Cultural Learnings of Prague for Make Benefit Great Readers of Hora's Blog

"What's Prague like???", "What are Praguians like? Is that what you call them?", "Did you find any funny cases of Engrish?". These are all questions I've been asked numerous times in the past (just about) twelve weeks, and as you can probably imagine I could fill page after page with their answers. In order to still have something interesting to say when I get back, and because I don't really feel like going over everything here, I'm going to keep it relatively short.

So, what is Prague like?

Prague is gorgeous. The city lies on the Vltava river, which flows North under too many bridges for me to count. The most notable bridge is the footbridge Karluv Most, Charles Bridge. Named after King Charles IV, the bridge is over 500 years old and is one of the biggest tourist draws in the city. The city is 'divided' into several sections, each with their own history, look and feel. Hradcanska is the castle quarter up on the hill (about a five minute walk from our dorm) overlooking the city. The Czech Parliament is up here, as well as the president's residence. In the center lies St. Vitus cathedral, which you can see from almost anywhere. Directly below it is Mala Strana, or Lesser Quarter. This is one of my favourite neighbourhoods. It goes down to the river from the castle, and is the only part of Prague that has been largely unmodified for a few hundred years. There are lots of shops, cafes and restaurants there. Across the Charles Bridge from Mala Strana, is Old Town.

Prague Castle on top, Mala Strana, and the Charles Bridge
Old Town is cramped and chaotic almost, the streets go in every direction and it feels like the buildings lean into the street, closing you in. But that's what makes it so magical, every street has something new to offer, a shop, a cafe, restaurant, a museum. North of Old Town is Josefov, the Jewish Quarter. This was torn down in recent times and therefore is one of the nicest neighbourhoods. It's reminiscent of Paris, with wide streets and tall, marble-like buildings. It's also very commercial. New Town is south of the Old, and is the least touristy out of all the neighbourhoods mentioned so far. Wenceslas Square sits in the middle of the New Town, and you can find just about anything you want there.

The National Theater, sitting on the official edge of New Town

What are the Praguians like?

This is the hardest question to answer. Prague is not as mixed as other European cities I've been to, when it comes to race but also 'social groups'. Unlike in Vancouver where you can easily label people as skaters, emos, punks, business execs, hobos, fobs, etc., the majority of the people here don't fall into categories. Most people don't seem to be very poor nor rich, they dress mostly casually (with little regard for brands, etc.). However, younger people are a bit more Westernized - you can find some dressing up like gangsters or skater kids, or goths. In the somewhat university and older crowd, an odd thing is the fact that a TON of guys wear their long hair in a pony tail, and many guys and girls sport dreadlocks. And although most people seem relatively middle class, there are also very, very poor people here. Walking through the city, especially at night, you can find them begging for money on the streets and bridges. Kneeling, they put their head to the ground and with outstretched arms hold on to a hat for the generous to throw change into. They're completely motionless, even in the winter when the temperature was well below freezing. In general Praguians are also a lot more closed. They won't smile at you if you make eye-contact (even if you smile first), and they're reluctant to get into a conversation with a foreigner. This is especially true of older people, especially those who lived the majority of their lives behind the Iron Curtain and who don't speak English. Younger people aren't as closed in, but still don't come off as very friendly. This sort of attitude is also visible in stores or restaurants, where the service almost isn't. In a restaurant they won't check on you after giving you your food, nor will they ask if you need/want anything. When shopping it's the same, nobody will come up to you and ask you with a pretend smile whether you're finding everything.

Ad-free metro station

Cultural observations, random facts

Prague is very different culturally from Vancouver, which makes a lot of things stand out. McDonald's Drive Thrus are called 'McDrive', or even 'McWalk'. When someone tries to sell you something they are very insistent, be they shopkeepers selling souvenirs or shady characters trying to get you into a 'cabaret'. The word robot comes from the Czech 'robota' which means very hard work. (Robot = doer of hard work). Metro stations are clear of advertising except for along the escalators and a few select stations. Cashiers at both big and small grocery stores sit down, on comfy office chairs. Prague is really, really, really old:
I wonder if the menu has been the same for 649 years
Czech people rarely love; if a Czech person likes how something tastes, looks, smells, feels or sounds they 'find it pleasing'; if they have some deeper internal feelings, they 'like it'; if they really, really, really like something AND have it accompanied by a multitude of internal emotions and thoughts, they 'love it'. For example, when my intensive Czech prof met her husband, they found each other 'pleasing'. After they spent more time together, they started to 'love each other'. After they got married, they started to 'like each other', cause the initial crazy emotions were gone... Also, a Czech person can not 'like' Michael Jackson, because they don't know him. His music may be 'pleasing', but in order to 'like' him they have to know will well enough and enjoy his personality. And you don't 'love' your parents, no, that's impossible, you 'like' them. 'Love' is reserved for an initial period with that significant other and for soccer. And finally, people here speak English properly, but you can still find the rare case of funny English (this is what they actually call dish detergent in England apparently, so I guess this isn't really a Prague thing. Backed potatoes are, however.):
Washing Up Liquid

Mr. Obama, himself.

On his European tour this year President Barack Obama chose Prague as the only city where he would do a public speech. Given that the Czech Republic holds the Presidency of the Council of the EU at the moment, this makes perfect sense. Greg and I woke up at just a little past 5AM in order to get a good spot, to be able to actually see Obama. Turns out that a number of people were given free 'invitations' to the event, randomly, and they had priority. Our spot turned out to be decent but definitely not what we expected nor deserved considering we were in the first hundred people to line up.

President Barack Obama
Obama gave a speech against nuclear proliferation, and announced a new US led initative to reduce the world's nuclear arsenal and to stop the creation of more weapons. He said that by the end of 2009 the USA and Russia will finalize an arms reduction treaty, and he will work with the international community over the next four years towards his goal of no more nuclear weapons. He denounced North Korea's earlier misslie test, calling on the world to not only condemn their actions but also to punish. We'll have to wait and see what he means by that. His speech emphasized a peaceful solution to his goal, pointing out that the Czech Republic's Velvet Revolution brought freedom for its people without a single bullet being fired. He got a large response from the Czech members of the crowd (there were a LOT of Americans there) when he used the words 'velvetova revoluce' - that's what I heard, although he probably used the right term, sametova, and I just didn't understand it properly. The Czech came out of nowhere, and he never used any afterwards. I liked the speech (he's a great orator) and I think he's being quite ambitious with this initiative; I'm a little bit skeptical to what results he'll be able to produce. The Czech people also seemed to like it, they were going insane trying to grab some American flags to wave, and cheered, whistled and clapped many a times. The gist of the speech was well accepted by them, although the question of the missile defense radar installations in the country is a hot topic here. Some approve, some don't. To finish, here's an article by Radio Free Europe (based in Prague) with a few more details about the speech and the Europe trip, and some better photos and quotes from the President himself.

Music.

Two nigths ago I watched a Czech Philarmonic Piano Recital at the Rudolfinium. The building is very beautiful (although nothing compares to the National Theater) and the pianist, Simon Trpceski, is amazing. The Macedonian virtuoso played four Chopin Mazurkas, Chopin's Sonata Nr. 2 in B flat minor, Children's Corner by Debussy, and Toccata in D minor as well as Sonata No. 7 by Prokofiev. I really liked the Chopin and Debussy; Prokofiev not as much although the Toccata was the most impressive piece technically speaking. He encored three times, the first time playing something by a modern Russian composer I've never heard of, and I believe the last two pieces were Debussy and Chopin. The second encore was my favourite part of the whole recital, it was a famous piece but I have no idea what it's called. I searched the internet (mainly YouTube) for it but I couldn't figure it out. I'm quite certain it was Debussy or at least one of his contemporaries, it sounded very much like his style, it was very flowy and dreamy, reminding me of a waterfall. If anyone has any suggestions for what it could be, drop me a comment! Last night, however, I watched something completely different: my first opera ever! And what an experience it was. The opera was held at the Estates Theater, the very place where Mozart conducted the world premiere of Don Giovanni! I didn't watch Don Giovanni however, I watched the Marriage of Figaro, another of Mozart's most famous operas. I read the synopsis of the plot beforehand, and with the English subtitles to everything they were saying, every single moment made sense. The story itself is comical, and it was acted out very well. The music is absolutely stunning, I definitely love Mozart much, much more now. I can't even pick a favourite part, the overture was beautiful and every single aria/duet/all the way up to seven voices!! was even more so. Although I really liked Figaro's aria when he tells Cherubino of the army life at the end of the first Act 1, and the final piece for seven voices at the end. I have to also mention that I've never heard a harpsichord being played live before, and I thought that was pretty cool too. Anyhow, if you have the chance to see this opera, make sure you do!

Labuti jezero - Swan Lake

After my Czech intensive class today, Shawn and I went to Swan Lake (or Labuti jezero in Czech) by Peter Tchaikovsky. It was the first 'real' ballet I attended - sorry Young People's Concerts, you've got to work a little harder to be on par with this show - and therefore I didn't really have any expectations. I was impressed from the start - the National Theater, or Narodni Divadlo, is the most awe-inspring theater I've ever been inside. First of all it's enormous, it looks exactly like opera houses look in movies: three balcony levels, all right above each other, four-seat boxes on the sides, innumerable stairs to get to the top gallery. Besides the size, it also resembles a royal palace. There are red velvet curtains, railing covers and carpets, all walls and ceilings are lavishly decorated and every square centimeter is painted with beautiful murals, golden columns hold up the different balconies and everyone was dressed up nicely (except for us... we went straight from school). And to think that I only paid $3 to get in! The actual ballet was great. I was a bit confused in the first half (Act 1 and 2) because I hadn't read the synopsis. I read it on my phone during the intermission (I love you internet) and I really enjoyed the second half a lot more. However the ballet was well choreographed and I was surprised at how seamlessly it fit with the music (which was beautiful, by the way), that you could at least tell who was good, who was bad and what the problem was. The costumes were also amazing, and even the costume design made it very clear who were swans, who the prince was, and who the evil sorcerer was (he actually looked like Batman at times, he had an awesome cape). Other than that I found the whole art form a little bit weird, but I was very surprised that I was able to follow along, and I was very impressed at many of the dances, they did not look easy at all. Overall it was a great experience, everything - the dancers, their costumes, the choreography, the music - was amazing. I would recommed everyone to see it if they have the chance, and I look forward to going to the opera next week.

Prague Rock

Wednesday evening after our Czech intesive class, Shawn, Laura (a Texan) and I went to a free Czech rock concert advertised by one of the Charles University coordinators, Blanka. It was a battle of the bands type event - although I only realized this after getting back home, and I didn't vote for my favourite - and five bands played, the last of which was Blanka's band. The whole event was a lot of fun and very entertaining. The first three bands were the best: Doowhenblade, The Roads, and The Chruscov (pronounced Khrushchov). I would label Doowhenblade as ska, their music is very happy and jumpy, and reminds me of Goldfinger. There were a lot of people playing in the band too - they had a trombonist, a trumpeter and a saxophonist on top of a drummer, vocalist, a guy on keyboards, a guitar player and a bass player. They were definitely the most energetic, and are tied for the best in my opinion.

The other band I really liked is The Roads. I was surprised to hear them start singing in English! It had an accent but it was fun to actually understand what they were singing about. Their songs were actually mixed, and I was very excited to understand what they were saying at one point in Czech (Co je to? Co je *something I couldn't understand*, which means 'What is this? This is *blah*). I also got to talk to they keyboardist afterwards, I ran into him outside while going to the washroom. He was very excited to hear that I'm from Canada and he told me about an upcoming free gig they have, on the 23rd.

The Chruscov reminded me of a less famous and slightly more Czech version of Evanescence. Their music was hard and most of the guitar work were power chords. The lead singer hopped around a lot and they were entertaining, but not as good musically as the first two. The last two bands after them, Livingroom and Reskata, were not that amazing and I wish they would've played the better ones last. If you want to hear what my favourite ones sound like, check them out, but I will like to mention they are much more fun live: Doowhenblade, The Roads.

The Chruscov

Check out the whole set on Flickr.

Češi! Češi!

Ever since having picked the Czech Republic as our exchange destination, Shawn and I were excited to attend a hockey game in Prague. The first week we got here we mostly just explored and took in the sights, but starting with last week I becamse serious about finding tickets to a hockey game. I found out that Prague has two teams in the Czech O2 Extraliga, HC Sparta Praha and HC Slavia Praha. Slavia were the champions last year, and Sparta the two years before that, and I decided that I wanted to go see Slavia because they're higher in the standings and they play in the brand new O2 Arena (where the NHL debuted this season). So I began to look for tickets, and I found out that they're nearing the end of their season, but more importantly I found that the Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden and Russia are playing a mini-tournament (the LG Euro Hockey Tour), and that the first game of the series was being played in Prague! The game was Finland vs the Czech Republic, and I thought Jagr was going to be playing. All the newspapers had his face on the cover and mentioned Finland, and the Euro Hockey Tour, but it turns out that they all said he was sick and wasn't going to play against Finland... Yesterday was the day of the game and online ticket sales had already ended, so Shawn, three Americans (Kevin, Greg and Brandon) and I went to the arena to just buy tickets at the box office, but they were sold out. A scalper came up to us and offered us 5 lower bowl seats, row 20 behind the net, for 1500 CZK ($200 CAD). We decided that was a little pricy (or rather Brandon did, he was sure we could find cheaper tickets) so we walked around for a bit to see what we could find. Shawn and I were very nervous because we didn't want to miss out on the game, so we went back about half an hour later, and we told him we'd do 1000 CZK for the 5 seats. He agreed! That means we each paid about $13 CAD for lower bowl seats, 20th row behind the net, to watch an international game! Face value was just $2 cheaper too, that was the worst scalper ever. Before I go on to talk about the game, I want to say that I was really sketched out going into the arena because they wouldn't let me bring my camera in, and I had to check it in with them. I was worried that was just a scam to get my camera, and I argued for a good little while trying to get in with my camera but security there is much tighter than at GM Place (they even have metal detectors, and they scan everyone coming in twice), so in the end I went to check it in. I noticed that they already had a lot of other backpacks and bags, and a lot of Czech people were there checking in their stuff, so I took the risk and gave them my camera. In the end that turned out to be OK - this country is a lot less sketchy than I had thought. The arena was impressive. It was huge and everything was modern and up to date, they had all sorts of fairly cheap food (their food stands were called: Potato Land, Ice Land (Ice cream stuff), Hamburger, and Hot Dog). I had a Czech sausage and a beer for $5, which is over priced for the rest of the city but dirt cheap in comparison to GM Place. The game was a lot of fun! The teams were evenly matched for most of the game, although Finland seemed to have more players who played in the NHL at one point. Notable players were Sami and Niko Kapanen, Radim Vrbata and Petr Cajanek. The crowd was also very into the game, and everybody seemed to have a really good time even though the final score was 5 - 3 for Finland. A bit of a weird cultural shock was that the fans here don't boo; where we would boo in North America, they whistle! And it's a lot more annoying, hearing 20,000 people whistle made my head want to explode. They also chanted "Češi! Češi!" a lot, which I imagine means go Czechs or something similar. What was really funny was that they had this thing called 'Kiss Me', kinda like the KissCam at GM Place where they try to get couples to kiss. What was funny was that they'd give you a thumbs up or thumbs down based on the quality of the kiss, and they also kept trying to get girls to kiss (none of them did). Another hilarious thing was that they filmed girls with lots of cleavage and they had this road sign indicating bumps ahead displayed next to them, it was pretty embarrassing for them but funny for the rest of us. Also, at the end of the game the officials picked the best player from each team (Cajanek and Niko Kapanen), and as a prize they got a mini-keg of beer! It was funny, they'd skate up to shake hands and collect their keg. I'll post a link to Shawn's pictures when he puts them up on Facebook, so you can also see what it looked like, so check back later!

Kolej Komenskeho - Room 220

Before I came to Prague I had seen a few pictures and videos of the dorms here, but nothing in too much detail. For those who are interested or maybe even thinking of studying at Charles University in the future, I hope this helps. The first thing that strikes you about this place, is that while it's newer than most building in Prague, it's quite bland and boring. It was built by the Communists who were keen on having everything look the same: ugly. The building is dirty gray on the outside, and on the inside it's white and yellow.

Kolej Komenskeho

Komenskeho hallway
Shawn and I are in room 220, which is just on my left in the picture above. Below is the hallway inside our room. Along each side of the hallway are single and double rooms, as well as two bathrooms and a kitchen.

Room 220
Below are some shots of the first bathroom (which only has one sink and two toilets - none of the doors lock, and to flush the toilet you pull on the string and hold it for a few seconds. Oh, and the provided toilet paper should be more aptly be called sand-paper. Shawn and I had to buy our own), the second bathroom which sports three sinks and a double shower (nothing also locks, and the double shower idea is kinda weird. It's so small in there that there would be a lot of unfortunate touching if two people took a shower at once), and the kitchen.

Bathroom numero uno

Toilet

Shower

Kitchen
Below are a few shots of my room - 220A. It's got everything I need in there - a small bed, two cabinets, two shelves and a desk. It's warm and clean enough in here; the only annoying things are that the lights make a really irritating sound when on, and I'm missing blinds on one of my windows.

My Room - 220A

220A
Some more information about the dorm: There's always a receptionist at the front door, but they don't speak much English. It was really interesting getting along with them, but it seems like they have enough experience dealing with students who don't speak English since they can get their message across quite well from pointing and miming. During the working hours of the day, there's also an English speaking receptionist, which is quite helpful. I'll add more information to this post via edits in the future, as I have more to say about this place - we haven't tried the breakfast here or done the laundry yet. For more pictures check out my Flickr.