Wandering in Prague
Here's a wrap-up of my too-few days in Prague.
The city was beautiful . . .
. . . but the real highlight was the chance to spend some time with Sasha and Jana, the cool Czechs I met in the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. We caught up at the Shadow Cafe, a dark, quirky bar near the extremely spooky Memorial to the Victims of Communist Despots.
(It's especially spooky because the stairway leading up the hill to the memorial is basically contiguous with the stairway the statutes are on, so it's as if these figures are marching down toward you.)
Sasha is a professional photographer; Jana is a Dutch major and works as a gate agent at the airport. They're both fascinating geeks, and it was great to have some time to talk. After Shadow, we went to Blue Light, a small, dimly-lit bar in Old Town whose plaster walls were covered with scratched-in graffiti.
I walked back to the hotel at 2:30 or 3 AM. I was the only person crossing Charles Bridge, which is normally packed with tourists.
The next day, I took a long walk over to Josefov, the old Jewish quarter. It was sort of an appropriate capstone for this trip. I've seen a dozen vibrant cultures reduced to tourist pap, and now it was time to see the same happen to my heritage -- Eastern European Jewry.
My visit to the Old-New Synagogue (so named because it was called "New Synagogue" when built, but the name eventually became rather inaccurate) was really pleasant -- it's the oldest operating synagogue in Europe, built in 1270.
The attic of Old-New Synagogue is, according to legend, the resting place of the Golem, created from the clay of the nearby Moldau river to protect Josefov.
But anything -- even historical centers of Jewish learning, even legends that helped Jews survive persecution -- can be turned into tacky tourist attractions. I mean, look at this.
The next day, I took a long walk over to Josefov, the old Jewish quarter. It was sort of an appropriate capstone for this trip. I've seen a dozen vibrant cultures reduced to tourist pap, and now it was time to see the same happen to my heritage -- Eastern European Jewry.
My visit to the Old-New Synagogue (so named because it was called "New Synagogue" when built, but the name eventually became rather inaccurate) was really pleasant -- it's the oldest operating synagogue in Europe, built in 1270.
But anything -- even historical centers of Jewish learning, even legends that helped Jews survive persecution -- can be turned into tacky tourist attractions. I mean, look at this.
Yes, that's a statue of Franz Kafka riding on the shoulders of the Golem, winning the prize for "Tackiest Statuary" on my trip. And as I saw in various places around the world, even the most dignified cultures can be reduced to funny hats sold to tourists. (See, e.g., "coolie" hats, Tibetan ceremonial headpieces, turbans, Russian fur hats, fezzes, sombreros, and so on.) The same was true in of Jewish culture in Josefov.
I'm sure there's a good reason, but I was also a little sickened by the fact that admission was being charged for entry to the Holocaust memorial. Josefov really was a bit of an Ashkenaz theme park, catering partially to goyim and partially to what appeared to be large numbers of Israeli tourists.
So after being a little weirded out by the touristiness of Josefov, I walked over to the UPM, a museum of applied arts. After a quick run through the very cool textiles, pottery, silverware, and clocks, I settled down in the graphic and book arts room. Each display case had six pull-out drawers underneath it holding more books and posters on display, and I ended up spending about two near-blissful hours going through the history of European typography and graphic design from 1500 to the present.
From there, I headed back to the hostel, where Bruce, the American nurse occupying the next bed over, gave me a strong recommendation for dinner at a vegetarian restaurant called the Clear Head. It was like stepping into Berkeley in 1973.
The food was really good, too.
I had arranged with Sasha to meet up at a gallery opening at the French Institute. It was a small show of landscapes by Josef Koudelka, one of the best-known Czech photographers (and Sasha's hero). The photos were incredible, and it was really great to look through them with Sasha, who had a really deep appreciation for them both technically and creatively.I got to meet Sasha's parents and Koudelka himself, who was there signing copies of his new book.
From there, we headed to a bar called Propaganda, where we met up with Jana, one of her friends from class, and two of Sasha's friends, Jameson and Jeremiah. Both Jameson and Jeremiah were cool, gregarious, interesting geeks -- people you'd expect to meet at Dorkbot or a Laughing Squid party. Jameson is in the web porn industry, and Jeremiah is an artist. Jeremiah's blog is here; a lot of his art appropriates imagery from video games. This led to the following exchange early in the conversation, when I'd been chatting with Jameson but hadn't had a chance to talk much with Jeremiah yet:
So even halfway around the world, "EFF" is shorthand for consumer- and artist-friendly intellectual property advocacy. Pretty neat. (In the unlikely event you're reading this blog and have no idea who or what the EFF is, go here. And either way, give them some money.)
I got home very late, got up very early, and headed to the airport. On the flight from Prague to London, I was asleep before the plane left the ground.
From there, I headed back to the hostel, where Bruce, the American nurse occupying the next bed over, gave me a strong recommendation for dinner at a vegetarian restaurant called the Clear Head. It was like stepping into Berkeley in 1973.
Jeremiah: "So what do you do?"
Me: "I'm a lawyer. I do all sorts of things, but I'm really into copyrights and trademarks. What do you do?"
Jeremiah: "Oh. Uh. Hm."
Jameson: "Dude, it's OK. He hangs out with the EFF guys. He's on our side."
Jeremiah: "Oh, cool. I'm an artist. I'm doing a series based on video games . . . "
So even halfway around the world, "EFF" is shorthand for consumer- and artist-friendly intellectual property advocacy. Pretty neat. (In the unlikely event you're reading this blog and have no idea who or what the EFF is, go here. And either way, give them some money.)
I got home very late, got up very early, and headed to the airport. On the flight from Prague to London, I was asleep before the plane left the ground.
