City of 100 Towers

Short trip to Prague, Czechia.

By Keli & Sandra

October 26^th, 2016

We decided to leave Bratislava and head to Prague as Keli wanted to show me one of his favorite cities in Europe.

PRAGUE, MOTHER OF CITIES

It surely didn’t disappoint and was all the wonderful things I’ve ever heard: a world class city, historically and culturally rich, diverse, artistic, and extravagant.

Throughout this whole trip to Slovakia/Czech Republic I was especially eager to learn about the history of Keli’s homeland, in which he still refers to Czechoslovakia, since that is the country that he grew up in.

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This trip has very much served as a rich, detailed history lesson beyond any world history class I’ve ever taken. Learning the intermingled history between medieval Bohemian leaders, Great Moravian empire, Austro-Hungarian empire, German occupation, USSR occupation, Czechoslovak Communist rule, the Velvet Revolution and their dissolution and ultimately their independent, democratic paths was intriguing and humbling to say the least. One can’t help but feel like our current modern existence is but a tiny speck in a long stretch of historical timeline.

I found stories of Czechoslovak Communist rule not unlike my own family’s experiences in China in the 50’s and 60’s before their immigrant flight out of the country.

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So, this trip was more to us than just sightseeing and photojournaling.

Collectively, visiting Slovakia and Czech Republic was a reminder to the both of us in asking ourselves and learning more about where we’re from, the hard times in history our families endured, never forgetting where we came from and how to carry this personal history forward.

Patrick and his dog Minnie were the best tour guides ever!

..showing us their neighborhood - Vinohrady, beautiful Old Town Square, Charles Bridge, Prague Castle, St Vitus Cathedral, Astronomical Clock and impressive local and international cuisine.

Minnie sure impressed us with her city slicking, street-smart ways: crowded tourist maneuvering, escalator taking, subway riding, dog snubbing, and last but not least her restaurant elegant poise in the face of us eating yummy Czech cuisine right in front of her face.

Thank you Patrick for your hospitality in showing us your beautiful city, sharing Minnie with us and for the great company!

Golden lane

Golden Lane (in Czech Zlatá ulička) is a street situated at the Prague Castle, Czech Republic. Its name is connected with 16th century alchemists, who had to look there, according to legends, for a reaction to produce gold. Even though the lane was temporarily called the Street of Alchemists or Alchemists‘ Alley, alchemists have never worked or lived there.

Golden Lane consist of tiny colored houses. Nowadays there are many souvenir shops in the houses and there is a medieval museum of armory within the former 14th-century fortification accessible from the Golden Lane.
House no. 22 is connected with Franz Kafka, Czech - Jewish writer, who used this house for approximately two years (from 1916 to 1917) coming here to write in peace.
Jaroslav Seifert, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1984 and who was one of the signatories of Charter 77, lived there in 1929.

Medieval Torture

Keli’s favorite from Golden Lane.

Creepy as all of this was it's pretty amazing how creative they got in their torture methods.

Funny to see this table in a torture room

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Cobblestone everywhere.

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St. Vitus Cathedral

For more than 600 years, the roofs of Prague Castle have been overlooked by the towers of St Vitus Cathedral. The cathedral, whose original name is St Vitus, St Wenceslas and St Adalbert Cathedral, is the biggest and the most important church in the Czech Republic. It’s the seat of the Archbishop of Prague and the place where saints, kings, princes and emperors of Bohemia are buried.
The coronations of the kings of Bohemia were held there until 1836.

It’s one of the best examples of Gothic architecture.

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The Church of Our Lady before Tyn

is a dominant feature of the Old Town of Prague, and has been the main church of this part of the city since the 14th century. The church's towers are 80 m high and topped by four small spires.