By Susan Aurinko
There is something both fascinating and fearsome about finding yourself in a country where the language is completely unknown – a West-Slavic language that bears no resemblance at all to any languages in most travelers’ armory. Walking through Prague, being unable to read a single sign or historic plaque is freeing in a way – simply absorbing the remarkable architecture and design that fills the streets everywhere you look. Largely either Art Nouveau or Historismus in essence, the mosaics and polychromed facades and the beautifully decorated doors, ironwork and trimmings literally make you catch your breath. Nearly anything that can be decorated (or over-decorated) has been. This is my third trip to Prague, and yet there is so much beauty it’s impossible not to see fresh splendor with each visit.
What a find – I went to the Museum of Decorative Arts for the first time, and aside from the massive Czech power outage that cut my visit short, (I did get a raincheck to come back when the lights were back on the next day) it was marvelous. The permanent exhibition, ART LIFE is very well done. The museum’s history of glass, which the Czechs are known for, goes back to the 16th century, and the furniture and ceramics from several centuries are top-notch as well. The permanent modern Czech art glass exhibition is also fabulous, and although art glass isn’t my thing, I have to say that there were some amazing pieces. For me, the most intriguing part of the permanent collection was the fashion section in which two enormous glass vitrines, one in front of the other, display front and back of women’s wear from the early 19th Century by decade. In the second vitrine, which can be seen through the glass of the first, the underpinnings that defined each era – agonizing corsets of various designs over the decades pair with the clothes in the front vitrine. It’s hard to imagine being laced into those instruments of torture in the name of fashion and style.
Two temporary exhibitions, the advertising photographs of Fred Kramer and the history of printed fabric titled Where have All the Flowers Gone, which contains printed dresses and scarves, are excellent. Naturally, being a photographer and a scarf designer both were of great interest to me! I went back the next day to finish, and the Where Have All the Flowers Gone exhibit was more than I’d hoped for – Political scarves from occupied Chechia literally told the history of the country and Propaganda scarves from the Soviet era were incredible. There were more than fifty dresses lined up like soldiers on parade, from the 1920s through the 1970s. If I’ve learned anything on this my longest trip to Prague, it is that they certainly know how to design an exhibition.
The Franz Kafka Museum captured my attention for a few hours. The museum is across the Vltava River in an area that’s home to many government buildings and not easy to find, but if you like Kafka and history, it’s worth the trip. It’s purposely kept dark and is rather vertiginous at times, but gives a marvelous overview of his short, intellectually fertile life as well as the times in which he lived. Timelines take you through the Kafka family history, and videos of the period give you context. Many reproductions of his writing, journals and letters, which are of course in Czech, as well as photographs, add an air of intimacy.
I have concluded that in Prague, many people are interested mainly in drinking, (it’s allowed on the streets) getting high, eating meat of all kinds and selling knickknacks to tourists. In “mini markets” also called “supermarkets,” pretty much the only things for sale are alcohol of every kind, CBD, THC and tchotchkes, most of which are made in China. These tiny little shops, packed to bursting with the above items, are almost one per block in the city. I saw multiple bachelor and bachelorette parties from across Europe and the UK on the prowl, so word must be out that Prague is a party city.
Ultimately, I ate several good meals, but it took me a couple of days to locate restaurants that served food other than meat. Classic Czech food is very meat-centric and way too heavy for the hot temperatures we suffered during my visit. I had begun to think that a true vegan would starve in Prague when I found a tapas restaurant, Lola, near Hotel Caesar where I stayed for the third time. The tapas were fabulous, and I had two great lunches at Standard Café as well, and one under the trees at Turquoise, the restaurant at the Museum of Decorative Arts. Good non-Czech dining can be found; it just takes a bit of looking. All in all, Prague is beautiful – the architecture alone makes it worth the trip. I logged close to 40 miles of walking with my camera on this visit to the Czech capital and think I earned the unbelievable dessert below – a blackberry filled dumpling with berries, sitting on a bed of berries and berry whipped cream, dusted with ground pistachios. Very Czech, but heavenly in any language!
See you next in my dispatch, from Vienna!
