and whatnot, when you get outside the city center there are still bars everywhere. Some bars are a little harder to find than others and it's hard to tell if some of them are open or not until you push on the door. In this city it is completely reasonable to have maybe five neighborhood bars you can walk to in five minutes and they all have beer.
It turns out Czechs drink more beer in a year than anyone else on the planet. Yeah, I thought it was Germany too. Turn out Germany is a fairly distant second to the Czech Republic. If you don't believe me Wikipedia has some figures here. We all know everything on Wikipedia is true.
If you go to the right bars and get the right beer you can generally have a half liter of draught beer for anywhere from 28-35kc. So, you're looking at $1.50 or so for a pint of REALLY good beer. One Albuquerque bar I worked in we charged $1 for a pint of Pabst. Any beer you can get in a bar in Prague is 100000 times better than Pabst. Also, a bottle of water in a restaurant will cost you the same, if not more, than a 1/2 liter of beer so why bother to drink water?
I think one of the reasons beer is so cheap here is that no one in this country has any idea how to pour a draught beer. There is always so much head on the beers that it gets a little frustrating. I simply do not have enough nose grease to deal with it all. I've resigned myself to simply just waiting a little while for the beer to settle.

Kutná Hora

This last weekend I ventured outside the city of Prague with some friends to a little town about 73 kilometers southeast called Kutná Hora.




So, this is pretty much what I would expect to see in an ossuary, given the Google definition. It's a pretty mundane stack of human bones with a little flair at the front. Don't ask me how that tunnel part was achieved, I have zero experience stacking human bones. I think it was probably tricky. The pile of bones is basically a pyramid going all the way to the ceiling and is about 20 feet high. There are four of them, one in each corner of the church.


If you're interested in some tips to improve your bone stacking technique perhaps a close-up photo will help. If you look at the skull in the center you'll see a coin in the right eye, it's a 2kc piece. Evidently tossing coins as an offering is pretty popular in this church.


As you can see from this photo a broken cranium makes a great place to leave your offering. Most of the coins are pretty small, but if you look at that one at the bottom center and left a bit that is the largest coin possible, a 50kc piece. If I'm going to throw money at the dead I'm going to throw big too.


Like I said, tossing money as an offering is really popular.


This is one of the pieces of art which greets you as soon as you walk into the place. As you can see somebody spent a lot of time and effort to make stuff out of human bones. And it gets even stranger.


Also at the entrance are this huge chalice looking things, one on either side of the church but we're not done.


A bone coat of arms. It really doesn't get a whole lot more interesting than that, right? I mean what else can you do with a coccyx?


This isn't my favorite photo, but it is still pretty important. This chandelier contains at least one of every bone in the human body. So I'm told, I didn't examine it to find a hammer and anvil. I believe them. I think you have to be very creative, slightly mad and completely burned out from stacking human bones to be able to create something like this.


Compared to the chandelier and the coat of arms, this is just a few boring jolly rogers stacked on one another. Honestly, it is one of my favorite photos from the day.

I was with other people, and I could have spent a lot more time in the bone church taking photos, but you have to go with the group sometimes. I also could have spent half the day taking photos in the cemetery which surrounds the church. Like I said, I want to go back in the spring or summer when it is warmer, the days are longer and I can spend more time photographing the amazing town. Maybe the grapes will be growing by the Jesuit school too.

Well, it has been just over two weeks now and I have been pretty busy. I have also had some time to explore the city and notice differences and similarities, at least on the surface. So here is goes, I'll try not to ramble too much.
So far people are just people and the world is pretty much the same. I could do with the words being a little shorter, but I'll figure that out it's just tricky with words like Českomoravská and they get longer.
Českomoravská is a metro stop by the way. I think it is a neighborhood.
The metro is really the easiest way to get around town and there are three lines. It's less complicated than Washington D.C.'s or New York City's. I've spent a good amount of time on it so far and the other night I was lucky enough to ride the Prague version of the Polar Express.
As I was waiting for a green-line train to take me to Staroměstská the PA buzzed and an announcement in Czech blared through the platform. I heard a few people near me chuckle. Then the tell-tale wind rushed into the station and a retro metro train which looked like Pullman-style cars pulled up. There were paper icicles on the top of all the windows and green garland with ornaments hanging off of it strung up on all the side windows. On some of the windows were drawings made by school children of what I assume to be traditional Czech Christmas figures. There was a devil-looking character and and angel. I'm going to find the train again and get some photos, it's pretty cool.

This is not the super-cool Christmas train I talked about. This is a normal one.

They really like their Christmas here in Prague and not in the same way as in the U.S. Here there are decorations, but there aren't sales being advertised all over the place, although I don't have a TV so I can't be sure about that. I've been in a few stores and it's not consumer Christmas mania like I'm used to. In fact the only Christmas music I have heard so far is from carolers and street performers in the city center.

I don't really know how tall this tree is, maybe 30 feet tall. In the background is the Old Town Hall Tower, it houses the Astronomical Clock. I don't have a photo of the clock yet, later.

 As you can see it's a pretty scenic thing to see. Everyone likes a nice Christmas tree and this one doesn't disappoint. I did make it back to the square for the tree lighting, but by the time I arrived there was no way I could get close enough to see it happen. The only way I knew it was happening was because all the lights in the square were turned off. So I wandered away to find a bar with some friends and as I was leaving someone tried to sell me some drugs, ahh Prague.

This is the view from the tower in the background of the first photo. The completely awesome church in the background here is the Church of Mother of God before Týn and if I can find the door I'm going to go inside someday, maybe even to worship.

I'm usually a little slow when it comes to extracting the meaning from art, but I understood this on right away. I can't wait to go back and see it at night.

Graffiti is a pretty common thing and some idiot decided to mark up the statue, but it's bronze so that paint will buff right off. This isn't the whole memorial, it is a large set of stairs and this is the end of it. The bronze strip you see going up the middle runs the length of it and has something I don't understand written on it. And just in case you're too thick to get that the Czech people didn't really enjoy communism there is this explanation nearby.

I'm not feeling to warm and fuzzy about communism after reading this. Not that I was before.

I did duck under the rope for just a moment to take a photo of the door. I'm pretty sure no one saw me, even though this does provide good evidence of my trespass.

St. Vitus is on the left there. The river is called the Vltava. You can't see it but the National Theater is on the right across the street.

St. Vitus is top center here.

It is pretty inside. Like I said, just a little cold. It must cost a fortune to heat.

Around the outside of St. Vitus there are a bunch of random iron doors and iron pipes. I know the pipes were not part of the original construction, but I have no clue what the doors are about. Maybe when I take the tour I will find out.

If you're posting an armed guard at a Christmas tree you aren't screwing around.