As the flight took off from Edinburgh, it was actually like walking through sniper fire - there was a terrible storm - and given the pre-historic facilities at Edinburgh airport, one actually had to walk to the aircraft which, in pouring rain and gale force winds, wasn't a good omen for the start of a holiday. But that didn't deter me....
The first stop was Frankfurt. I was expecting a modern looking skyline with nothing much to write about. That is exactly what I found. But then, to be fair, I was there for even less than 24 hours. At the airport, as I struggled with the change to buy the shuttle-to-the-city ticket, the lady at the counter, in her best german accent, told me that she had the same problems whenever she visited the UK. I didn´t do much for my own cause when I dropped all my change and everyone in the queue scrambled to help me pick the coins up. Considering that most of the other countries I´m planning to visit in this trip (with the exception of Austria) have different currencies do follow the news to read about an Indian spilling change everzwhere (oh yes, everyplace seems to use a different keyboard so also be prepared for for sum strainge wordes.
OK, before I get back to Frankfurt, a word about the bright yellow round object in the firmament which was the first thing i noticed when I reached there. Sigh. If only the sun rose on the British Empire once in a while that would be great.
Having become used to the quiet Scottish kids (which probably has something to do with the fact they always have some condiments and refreshements that keep them busy and fat), I was initially disturbed when 3 toddlers in the shuttle from Frankfurt airport decided that this was the time when they had to impress everyone with their sub-five word vocabulary. It was beginning to get on my nerves (since I couldn't understand their limited vocabulary) when they suddenly started making all sorts of funny noises (i'm sure it wasn't German! They were synchronising these noises even though they were sitting with their embarrassed parents in different parts of the bus) - as the other passengers became more and more irritated, I started enjoying their discomfort :) Yes, contrarianism is fun!
The river ´Main´ runs through Frankfurt giving it its formal name ´Frankfurt Am Main´. Though there are a number of un-European bridges on the river (remember, more than 80% of the city was destroyed due to the antics of a certain Fuhrer), it still cuts a handsome figure with a very modern skyline interspersed with old-style buildings. The city, rebuilt almost from scratch after WWII, does maintain a very old-school look with lots of quaint and winding alleys and back streets (if you can overlook the glass monstrosities called modern buildings).
The next day when I woke up and looked out of the window, I could have been forgiven for thinking that I was back in Scotland. It was cloudy, drizzling, and windy! So much for the excitement of seeing the sun the previous day! And my misery for the day had only started - when I reached the train station to take the train to Prague, I saw a big 'Train is cancelled' - the next train was an hour later and within minutes they announced that that train was cancelled too (so much for German efficiency!). And now I had to change the train twice to get to Prague - when we were about to reach Leipzig (the first layover), the TT made an inordinately long announcement in German followed by a terse one in English (surely, he omitted some of the important information he had given out to his countrymen) which was to the effect that we had roughly 15 seconds to catch the connecting train which was, to make things just a wee bit interesting, at a platform on the other side of the railway station. Fortunately, I was able to keep Indian athletic pride intact as I out-ran some of the German Octagenarians and managed to get on the train in the nick of time. But then so did all the others.So much for his 'you have 15 seconds' message!
The second layover, fortunately, was for a couple of hours at Dresden and I was able to do a 'running tour' of Dresden - surprisingly a pretty city - despite having only Vonnegut's 'Slaughterhouse V' as background knowledge'. The train route from Dresden to Prague (about 2 hours) had rolling hills on one side and a river on the other - and the fact that it was misty and foggy (remember, they were trying hard to remind me of sun-starved Scotland) really made it a nose-against-the-window journey.There was an extremely attractive Czech / Slovak (couldn't differentiate) woman in my compartment and the TT, a very youngish looking chap, started fumbling when she spoke to him. She then said something which, to my untrained-in-czech-or-slovak-ear, was to the effect that she didn't have enough money for the ticket. The poor TT was at a loss and, after turning all sorts of different shades of red, let her buy a reduced ticket. Men will be men all over the world!!!
By the time I reached Prague (Praha) it was already dark yet I went to explore the city - I was stunned, to say the least. The gothic- and baroque-style buildings and the ceaseless trams tinkling their wee bells make it a total fairy tale. Most of the opulent buildings remind one of cake with lots of beautiful and colourful toppings. The river Vltava cuts the city into half (on one side is the castle in Mala Strana that dominates the city skyline) and the other side are Stare Mesto / Nove Mesto (which are the old/new parts of the city). The city, rightly, is called 'the city of hundred spires'. The main square Staromestske Nam, is home to the Tyn church (which has twin gothic spires) and the Old Town Hall built in the 14th Century (the NEW town hall, btw, was built as late as the 15th century). Anyways, the old town hall has an astronomical clock that comes to life every hour with moving skeletons (artificial hopefully) and apostles. The gentle tintinnabulation of bells full-stopped a very funny sounding high-note trumpet which leads to chuckles and applause from the hundreds that stand below to watch the spectacle.
The most famous bridge of Prague (and among the prettier ones i've seen) is Charles Bridge (Karlov Most) - not, btw, named after the future King of England (thankfully) but after a 14th Century Czech King Charles IV. The bridge , built in 1357, is lined with Baroque statues and is often called 'the open gallery under the sky'. Today, sadly, it is overrun with tourists like yours truly and 'artists' and 'buskers' who cater to the aforesaid tourists. That said, it does afford some stunning views of all the gothic spires that dot the Praguian (?)skyline.
The thrives on a man named Kafka. I've read only a couple of his stories which is probably as much as most people have read - but everyone considers themselves to be a Kafka-expert as soon as they land in Prague. And the souvenirs based around the man are sometimes overdone.
There is a very strong Cafe culture here and one can imagine the intelligentsia discussing Dubcek in 1968 or Havel in 1989 while sipping a latte or a capucino. I can picture the Praguites (?) living it up Bohemia-style (Prague IS in Bohemia, btw). Beer, ofcourse, is the staple here - the local word for this necessity is 'pivo' - and plenty of it flows all around - Budvar, Pilsner Urquell, Krucovice. Cuisine? There is too much meat and too few vegetables. I've had to survive on soup and pasta :(
Prague turned out to be an extremely musical city - fortunately, the Czech's taste in music is frozen at the time of the Velvet Revolution (the word for when they shunned Communism in the late 80s) so one gets to hear 80s music all around - shops, restaurants, bars. It was a welcome change from all the Amy Winehouse and Snowpatrol shit one is forced to hear in the UK. Yesterday (28th) was the Czech national day so there was a big music concert in the Old Town Square - there was a Beatles Revival Band followed by a band comprising of grandfatherly rockers who played 50s Elvis and Little Richard Rock'n'Roll Music. I followed up the evening with a Classical Music concert (that is the thing to do at Prague) at the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra - the ticket set me back quite a bit but it was every rupee worth it (and I HAD to celebrate Diwali) - they played music which I recognised (Mozart, Brahms, Vivaldi and the local boys Smetana and Dvorak). The lead violinist looked like a computer nerd from Google.com and one of the co-violonists was surprisingly good-looking and whenever she would look and smile at her accompanists (is that a word?) they would blush and end up striking wrong notes. It was fun to watch (and listen too!).
After that initial burst of sunlight I was fortunate enough to see in Frankfurt, I've only managed to see clouds, rain, mist and fog! Scotland chaseth me....Speaking of the British Isles - I had been warned against the dangers of the British tourists in Prague - however, since most of them descend over the city during the weekend, I was fortunate enough to be deprived of their pleasurable (!) company - though there were a few groups which could be heard and smelt from a distance !!!!!
Yes, Prague is over-run with tourists. Too many of us. There are so many tacky shops selling jewellery, art, crystals, wooden puppets and foreign currency that I wanted to apologize for being a tourist myself. Prague Castle, which is extremely beautiful (supposedly the largest castle complex in the world and a city in itself) probably had half a million tourists there - complicated by the fact that there was a military ceremony going on. After the ceremony, which had army officials from all over the world, I saw a dapper Indian army official and ran over to him (I just had to do it) - he turned out to be India's Defence Attache in Prague and was as excited to see me as I was to see him (there aren't, sadly, many Indian tourists or residents in Prague).The castle complex is on a hill-top and its main church St Vitus Cathedral (a huge 14th C gothic structure) can be seen from all around. But it was fun to get lost in the narrow winding medieval crooked lanes.
I obviously don't understand a word of what people say here. Fortunately, everyone speaks english. But what is really confusing is that the word for Entrance is 'Vchod' and that for exit is 'Vychod'!. The most common greeting is 'Dobry Den' (good day) which is shortened to D.Den :) And 'hello' is 'ahoj' which does sound a bit odd considering that the Czech Republic is land-locked!
That's me for today. I move to Vienna tomorrow, more from there
anurag
PS: The biggest problem I faced was that Germany was an hour ahead from UK so I had to shift my watch ahead the moment I landed there. But the next morning daylight saving time stopped so I had to move back an hour again - this was something my not-so-reliable-and-aging-body-clock did not take too well.
Snippets:
I
Wife: Isn't that building really awwwwwwsome and look at that statue (Pointing to a statue of Kafka).
Husband: `So what exactly is that guy famous for?`
Whiny Kid: `Hey mom, look there's a McDonalds round the corner'
(I'm not joking........No prizes for guessing which country these items came from :))
II
When I went to change some GBP to Czech Kroner, the man looked at my Bank of Scotland notes and said 'Scotland money, no good! Want England money'- all the while he was tapping the currency notes on the forehead of QE2!
III
One of the shops I entered to buy some postcards had the oldest lady I've seen in a while. She was so cute and great-great-great-great-grandmotherly and tried her best to sell me some books (I had only entered to buy some postcards) and it really broke my heart to say that I didn't want to buy her books (despite her charming marketing skills). She then got all confused with the change she was supposed to give me....Maybe i'll go there and buy a few books :)
(Oct, 2008)
