CZECH REPUBLIC!!

After Berlin, we had penciled into the schedule a visit to a city I was in much anticipation of - Prague, in the Czech Republic. Our journey through the Czech Republic was to be focused on Prague, but also a quick trip to another small town or two on the way to Austria.

Once known as Bohemia (until 1918), then as Czechoslovakia, and now as simply the Czech Republic, history has not been kind to this relatively small landlocked country. All too frequent absorptions/invasions by first the Austria-Hungarian empire, then the Polish, the Germans, the Soviet Union and then the nations of the Warsaw Pact left a nation fighting for its own identity right up until 1993.

Regardless of these seemingly endless invasions and occupations, the Czech Republic has at least one (but not just limited to this one) shining jewel in tact - Prague. Prague is talked about worldwide for its stunning, UNESCO listed Old Town architecture and its artistic, cultural and (dare I say), Bohemian atmosphere.

What I had been promised by the websites, the photos and the books that I'd read was delivered quite stunningly. We arrived when the weather was warm (29 degrees), and checked into our campsite, which was only a 10 minute

tram ride to the city. The campsite operators were warm and friendly from the start, and I was encouraged by the on-site bar/pizzeria offering cheap and fresh local beer.

The next day, we bumped along the old, cobble-stone streets, as avenues opened up into bustling commercial zones. Reaching the city centre, we spent the entire day walking around the main architectural and cultural icons -

Charles Bridge, Prague Castle (including the Basilica of St. George), Tyn Cathedral, the Astronomical Clock, St Nicholas' Church, Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square. Architectural forms both young and old (including Art Nouveau to Baroque, Renaissance, Cubist, Gothic, Neo-Classical and ultra-modern) gleamed, sat gloomily and blended together in what was simply the most stunning city I have ever laid eyes on.

I have, through my journeys, been to see specific architectural examples which beam with proud statements of being an 'individually excellent example' of a genre, but never have I been to a place where literally EVERYTHING was stunning. I felt a little like a midget through looking up and around for multiple hours - every facet, every angle and virtually all standpoints delivered quite remarkably overwhelming aesthetics.

The only downside? Literally every human being in Central, Western and Southern Europe had heard of Prague before also, and all had decided to descend upon it like a plague of particularly virulent locusts. There were big ones, small ones, fat ones (plenty of these), ugly ones and ones that begged. All mixed together in a sea of impenetrable viscosity.

I became expert at taking photos from head level of others upward, so as to remove the sense of us being besieged. In reality we were, but by this stage the buildings and the general feel of the city had well and truly grabbed hold of me. I made a resolution right then and there to return at dawn the next morning to experience the city 'free' of the scourge.

Waking up swollen-eyed and only a little grumpy at 5:00am the next morning, Nicola and I boarded a tram and once more headed into see the areas we liked most from the previous day, hoping to avoid the multitudes of humans. We arrived to a fully deserted Old Town Square, a tumbleweed-blown Charles Bridge and an equally uninhabited Prague Castle. The effect was amazing - simply too stunning for words. I snapped the best photography of my entire life in these fleeting hours.

What we got from Prague in this short space of time was a reflection of how it must have been in the early nineties - brooding, romantic, pigeon-oriented and just plain gorgeous. Before the Lonely Planets and Wikipedias of this world (for better and for worse, obviously) opened up our eyes to this gem of a place, it must have felt like this; an exemplarily preserved cultural and economic icon which sent echoes of the power and wealth which the city would have emitted without fault in its earlier heydays.

As we kicked along over Charles Bridge for the final time, we saw the lady selling her novelty ceramic tourist flutes and the men setting up their 'quick portraiture' stalls; both ready for the ensuing tidal wave of human capitalist 'Koruna' explosion - where people will essentially buy a hardened dog crap if they are told it has some significance. I made an immediate and unwavering resolve to return to this site in November (hopefully once tourist season has blown through with the first icy winds of late Autumn) to once more take in the intoxicating feeling I had experienced at dawn. I shall return Prague.

The people…

There's no 'bullshit' with Czechs - no falseness, nothing to prove - just good, honest people who are comfortable with who they are.

Having been through the Baltic countries and Russia previous to visiting the Czech Republic, Nicola and I had experienced dourness and surliness like we would have experienced Vegemite back in Australia. So when we arrived at our campsite to find a family of extremely happy, beaming Czechs welcoming us, we naturally assumed they were either mad, or in a strange minority.

As our visit unfurled, we found more examples of this genuine warmth and excitement about interaction with tourists. To my way of thinking, tourists can produce an interesting effect on a nation and its people (especially tourism operators). Some turn cold and simply expect money from you, but the Czechs seemed to have such a natural and unquenchable ease of social interaction with others that it felt exciting just to be there.

Sure, they don't jump all over you with eagerness, and still have their fair splash of Central European conservatism and 'you speak first' mentality, but once you engage with them they reflect a genuine warmth far more significant than we sensed in the larger majority of places we'd been before.

Key activities on the trip:

• Walking through the streets of Prague Old Town and Prague Castle
• Visiting Kutna Hora - the site of an Ossuary

Highlights…

• Prague - I've already given it my stamp of approval above. Needless to say it's a place that will stick in my memory forever
• The campsite we stayed at was brilliant - close location to the city, friendly operators and great fun. They had a party one night whilst we were there (as well as an unveiling of the campsite's new advertising), which was heaps of fun.
• Kutna Hora - this was really a collection of human bones from an old cemetery and from famines, wars and diseases over the years. A hundred and fifty or so years ago, a woodworker was hired to use the bones (of around 80,000 people) in a way which meant they weren't simply stacked outside the church. The result is an impressive church interior design, including a family coat of arms and giant pyramids made entirely out of bones.

Lowlights…

• Tourists. Sometimes it's easy to forget that you yourself are a tourist as well, and to a local you are just the same. However, I could just tell that Prague was the kind of place that had its own romance and atmosphere which would be so completely transformed sans souvenir-buyer. I will return in non-peak season and see how we go!

In summary...

On a purely architectural basis, Prague earns its stripes as one of the most special places I've been to. However, it's what goes along with this architecture that really counts. It's the sense of being part of something really significant, something dramatic and something beautiful which really affected me.

We were simply two tourists passing through in the way that thousands (millions?) had done before, but unlike the other 'tourist traps' we'd visited, this one actually still felt REAL and SIGNIFICANT. It's the kind of place I'd happily spend quite a bit of time, and certainly inspires the imagination, the senses and the mind.

I would liken it to…

Watching the film clip to INXS - Never Tear Us Apart sums it all up. The beautiful footage used encapsulates the true essence of Prague - the essence I got a flavour of through the throngs of tourists. The really significant part of this film clip is that it was filmed the day before the 'Velvet Revolution' of 1993 the day the Czech Republic completely peacefully parted ways with Slovakia (and vice-versa), and the day that the country got its' identity back again.

Although Prague has developed no doubt from this year onwards, there is something still going on behind the tourist stalls and store fronts which is to be wondered at.