Without music, life would be a mistake

or

I went to a gig in Prague!

As Prague is such a  city of culture, I decided to go to a concert in the Municipal Theatre.  It was a chamber string orchestra, 2 first violins, 2 second violins, a viola, 'cello and double bass, playing a selection of music Mozart and Dvorak and treating us to an encore of Johann Strauss' Pizzicato Polka.

Municipal Theatre

As they took us through the pieces, one of the first things I noticed was that the second 2nd violin (if you know what I mean), the viola player, cellist and bass all had glasses.  I couldn't help wondering if the further down the group they got, the worse their eyesight.  Maybe the cellist was a first violin in his youth, but as he aged and vision worsened, had to move to bigger and bigger instruments.  The bass player in particular was squinting a lot.

The lead violinist was open, friendly and engaged with the audience, all without uttering a word.  The second 1st violin was the image of Shay, a violist in the orchestra I play in, the St Agnes Parents String Orchestra, except that his hair was blacker.  He was tall, laid back and you  couldn't avoid the sneaking suspicion that he's quite at home in the more relaxed vibe of folk or traditional music.

The group was excellent.  It was hard to hear that there were two musicians playing each of the violin parts, all perfectly in tune and in time.  Only occasionally could you tell that there were two musicians per part instead of one.

From my seat the second violins were a joy to watch, their bowing perfectly in synch.  I'd love it if the member of St Agnes orchestra had a chance to see them.  The first one (without glasses) stood erect.  One could picture him as a young boy taking his lessons very seriously, striving for perfection and hoping to please his parents and teacher.  The second had a slightly more relaxed pose, feet slightly apart.  One could imagine him as the reluctant pupil, forced to his violin lessons by his parents, complying obviously, because otherwise how could he have become a professional, but still holding a rebellious streak believing that there's more to life than perfecting your technique.

Me and my 'cello

The violist was quiet, unnoticeable until he came to life during a wee solo, during which his fellow musicians, gave him encouraging smiles of support.  The cellist was an earnest chap with a boyish face, eager to perform and hit all the right notes.  The bassist suffered from the usual bassist independence, slightly behind the others, especially when it came to the pizz.

Afterwards, I left the auditorium humming away to myself enjoyed the rest of the evening with the company of some pilsner.  Imagine my surprise a couple of days later when coincidence of coincidences, who did I meet on the aeroplane?  It was only Shay himself who had so resembled the violinist.  Was he moonlighting as a Czech violinist?  Is he living a secret life, violist in St Agnes on Mondays and Tuesdays and the rest of the week violinist in Prague?  I didn't have the nerve to ask him!

Pottering around Prague

or

I didn't fit it all in last week

I finished my last post by recounting the game I played with myself i.e. stop and stare at something and see who copies you.  I also availed of one of the Hop on, Hop off tours.  There were so many to choose from and a quick look at Tripadvisor showed most got bad reviews.  I asked at my hotel which one to recommend and chose on this basis.  Interestingly I noticed that the leaflets on display there seemed to change daily, but I digress.

The bus tour I chose had three separate lines, red, green and yellow plus a complimentary boat tour and my ticket lasted 48 hours.  Well prepared, I had brought my own headphones and listened eagerly.  There was a choice of 22 languages, but alas no Irish, so I made do with English.  Breaks in the commentary were filled with Smetana's Má Vlast.  It's a good tune, so I enjoyed it each and every time, but I wondered if I up staked and moved to Prague would it start to wear a bit thin?

I also booked a tour to Kutná Hora, about 70 kilometres east of Prague which took place on Czech National Day, 28th October.  This day celebrates the founding of Czechoslovakia after the first world war in 1918.  Shops close for the day, so I reckoned it would be a good day to get out of town and see a bit more of Bohemia.

Year bones were arranged

One of the highlights of the tour, and the reason I wanted to go, was a visit to the Sedlec Ossuary which contains the bones of over 40,000 people.  However, on the way there, our guide explained that it was created in 1870 as a tourist attraction.  She later added that it was also representative of how fleeting life is.  It left me feeling quite uneasy.  I had assumed that there was a spiritual or ritualistic reason for the displaying of people's skeletons, but learning that it was simply to attract gullible travellers such as myself left a bad taste in my mouth.  Not because they were trying to rid me of my coins, but because it seems like such a lack of respect for the dead.

Some of the bone arrangements

The reason for the ossuary dates back to 1278 when some Henry, the Abbot went to visit the Holy Land and brought home a bit of soil which he spread around the grounds of the Church.  Because of this, the ground were considered holy and many people wished to be buried there.  After a while, it became rather crowded and skeletons were dug up and put into storage to create room for more burials.  Anyway, the bid for tourism worked.  People are still flocking to see the macabre display.

The other cool thing about Kutná Hora is that the only thing open, apart from restuarants, on the National Day was the Lego museum.  Eagerly I paid my admission and spent a happy forty minutes looking at the exhibits.  Afterwards there was a play area for the children, but I was only offered the chance of a cup of coffee.  Apparently adults aren't allowed to play well.

Hard Rock Cafe

Back I popped to Prague.  All sorts of people come here, from those interested in culture, art or music, to the medical tourists and those looking for a good time.  I met a mother with her two daughters, both of whom had travelled to get breast implants.  Apparently they're half the price as in the UK.  I could have had a Thai massage in my hotel bedroom which was next to the Hard Rock Café where I witnessed the detritus of society stumbling out.  I even saw a pair of crutches in the bin outside it one morning.  The miraculous healing powers of Pilsner, or was it Absinthe?

I also witnessed a number of weddings, all of Asian couples.  There were a lot of Asian tourists there.  At one stage, while sitting taking a breather, I observed two girls taking turns taking photos of each other outside the Hard Rock Café.  I offered to take a picture of them both, whereupon they shot me a look of pure fear, shouted no and scurried inside.  I mean, I was well dressed and on a walking stick.  Did they really think I wanted to rob their smart phone, and even if I did, that they would not be able to outrun me?  How sad to be so suspicious of the world.

My final bout of people watching was in my last hour in Prague while eating a sausage in a small park off the Old Town Square (Do you want a spicy or non-spicy one?  Eh, the red one).  A couple from England were there with their small son Luke, probably about 3 years old.  There were also some pigeons milling around hoping for some scraps.  Luke took the opportunity to chase them with pure delight, all the while shouting "Guinea Piggy!".  His poor parents kept trying to persuade him that they were pigeons, not guinea pigs, but young Luke wasn't having any of it.  "Guinea Piggy! Guinea Piggy!" ringed out through the square as I picked myself up, with a smile on my face and prepared to head for home.

A final instalment on Prague next week where I warble on about a string chamber orchestra

Antics of a solo traveller

or

So I went to Prague for a few nights

Wow, it's been a while since I posted anything here, almost three years to be exact.  However, after a long battle with health issues, I guess I'm starting to feel better because I suddenly feel the urge to share my warblings with again.

Anyway, I headed off to Prague last week for a break.  It's a place I've been meaning to go to for a while, but never got around to it.  The flights weren't conducive to a weekend visit and in summer I prefer to lounge in the sun rather than tramp around cities.  A few weeks ago, knowing I had a week off work, I bit the bullet and booked it and so I arrived on a Sunday evening at about a quarter to five and checked in.

Astronomical Clock

Eager to explore, I headed out and my driver advised me to head to the astronomical clock as it was due to go off in two minutes.  This was ample time as I was staying Hotel Rott, just around the corner from the Old Town Square.  So my first introduction to Prague was amidst a swarm of tourists all craning to get a good camera angle to watch the apostles march by.  I tried to wander on, but there was no parting of the crowds and it took a few minutes to break free.  There is a great buzz in Prague.  Often, when I travel abroad I am struck by how quiet and dead cities are compared to Dublin.  Prague is lively all evening long.

I wandered around the Old Town Square, noting the stalls selling food and souvenirs.  Later I would discover that they seemed more expensive than the restaurants dotted around.  Prices were per 100g, so Prague ham was advertised at perhaps (I can't actually remember in detail) 80Kč (€1 = 25Kč or koruna), but a portion would come to about 500Kč, whereas you could get a main course in a restaurant for upwards of 300Kč.  I noticed a similar oddity in beer prices as well.  My driver had told me that beer ranged in price from around 40 to 100Kč, depending on where you bought it.  The pubs and restaurants around the centre sold beer from 69 to 89Kč, but in my mini-bar in the hotel it was only 60Kč!

Getting into the cultural spirit, I booked a concert, in St Nicholas' Church to listen to a brass quintet with two trumpets, a french horn, trombone and bass trombone and an organ.  Organ music isn't really my thing, but I guess it's probably a given for a church gig.  I headed back to the hotel for some food and discovered that it had a really nice restaurant called Nuance, advertised as Czech food with a modern twist.  I had my fill of goulash, dumplings and beer and back I went to hear the brass.  The concert itself was fine, unremarkable.  However the seats in the Church were something else.  We were sitting in church pews, complete with bench cushions.  After a while, the cushions heated up.  Not uniformly, you understand, but just the area you were sitting on.  It got hotter and hotter until some of us started squirming.  Honestly, I thought my arse was on fire!  It had been the same in the car from the airport, but thankfully I found the controls and turned it down a bit.

St Nicholas' Church, venue for brass quintet concert

Prague is an easy city to get around in, even for someone on a walking stick on myself.  The maps can be a bit confusing at first as many streets are narrow and winding and you need pretty good eyesight to make out the details on a map.  You can't simply rely on your sense of direction, as I often do, as the streets do not necessarily link up, however it soon makes sense.  Most of the people of Prague were really friendly although I am assuming here that those working there were Czech.  On a small number of occasions staff seemed utterly indifferent to me and gave the impression I was putting them out when I tried to purchase items from them,  It was one extreme or the other!

Another thing I noticed were the beggars.  Unlike Ireland where they are often in your face, and occasionally aggressive, particularly in the city centre, in Prague they sit back on their heels, practically prostrate with their hand together over a begging bowl, perfectly still.

People of all nations go to Prague.  As I rambled around I wondered if anyone actually lived in the city or were we all mini-break visitors.  One piece of advice often given to travellers is to go to where the locals go, but in a city of tourists, how do you sport the local?  People turn into sheep mode, they see someone in a café and assume it must be good and avoid the empty café next door, but why did the original person decide where to stop?

To amuse myself, I decided to try a little experiment.  I stopped on the street and turned to look in a shop window with a look of awe and wonder.  In no time, I had a small crowd of fellow tourists around me checking it out.  Very childish, but fun none the less!

That's probably enough for one session.  More on my Prague travels next week!