InterWhits: Praha ha ha ha ha

Our journey to Prague began very early in the morning- the snow still falling, as it had been for a couple of days. All 22 of us piled on the bus to the Ubahn, and then to the train which stopped just long enough for us to hop on and find our seats before it took off again. The four of us had a compartment that seated 6 so we spent the rest of the 4.5 hours hoping no one else would join us (no one did)—and sleeping, and looking out the window at the train-window-picture-perfect snow covered landscapes. Gabe brought it to my attention a couple of weeks ago that there are no evergreens around so the snowy forests are heavier on top and one can see further into them. We began to see evergreens about 3 hours into our ride. This is a photo I stole from the internet of the Vienna woods.

We had a short walk from the train station to our hotel on Wenseslas Square. Wenseslas square was the sight of both the Prague Spring (1968)

and the Velvet Revolution (1989)

—a lot of political protest against Communist regimes and horrible brutality on the part of the communist soldiers and plain-clothesed police. The Czechs were under Communist rule for 40 years. However, Prague is no Bratislava. Prague is an entirely touristic city. There were hundreds of tourist groups, their leaders with brightly-colored umbrellas or silly hats. Everyone spoke English first to us. The streets were lined with tourist-oriented shops selling crystal, beer mugs, garnets, and Czech kitsch. Our hotel was directly across from Starbucks and down from McDonalds. In fact, the Communism museum advertises itself-with intentional irony- as between the McDonalds and the Casino. Ughhh.
Prague almost makes up for this capitalist/touristic grossness with its amazing architecture. The Tyn church rises up behind the main square with....aw hell, Disneyesque Sleeping Beauty spires.

However, the high-Gothic basilica of St. Vitus Cathedral up on the castle hill is simply the most stunning space I have ever been inside. And I could sit in the nearby Romanesque interior of St. Georges all day and watch the light change- with or without tourists.

an aisle in Vitus

Vitus Original Gothic

Vitus Neo-Gothic

St. Vitus is interesting in that half is original gothic from the 14th Century and the rest is a somewhat neo-Gothic and added to over time and finished in the 19th C. So, you can stand in the middle and flip between the two--but do not admit it if you like the neo side better!