The wind blows where it wants to...: Sleepin' under the Charles Bridge

I have never slept on a plane as well as I slept on the plane to Prague. I fell asleep DURING TAKEOFF.

My arrival in Prague was fraught with panic, because, for the first time, I was travelling somewhere where English was not the official language. And the official language was Czech, which I had NO experience with. (I've discovered on this trip that I hate coming to a place and being unable to communicate with people in their native languages. The solution for this is that I simply must learn as many languages as I possibly can. Currently working on French and Arabic, in addition to Twi.) I managed to find my way to the subway, figure out how it worked, and meet up with my friend and travel buddy Lauryn!

Lauryn and I are friends from PHTS. We've worked together a lot, taken many classes together, and generally have a good time with each other. Shortly before my trip, I was contact people I knew who were studying in the cities I was visiting, begging for some floor to crash on, and when I gave Lauryn my itinerary, she said, "Okay, you'll stay with us and then I'll come with you to Paris because my fall break's starting." This was a brilliant idea as Lauryn and I are extraordinarly compatible travel buddies. Both independent enough to not need to be doing the same things all the time, she speaks French, I speak German (and with that combination you can get through most of Europe), our senses of humor are very compatible, we balance each other well.

After dropping my stuff off at Lauryn and Emily's place (Emily was also in PHTS with us), Lauryn took me on a bit of a walking tour of Prague. Old Town, New Town, some sights. The architecture in Prague is incredible, so most of tem time I spent there just wandering around looking at buildings. Lauryn was able to share interesting information and anecdotes about a lot of buildings and statues, like about why St. Martin-in-the-Wall was "in the wall", or would point out things she'd come to love. ("THE FABRIC. LOOK AT THAT FABRIC!")

When Lauryn went off to class, I headed up to the Old Jewish Cemetery. All the Jews buried in Prague from 1439 - 1787 were buried there, resulting in about 12 layers of graves. Tombstones stacked together, falling on top of each other. There is a synagogue there which has the names of Jewish victims of the Holocaust from Bohemia and Moravia written on the walls. And there's a room upstairs filled with artwork created by children in the Terezin Ghetto. There was a woman, Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, who believed it was important to give the children some kind of outlet, some positive, creative way to processes all the things that were happening. She knew they could not stand aside and let the children despair if they were to hold onto any hope for the future. So, she taught them art. Seeing these terrifying and beautiful pieces, created out of necessity and desperation, was humbling. There is a reason we do this.

I met up with Lauryn and Stephanie (my roommate from last semester, who saw me and screamed, "THERE'S SO MUCH HAIR!"), and then we decided to see a show. (It was Lauryn's birthday, so celebration!) We did not just see any show. We saw Black Light Theater. And we did not just see any Black Light Theater show. We saw Cats. (lovingly dubbed "Cat Light Theater").

Black Light Theater is Prague's theatrical pride and joy (that, and marionettes, particularly marionette productions of Don Giovanni). Basically, it's lit primarily by black light, with costumes and props that glow, and therefore works primarily on the level of visual illusion. Cats was not Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats, but a rip-off (they had a 3rd-person version of "Memory") vaguely titled "Cats in Prague", with mentions of cats sleeping under the Charles Bridge. All the songs were lipsynched, the show was... dramaturgically challenged, we'll say... but at the same time, it was actually one of the most inventive things I've ever seen. The majority of it consisted of using little balls as cat heads and hands in white gloves at cat bodies, and the way they used their hands was incredible. There were so many impossibilities that the conquered beautifully, and all three of us, sitting in the front row with our jaws unhinged the entire time, were all realizing that the hours we've spent trying to figure out how to get an effect on stage, the design and collab classes and meetings of brainstorming... Cat Light Theater figured them all out. (How do you have someone throw herself into the fire? YOU DO IT IN BLACK LIGHT.) The show had very little budget, they had the lights, they had gloves, and balls, and painted rubber bands, but they did EVERYTHING. (Stephanie does this thing whenever she sits next to me at a show and sees something exciting, called "hitting Colleen ruthlessly on the arm". I was pretty bruised by the end of the show.) Best 400 crowns I've ever spent.

The next day, I had the opportunity to join Lauryn's Czech Art and Architecture class for their walking tour of Mala Strana (the "lesser quarter"), focusing largely on baroque architecture. First stop was Wallenstein Palace, where there were peacocks on the lawn. I have now been to palaces in Africa and in Europe and both places, there have been peacocks.

(Note the peacock.)

An interesting feature of the garden is the artificial grotto plopped in the middle of it. Beautiful, beautiful gardens, and then what looks like a wall of dead bodies. This was the fashion, it seems, but still caught all of us off guard.

After visiting various doorways, churches, statues, we ended our tour at St. Nicholas Cathedral. There has never been a more baroque building. Much discussion over overwhelming sensuality, much discussion on "why Protestants wouldn't like this church". (Go to Prague, go to this church, see it, be overwhelmed, then find out what it's made of.)

(This picture taken for my mother. )

After a lunch of beer, potatoes, and cheese (it doesn't get more Czech than that!), I headed up to Prague Castle. More intense architecture, great views, but also, St. Vitus Cathedral. This is one of the cooler cathedrals I've been in. REALLY impressive stained glass. (St. Vitus and the Sainte Chapelle take the Stained Glass awards for this trip.)

(look, you can see the grotto to the left!)

After that, I wandered around, getting lost. Prague has these tiny little streets it's easy to get lost on, but you always end up finding something beautiful. Prague is one of those places where no matter where you go, you will find something beautiful. Delightful.