Where am I? (Answered)
That is the question I asked myself when my eyes flew open at 6am after a very sound sleep brought on by jet lag and a lot of plum liquor. That plum liquor is brilliant stuff—not only did it wipe out the stiffness caused by walking ten kilometers, usually uphill, but there’s no hangover.
Where do you think?
6 October. Yes, I was in Prague, and now going round the Czech Republic to Brno and Czesky Krumlov.
The first photo is of a room in the Kafka Museum, a new (opened 2005, and around here if it’s not 19th century it’s new) tribute to Prague’s most famous writer and neurotic. The museum does a good job of simulating the experience of reading Kafka: this room looks like an archive and a morgue.
The second is of a gargoyle on the facade of St. Vitus Cathedral in the Castle complex. According to the story—I love these stories of ancient and medieval martyrs, they’re so bizarre—Vitus volunteered for the Roman army but converted to Christianity. So the Romans threw him in the lions’ den, but the lions refused to eat him. You’d think he would get a pass after that, but then the Romans doused him in boiling oil. His dying seizures gave the name to St. Vitus’s Dance. Religion is cruel.
Another medieval saint, this one in the Loreto. Uncumber was the daughter of a nobleman who planned to marry her off to another noble family. But she had no intention of marrying, so she prayed to God to prevent it from happening. And God answered her prayer by sending her a full beard. The wedding was off. The furious father had her crucified. You understand my skepticism at these medieval martyr tales.
The Schwarzenberg Palace, also at the Castle complex. It’s now the National Gallery. The Schwarzenbergs were a prominent Catholic family. Prague has a long history of religious bloodshed. The Catholics would kill the Protestants. The Protestants would kill the Catholics. The Catholics would kill the Protestants. The Prostestants would kill the Catholics. Occasionally they would get together and kill the Jews.
Yes, that is the John Lennon Wall. Lennon never gave a concert in Prague, though many had hoped he would. (Their Velvet Revolution of 1989 was not only named after the Velvet Underground, but got the support of bands like the Stones. The Rolling Stones visited Vaclav Havel in his office at the Castle and noted that it had no chandeliers. So they donated chandeliers.) After Lennon’s death in 1980, this wall outside the building of the Knights of Malta became a battleground for free speech. Every night the anti-Communist resistance would come and paint graffiti on the wall. Every day the police would paint over it. Every night the resistance would do the graffiti again. Resistance requires relentless insistence in the face of official absurdity. Never give in.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
October 4th, 2017 at 23:47
Are you in Echoserang Prague?
October 5th, 2017 at 08:17
Prague. Based it off the filenames of the photos.
October 5th, 2017 at 14:55
Haven’t been there but I firmly believe the last photo is the John Lennon Wall, PRAGUE!!!
October 6th, 2017 at 05:23
Leo and I stayed on the fourth floor of a hostel in Old Town, Prague. Our accommodation was above a crematorium office on the third, and the stupid Boholana scares me every time the old elevator would stop by that floor. The building is dark and creepy; the lights go on when it senses someone is inside and off when no one is around.
On the ground floor of the building is a store that sells bags, umbrellas, and home stuff that are reasonably priced. Siempre pa, napabili si Abaya ng backpack at payong.
October 9th, 2017 at 08:18
You should drop by Telc. If you’re going to Brno and Czesky Krumlov, it’s midway between the two. It’s an UNESCO World Heritage site and very charming.