The Events of Thursday, June 30, 2011

                The door creaked open, loudly announcing that, for me, it was time to get up. I must be an extremely light sleeper, because all it takes for me to wake up is the door opening and Daddy’s presence above my bed. I slid out of bed and slipped on my slippers. I tiptoed across the wooden floor, which doesn’t really work with hard bottomed slippers. I sounded like a horse, primly trotting across the bedroom that I shared with my sleeping sisters. However, it turned out that my prim horse trotting was too loud, because as I passed Abby’s bed, she sat up, with her eyes still closed and hissed, “Shhhhhh!” Then, she flopped back onto her pillow. I was up early to use the computer to research Vienna since I am tour guide at this, our next destination. I needed to hurry, for soon everyone else would be up and preparing for another day of exploring Prague.  

                “Enough of pretty, medieval Prague – let’s leap into the modern era. The New Town, with Wenceslas Square as its focal point, is today’s urban Prague.” Ben, our tour guide in Prague, read this out of Rick Steves’ book on Prague. We stood in front of the dark, foreboding, but appropriately decorated National Museum. It is closed this year for renovation, but we could go up the steps to take in the view of the square. Just beyond the banister, a fountain flowed out from under us. Wenceslas Square is more like a busy boulevard around a large rectangular roundabout. Classily dressed Czechs flounced along the sidewalks, their smart shoes and heels click-clacking on the walk. A lot of them were carrying flowers. What for, we aren’t sure.

                In the center of the roundabout was a tall equestrian statue of King Wenceslas, who is credited for Christianizing his nation. For this, he was made a saint, is seen everywhere in Prague, and is featured in a Christmas carol. His statue is a popular meeting place for locals who say, “I’ll meet you under the tail.” Around King Wenceslas are beds of carefully placed and colorful flowers. Amongst these flowers, we found a small memorial to victims of communism. One of these was Jan Palach, who set himself on fire for the cause of Czech independence.

                As we walked down to the other end of the square, we looked at the various buildings surrounding us. The buildings were a random combination of Romantic neo-Gothic, Neo-Renaissance, and Neo-Baroque from the 19th century, Art Nouveau from 1900, and boring Functionalism from the mid-20th century. Following our guided walk, we walked down to stand in front of Grand Hotel Europa and read about the events of November 1989.

                Every evening of that month, Wenceslas Square was filled with 300,000 bold Czechs and Slovaks who believed the time for freedom had come. On November 17, 30,000 students gathered atop a hill in New Town to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the suppression of the student protests of the Nazis. Then the commemoration changed into a protest against the current communist regime. Their demonstrations were peaceful, so as not to incite brutal police retaliation.

                As the students marched toward Wenceslas Square, they encountered three rows of policemen. Then, a row of military vehicles with fences on their bumpers appeared behind the marching students. All of the buildings along the street were filled with hiding policemen. The students were trapped. The next to arrive were the “Red Hats,” a notorious anti-riot force. The students either had to attempt escape and get brutally beaten or be arrested.

                The next day, a shocked Czechoslovakia responded. Students and actors all over the country went on strike. On November 20, the students’ parents, taken aback by the attacks on their children, marched into Wenceslas Square. This period of peaceful demonstrations eventually resulted in the election of a president over a now free Czechoslovakia in December of 1989.

                On that happy note, we walked into the cool passage of Lucerna Gallery. In the center hall, under a broad glass dome, hangs a sculpture. Wenceslas Riding an Upside-Down Horse, by David Černy, is exactly what the title says. The horse is dead and its tongue stuck out into the air. But, no matter, Wenceslas still rides proud and tall on his mount.

                Across the street, we went into Světozor Mall. Here we got into a long line that brought us to the World of Fruit Bar Světozor. It seemed that every local was there to get his 11:30 Thursday cone of sweet goodness. In fact, several students in line presented a piece of paper at the counter and in return received a cone and a stamp on the back of their hand. We guessed this must be some sort of reward for academic performance. Since there were some crazy fruit ice cream flavors like banana and apple, we decided to be adventurous. Amongst our choices were strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, mixed berry, and cherry. However, Mommy, as usual, chose chocolate (but she did taste ours).

                We enjoyed the first course of our mid-day meal in the Franciscan Garden behind the mall, upon the lovely white benches, simply surrounded by roses. After we finished our cool treats, we ate our picnic lunch watching the local kids at play in the playground and the funky fountain (it was a statue of a naked little boy drinking water from a huge conch shell).

                We stopped by a post office, so Abby could send a letter. Then, we entered an arched doorway squeezed between a McDonald’s and a casino and found ourselves at the Museum of Communism. Their logo is a plump Russian nesting doll with an evil vampire face. After the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, Czechoslovakia was declared an independent nation. However, a few Czech prisoners of war in Russia founded the Czechoslovakia Communist Party in May of that same year. The Soviets sent members of this party into Czech lands to spread Vladimir Lenin’s ideas and to prepare them for world revolution.

                In the spring of 1931, the economic crisis impacted Czechoslovakia. It was around this time that Hitler became a known political figure. In their suffering, the Czechs looked to Hitler for help and the result was an occupied nation. The end of the Second World War came and went and Prague was still occupied by the Nazis. When Prague was finally liberated by the Red Army, it seemed that life might get better, but in fact the worst was yet to come.

                The Communist Party in Czechoslovakia took advantage of the Soviet occupation and boldly advertised their new type of government. In the elections of 1946, Communists were the strongest party and the communist Gottswald became Premier. Prague was now under Communist control. At first, some citizens supported this government. After Stalin banned Czech participation in the Marshall Plan negotiations, the Communist propaganda machine unleashed a torrent of anti-America propaganda. Gottswald set up a new government which established a Communist dictatorship in Czechoslovakia. It was Czechoslovakia’s first taste of the bitter life they would have for the next forty years.

                Meanwhile, the Soviets were making advances in science, astronomy, and social reform toward their goal of world dominion. Starting with the first grade, schools taught hatred towards the wealthy, hostility towards democratic states, and respect for “revolutionary traditions”. The goal was to raise a socialist man who would be satisfied with minimum wage while still submissively completing all tasks placed before him. He would be expected to improve his knowledge of communist doctrines, cooperate with the government, and watch for anyone who might be disturbing the “social order”.

                At first, the Czech communists did not trust top athletes. They forced the Czech champion figure skater Ája Vrzáňova to emigrate, and they imprisoned some hockey gold medal-winners. However, they soon found they could use the performances of flourishing sportsmen as a propaganda tool for the Communist state and as a military training tool.

                In the stores, a surplus of demand over supply led to a boom of the "under-the-shelve” sales.  Poorly paid employees hid hard-to-obtain merchandise and saved it for the select customer, who was able to pay some extra money or provide a certain counter-service. Czech society returned to bartering as the principal forms of trade: the butcher exchanged his steaks for bananas from the grocer, but all the shops were empty of bananas and steak. The environment was also devastated by Communist control. Mining and the use of solid fuel for power stations polluted the air and killed forests. This damaged the surface soil and underground water which led to the devastation of many small animal species.

                The men of Czechoslovakia were forced into military service. They became the militia of the working class and marched through towns and cities. They carried guns and marched with precision, striking fear into the hearts of the Czechoslovakians. However, this display of force was empty as there was no ammunition for their guns. All the men and women were overworked and underpaid. Eventually the discontent led to the protests and demonstrations of November of 1989, which I described earlier.

                The museum was fairly well done. The text for the exhibits only looked extra long because it was written in six different languages. We toured a reconstructed Communist schoolroom, an empty store, a workshop and an interrogation room. Our museum tour ended with a twenty minute video entitled “Time of Shame, Time of Silence and Time of Hope”. It began with images of Communist oppression and its impact from the 1950s and ended with live footage of the protests and demonstrations of 1989. The images were both disturbing and thought provoking. But, all those peaceful protests eventually paid off and Czechoslovakia is now a free nation. Now better educated about communism and its role in Czech history, we moved on.

                We rode the tram to the twin curvaceous buildings known as “Fred and Ginger”. The Dancing House was designed by Frank Gehry. The personified buildings actually do look like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers swirling through the idyllic dance floor of Prague. Ginger has a swirling skirt and Fred, a messy mass of hair. On our walk to the tram stop, we stopped by two memorials.

                One of the memorials, encircled in wreaths and flowers, was to two famous Czech paratroopers. These Czech heroes of WWII were responsible for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, a high ranking Nazi official. Hiding in the crypt of the church and finding themselves surrounded by Germans, they shot themselves to avoid being captured. The second memorial was small and hidden in an alcove off the street. Above a tray covered with dripped candle wax and flower petals, was a bunch of metal hands in the “peace” position in memory of all the students who fought for Czechoslovakia’s freedom.

                We took the tram to a small park. The steps up to the main sidewalk of this park were extremely large and far apart. We were stepping on a memorial. But, we were meant to. The big steps were supposed to represent the difficulty of overcoming communism. Running through the steps was a bronzed ticker tape listing all the statistics of communist oppression. Near the top of the steps were four male statues each with part of his body destroyed. As you went further up the steps, there was less and less of the man, until finally he disappeared. This was supposed to represent the slow disappearance of communism in Czechoslovakia.

                Having finally obtained our all day transport tickets we decided to use them to the fullest. After taking a series of trams across town and across the river, we arrived at the funicular that we had to skip our first day. We needed only three day-passes for all transportation in Prague, because for each adult, one child (under 16) got in free, which is perfect for our family.  We had to wait at the gate of the funicular, until it came back down. The funicular made two stops as it slowly crept up Petřín Hill. Soon, we were on top of Prague, looking down on the red tile roofs below, contrasting with the teal domes of the churches and the peach-colored castle complex.

                We found ourselves in a lovely rose garden with white benches. Upon these benches, we munched on our granola bars satisfying our hunger for the time being. We walked over to Prague’s Petřín Tower, the highest point in the city. On May Day, local wives drag their men to Petřín Hill to reaffirm their love with a kiss under a blooming cherry tree. (Daddy and Mommy saved their special kiss for a little later).

                I joined my siblings on the funky playground near the Petřín Tower. There were two high rope towers that we scrambled up like monkeys, a small trampoline, a rope hammock, and two toddler sized see-saws. Caitlin and I tried the see-saws, but it wasn’t really working. We were falling off and laughing, when our laughter was joined by an adorable high-pitched giggle. We looked over to the other see-saw and saw a blonde, blue-eyed, curly-headed little boy laughing at us. He looked inquisitively over the see-saw and waved good-bye to us when we left.

                Next we swung together on the huge bench swing. (This is where Mommy and Daddy kissed their “reaffirming love” kiss). We took pictures and then went back through the rose gardens to the funicular stop, singing as we went. We rode the funicular down, standing at the very front, watching not only the panoramic view of colorful rooftops, but also the funicular attendant. She was in a smart uniform and every so often casually flicked a button. But, most of the time she was admiring and playing with her long purple fingernails. At the bottom, we rode the tram to Charles Bridge.

                On our first day in Prague, when we crossed Charles Bridge, I saw a 4 x 6 inch framed painting of a lovely lane in Prague with colorful roofs and an old fashioned car driving between rows of heavy laden orange (the fruit) trees. I loved it, but as my family was ahead of me, I moved right along, not thinking that I might want to bring my family back to this art stand that might not be here on other days. So, we were walking along the bridge today in pursuit of this small painting.

                Although we had no luck in finding the painting, we did see an entertaining little band. There was a banjo, a trumpet, a clarinet, and a bass. The trumpet player was smoking and when it came his time to play, Abby and I looked closely to see if smoke would come out of the horn’s bell (which would have been both cool and disgusting), but we didn’t see any. We also saw an animated accordion player with a bowler hat, striped shirt, plaid vest, and pants.

                After riding the Metro to our parking spot, Abby and I looked for the baby bunnies we saw yesterday in the grass, but we couldn’t find them. So, we drove home to our “idyllic Prague cottage”, to enjoy another evening full of laughter and relaxation. After dinner we enjoyed a family bike ride down to a nearby lake. The ride was bumpy and at times painful, but enjoyable all the same. Returning home, we packed up and headed to bed.