Some culture and history in Prague

Thursdsay in Prague-

While Stu picked out a Czech gift to bring her grandmother when she visits Ireland this weekend, I wandered around the store. It's called Manufaktura, and there are several in Prague. Lots of traditional items to bring home as souvenirs.  

 some felt fairies that reminded me of nova toys

 

another traditional crafts shop

We also went to an English bookstore where I attempted to find a specific book that I've been looking for (Broken Harbour, Tana French). They have it in the U.S., but only in hardcover and it is just soooo expensive; sadly, this store only had the hardcover copy too. So instead, I bought Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy! I began reading it on my flight home to France and it's great so far! I just love how quickly suspense novels move - perfect for my short attention span!

 

reading in bed

the second wedding couple i've seen, and the bride had a fuzzy white coat both times! 

I got to tag along on Stu's Art and Architecture class in the afternoon. Basically, their class goes on lots of field trips to art museums and to see architecture (for, like, four hours), so it wasn't strenuous, and I actually ended up actually learning! We went to the Baroque Arts museum in the castle (hradčany) district, looking at paintings, armour, and artifacts in the basement. Some facts (from Stu's really crazy professor) to share with you all:

• the Renaissance was all about coming up with new ideas, and pushing the intellectual envelope; so architecture from the Renaissance has lots of small rooms where people could sit around, talk, and think without being bothered.
• in contrast, the Baroque period was about showing off, so much of the architecture from that period, like the Castle Square, is designed for people to be able to look at the royals' and nobles' wealth.
• the amount of religious monuments, statues, buildings, references, and relics is disproportionate to the amount of pious people in the Czech Republic. for example, only about 10% of people practice religion, but there are huge, attention-grabbing churches everywhere; in the U.S. closer to 70% of people practice religion, but our Separation of Church and State (and since our history only goes back so far, to simpler, Puritan times) makes it so that there is much less of these religious symbols in plain sight.
• whoever King Rudolph II was, he was crazy!
• Bohemia refers to the region of the Czech Republic that Prague is in. as a sovereign region, it has been around much longer than the country itself. historically, it is one of the three Czech Lands, along with Moravia and Silesia.
• Czechs had curved swords back in the day, too! like samurai swords, the shape of their blade was more "economical at killing people," as the professor said. in other words, more aerodynamic when slicing through the air to meet some poor guy's neck.

After class, me, Stu, and one of her housemates went to get dinner at a nearby brewery. The brewery is one of the originals in Prague, and is located near a monastery so that the monks could go there during their down time (naturally... why didn't I think of that?). My last night in Prague :( But I had good company, good food, and good drink! I ordered some traditional Czech beef thing (not goulash) in a creamy tomato sauce... and it came with whipped cream on top! Never would've thought to put sweet whipped cream on my meat! It was delish anyway, although I didn't eat it with the whipped cream. The house beer was good too. I had their IPA and Stu got their amber brew. Well, it better have been good since it was made right there!!!

 reminds me of the barrington brewery

After dinner, we walked back home alllllll the way down the castle hill and through Mala Strana and on the tram and down the street and up the stairs.

We collapsed on the couch, watched The Parent Trap (the Lindsay Lohan one, of course, such a classic), and went to bed.

xxo, S