Prague - city of spires and ghost stories

Prague is a city of spires and stories. It is a city with, debatably more ghost stories than even Dublin (Although I’m sure the Irish would have something to say about that).

Wenceslas Square

I arrived at the train station a little over-awed with everything I’ve seen so far and needing some down time, but determined that I would enjoy my time in Prague. I found that my determination was completely unnecessary…

I walked from the metro station to my hostel, which is about 2 blocks and I fell in love with the city. The buildings are fairly well maintained, painted different soft colours lining the street, a bit like a length of colourful lace. In between you get the old buildings that have stood as solid giants in a changing city, blackened by the smoke of years. You obviously also get the obligatory McDonalds and building repairs. The trams through the streets give the city a Western European feel but you know that you are in a post-Communist country on the East side. But more than anything, you get down town and you notice the hundreds of spires of Prague. Beautiful and haunting, old and blackened. Metal woven crosses garnish the sky where the main religion in Prague is atheism.



Wow - first view of square



My hostel was stunning here. 5 soft white beds in a room (no bunk beds!) and a bathroom for the 5 of us. Clean and light. Once I arrived, I started chatting to other travellers and met Elizabeth. We decided that an evening trip into the old town would be a grand idea.

So, we trundled our way down to Old Town Square and I experienced one of those “Oh Wow” moments that you get once in a blue moon. The road we were following opened up through archways to a huge square. There was a huge astronomical clock outlined with gold and with hundreds of tourists milling around under it waiting for the performance it puts on every hour. There were statues and churches and stalls selling slowly roasting pork, a rolled pastry cooked on a rotisserie then rolled in sugar and spices and of course beer. Many of the tours in the city start in this square and we came across a man dressed up as the Grim Reaper leading a ghost tour through the square. The costume was 7 foot tall with a great billowing black cape floating behind. He really looked the part striding through this ancient square.

Views of the Square

Views of the Square

Views of the Square

As normal though – this was tourist central. It is unfortunate really, but tourist central is generally known as that for a reason – it is really beautiful and something worth seeing. We took lots of photos and then wended out way on through to the famous bridge in Prague – St. Charles bridge.



View from the bridge



This bridge looks really medieval in my opinion. It has statues at various intervals, which are a mingle of people and crosses and other symbolism. The grey black statues, partial lighting, a gathering storm and silent flashing lightning gave the bridge an eerie feel. Visiting this place, you could imagine why people thought ghosts were real and the legends and stories grew. After some photo taking, we started moving back toward the hostel at pace – trying to out run the in-coming storm. We rounded the corner suddenly and jumped. The Grim Reaper was towering over us! As he led his tour group around us, we gathered our breath again and giggled at our fright.

The Zombie Bar

The storm came up fast and we didn’t quite make it to the hostel. At 11:30pm we were stranded in an alleyway 10 min walk from the hostel. The only thing to do was to wait out the storm and we looked around, trying to find a place to have a drink. The only thing open was the Zombie Bar which was tucked further down the alley. It looked as dodgy as the name and even had a skeleton draped around the whiskey bottles. But we weren’t the only ones stuck and we ended up having a really fun hour with an American couple before the rain let up and we made it back safely.

The Cathedral by the Castle

Over the next few days, I went on the free walking tour of Prague, the castle tour and took myself off to the Ghosts and Legends museum which has hundreds of stories recorded of the various legends and “ghosts” that occupy the streets of Prague. I really enjoy a good story and a bit of mythology, so this museum gave a lot of food for thought – although you start to see that Prague has a really dark side to it.

The free walking tours in Europe I find rather good and Prague was particularly impressive. Basically the system works that you are not charged an amount for the tour, rather at the end of the tour you tip the guide what you think the tour was worth within your budget. I think these tours are often better than the paying tours as the guides have to entertain you in order to get a tip! This means that you don’t get bored quite as much and I found that I tend to remember more.

A view from the castle area

Some strange gargoyles in the castle area

Our guide told a number of interesting stories. It was fascinating to listen to the story of the Golem (a clay man who comes alive to protect the Jewish people), the Jewish quarter and how Hitler didn’t damage the synagogues in Prague as he wanted to build a museum to the “dead race” and a little about Franz Kafka (the famous writer).

Ghost and legends museum

The Synagogue

There was also the story of the thief that lost his arm trying to steal a necklace from a statue of St Mary. His arm can still be seen hanging in the church today – (supposedly – well there is something hanging there at least!)

The story of the astronomical clock was also very interesting. As near as I can remember it, it goes as follows. There was a fine clock maker, the best in the known world. The King commissioned a clock to be built for the town square and the clock maker delivered a master piece! The king was thrilled and very proud of his clock. A few weeks later, the King heard that the clock maker was staying up late at night working on something. The king feared that he was designing another clock for another patron that would be better than his master piece. So he sent people to do his dirty work and ended up gauging out the clock maker’s eyes. The clock maker was actually working on improvements to the King’s clock … As revenge the clock maker asked his servant to take him to the clock and he reached in and pulled out some essential cog and the clock stopped working. For over 400 years, the king’s masterpiece clock did not work and no-one could be found that understood how to fix it. Serves him right in my opinion.

The astromonical clock

The clock works now, but it seems that no-one I met knows how to read it. On the hour the clock gives a performance, the tiny statues move and two doors open and you can see the “parade of the apostles”. Then the rooster on the clock gives a grand crow (well, it twitches a bit). In order to make this show a bit grander, a real live trumpeter plays from the top of the tower every hour up to 9pm (with the appropriate number of tourists watching). The clock also has 365 names written on it which supposedly are the acceptable Czech names that you can name your child. Should you wish to deviate, I was told you needed to submit your application to a nurse who may approve your chosen name!



Names on the clock





Anne and Elizabeth

Elizabeth and Anne (another person at the hostel) invited me sightseeing outside Prague to see the bone chapel. As far as I got the story, a monk went mad and started to create ornaments for the church from the bones of long dead people. Really disturbing in my opinion and not something that I wanted to see! So I skipped the gory tour and ended up wondering the streets of Prague instead.

I rather enjoyed taking a bit of a break and simply wondering around the city with no more on my mind than needing to buy my Aunt a pressie. One interesting thing I stumbled across was some graffiti that seemed to encapsulate the history of Prague. As consolation for not going with Elizabeth and Anne that day I met up with them later on for dinner.

Graffiti

The restaurants in tourist areas are generally expensive and not all that great – so I find the best thing to do is to walk away from the tourist areas to the back streets and try to find the locals. However, often just as good is asking the hostel where they recommend you should go. This way I found a reasonably priced place that actually served good Czech food. They also brewed their own beer. So, when I went out with Elizabeth and Anne, Anne got a taster of a number of different types. This included banana beer, nettle beer, coffee beer and the normal light wheat beer that I enjoy. Very interesting - the nettle beer was a luminous green colour and I thought Anne and Elizabeth rather brave to try it.

Communist dark soda
(They couldn't get Coke)
Tastes of Cola but with herbs

Anyways, I could go on about all the stories of Prague, but I think it best to stop there. Safe to say, Prague is a stunning city… one built on dark secrets and plenty of ghost stories.



Typical Czech meal - beef, sauce, berry sweet sauce and dumpling



Statue of Franz Kafka's dream.
He's riding on a giant and pointing out parts of the city.



The national theatre



Metronome - where Stalin's statue once stood. Lest we forget.



Some spires




View down to Wenceslas Square



St George and the Dragon is everywhere in Europe - from Turkey to Czech



Inside the Cathedral



A Gargoyle



Around Prague





Common tourist sight in shops




The crowd watching the clock chime




View from the top of the clock tower



The trumpeter



Close up of sky-line




Me at the top




And again...




About 9:30pm - view of Castle area





Close up




The square




And again...