Mmmm...cake.

After watching rehearsal at Laterna Magika on Thursday, I set out to sample some of Prague's famous "cafe culture". My Lonely Planet book had recommended a few, so I ended up at Cafe Savoy, just across the river from the theatre. This is their Tort Savoy, the house specialty - chocolate cake with chocolate mousse, and a center layer of cherry and black currant, all wrapped in marzipan. The top thingy is... some kind of little berry. I had it with a cafe au lait. Mmmm. :)

Spring at Strahov Monastery

After the Loreto, I walked up to Strahov Monastery. The most impressive thing in this complex is the beautiful library, with two ornate halls full of thousands of old books and antiquities (again, no photos allowed), but the simple appearance of flowers on trees all over Prague was beautiful in and of itself.
Spring in Prague this year may not have had as much 15C weather as I would have liked, but there wasn't the throng of tourists yet that will arrive for later in the summer, and I got to see thousands of trees like this one start blooming all around the city. Not a bad trade, I suppose!

The Loreto

March 28th was a beautiful, sunny day, so I spent it adventuring around Prague - first stop the Loretto. This artistic and historic monument from the 17th century is still an important pilgrimage site, and due to it's religious nature no photography is allowed inside it's walls. From outside, however, I got this shot of one of many cherubic statues with the main facade in the background.
The inside of the complex is beautiful, which is centered around the Santa Casa - a copy of the house of the Virgin Mary (which, story has it, was flown from Nazareth to Italy by angels), which apparently contains two beams and a brick from the original.
More obscure points of interest include the Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows - in honour of a devout Portugese princess who desperately wanted to get out of the marriage her father had arranged. She spent all night praying for the marriage to be cancelled, and when she awoke with a large beard, her prayers were answered (Her father had her crucified, however... I guess he didn't see it as such a blessing).
Also interesting are the skeletons of two saints behind the altar of the main chapel, which have been dressed in nobles' clothing and, luckily for the parishioners, had wax masks of their faces placed over the empty skulls. Cheery...but somehow the place was still pretty!

"Graffiti"

Flash ahead again to March 27 - one week after I first met with Petr and Laterna Magika.
I went that morning to the backstage door, where the receptionist who spoke no English thankfully had been informed that the girl who spoke no Czech would be arriving and should be shown upstairs.
The woman who was helping to show me around while I was there was actually French - now, I haven't taken French since grade nine, but I certainly understand it a lot better than I do Czech. I was actually surprised with how much I did understand of what she was saying to me! When it came time for me to communicate, however, I didn't do so well - but we managed!
Anyway, I spent the morning watching the company's ballet class and rehearsal for that evening's show - "Graffiti". Things finished there around 2:00, which is when I went off to explore the Easter market you've already seen, and I came back to the theatre again for 7:30 to watch the evening's performance.
"Graffiti" was very cool, and completely different from last week's "Rendez-vous" - this time, about human relationships of all shapes and forms. It was interesting to see the performance after having seen the rehearsals beforehand - they had been rehearsing with the music, of course, but without costumes or projections, so it was nice to see it all come together.

"Rendez-vous" with Laterna Magika

So, this posting is actually a little belated, but I thought I would fill you on what else I was doing besides touring and having fun now that my puppet man is completed!
We'll actually have to go back to March 20th, which is the first day I arrived at Laterna Magika, the other theatre I was working with while in Prague. This was actually the same day I first started work on my puppet guy with Martin - I had to make sure I left in enough time to go home, shower off the wood shavings, and head to the theatre.
I met with Petr Tosovsky, producer and artistic director of the theatre, in the lobby at 7:30. What a wonderful man - he was so friendly, welcoming and accommodating to me right from the very beginning! He took me around for a tour backstage and introduced me to various people (at least those who spoke a little English) before settling in to watch the show.
Before I continue, a bit about Laterna Magika: their shows are all non-verbal, combining dance, projected imagery, pantomime and black light. Their productions are done in repertory, meaning that there is a different show playing each week, with four of them currently in rotation. My timing actually worked out quite well, and I was able to see three of them while in Prague!
This photo I have posted here is a scene shot for "Rendez-vous" (not one I took - no cameras allowed), the show I saw that first evening. It was about the last 15 seconds of the life of a Spanish matador as he is killed by a bull, and includes flashbacks to his life as well as his journey into the afterlife. Some very cool imagery in this one, and they also had two guest-star acrobats - very exciting!

Here's Hoping...

Charles Bridge is lined on both sides with statues of important historical figures, but this one featuring St. John of Nepomuk is unique.
Here's the story: St. John was a priest under King Wenceslas IV (son of Charles IV) who received the confessions of the Queen. Unfortunately, the King was a very suspicious man, and when St. John wouldn't reveal the Queen's confessions, the King had him killed and thrown off the bridge into the Vltava River.
Now, all this bad luck for St. John is somehow supposed to be good luck for us - legend has it that if you rub the base of the statue, (some say it's supposed to be the image of the dog on the left, some say the image of the saint being dumped into the river on the right...I touched both just to be sure) it will bring you good luck and ensure that you one day return to Prague.
I figured it was worth a try - I'll keep you posted on how it goes!

Jazz on the Bridge

After the market, we strolled across the beautiful Charles Bridge ("Karluv Most" in Czech). It was a gorgeous, sunny day, and tourists were out in full force to shop the artisans' booths lining the bridge. Luckily "full force" in March is nothing compared to what it would be a couple months from now, so I was still able to get an unobscured shot of these buskers, playing live jazz in the sun.

Pretty...?

Here's one of the "cute" little fellows on sale in the market. This one was actually nicer than a lot of the ones I saw - he's well made, just a little frightening to hang in your child's room, perhaps!

A Pile of Puppets

There were many booths in the market selling little, souvenir "loutky" - Czech for "puppets" (see, there's one word I do know!). Most of the ones here featured simpler puppets, but in some of the permanent stores around the Old Town, you could find everything from simple to fantastically elaborate - and the prices reflected it!
The handmade puppets were naturally the highest quality. I found that with many of the cheaper ones, you more often than not got some creepy looking faces - check out the guy with red suspenders and googly eyes on the right side of the photo - yikes!
The parrot's pretty cute, though. :)

Trdelnik = Tasty

Trdelnik is not actually the Czech translation for tasty...at least as far as I know, in my extremely limited knowledge of the language! What I know the word to mean, however, is the name of these yummy dough spirals - also sometimes called Trdlo.

It's pretty interesting to see them made:
First, they roll a long bit of dough out like a Play-Dough snake, and then wrap it around and around the big metal cylinders that you can see in the background. They put two on each cylinder, which they then use as a big rolling pin to flatten them out.
Next, they're rolled in a sugar/vanilla/toffee/nut mixture, before being placed in that machine, which twirls them over an open flame until they are roasted a golden brown.
Then, out of the fire and back for one more dip in the sugar mix, then onto a napkin and steaming out to you!

I first encountered them a smaller market in the suburb where I was staying. Most of the people there were locals, not tourists, so I was interested to see what the line up was for - and this was my discovery! Goulash and dumplings are tasty too, but this was a delightfully sweet change of pace.

An Easter Tree!

See, Mom's not the only one who likes decorating trees for Easter! This one was in the center of the market, again with the Tyn Church in the background.

Easter Market in Old Town Square

Every spring, the Czechs set up rows and rows of market stalls in the weeks leading up to Easter. There are knick knacks, jewellery, food, artwork (mostly reproduced in these stalls), bottles of beer with souvenir glasses, Prague beer steins, little puppet shops, and of course the traditional, hand-painted Easter eggs, seen here hanging in a booth with the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn in the background - a prominent feature on the eastern side of the square.

Playing catch-up

Okay, so it's April 11th now, and I've actually been back in Canada since April 5th.
Where did the rest of my trip go?? Things got a little busy (and I didn't have free internet anymore!) towards the end of my trip, so there's a sizable gap that still needs to be filled in from my last week or so. I'll go back to that now, so if we can all just pretend that I'm still over there, I'll continue with the play-by-play!
I'll try to catch us all up...

Mr. Puppet Guy!

Well, here he is! His face will look more complete once I've painted on his eyes, and he needs a set of clothing, but I think he looks pretty snazzy! :) Now I just need a name, as catchy as "Mr. Puppet Guy" is...

Done! Me and Martin

Martin and I posing with our puppets! I had just "finished" mine - I still don't have the painting or clothing done, like on his, but the carving is complete, so this is our victory photo. :)

Hard at Work

This is me in Martin's studio, on the 7th floor of an apartment building in Zizkov. He took this photo today, just as I was putting some finishing touches on my puppet... I wonder how much time I actually spent sitting like that (after I figured out that the floor was much more comfy for your neck than bending over a table from a chair)!

Me in Fairytale Land

I'm sitting on the wall on the way up from the main castle to the castle gardens - they were closed the day it was raining, but we decided to go back up the next day to try again... It was definitely worth the climb!

Night Spirals

Streetlamps playing with shadows just as we left the restaurant...

SUCH a good dinner...

After wandering the castle, Ken, Steve and I had the most wonderful dinner at a place called Krcma v Satlavske. We'd actually met a guide at the castle who was just finishing a tour, but let us tag along for free, and then we ran into her again down in the town while we were looking for a restaurant. She sent us to this place - no wonder she's a guide! You can't see it too well, but right behind me is the open fireplace where they cook all the meat... We topped it off with some hot flavoured wine - wonderful! If I go back to Cesky Krumlov, I'll definitely be returning here too!

Beautiful Sculptures... ?

This is Steve and I pretending to be fountains in the first courtyard of Cesky Krumlov castle... We thought it looked like it was lacking one, so we did our best to oblige!

Through the Peep Hole

This is the beautiful little town of Cesky Krumlov, about 3 hours south of Prague, as seen through one of the ramparts on the town's castle. It was pouring this day (more umbrella holding), but gorgeous nonetheless... We weren't going to melt, so we didn't let the rain stop us from seeing the sights!

The Old Jewish Cemetery

This is a shot of the Old Jewish Cemetery in the oldest part of Prague - the Jews all lived in this one little ghetto, and they used this cemetery for so many years that the ground level is actually over a meter higher than the surrounding land in some places from the layers! It was raining, so I kept making my friend Ken hold my umbrella over the camera while I took my shots... I don't think he'd have minded so much if my umbrella wasn't bright purple! :) Oh well...still keeps the rain off!

Toes again!

Here's one of my feet, completed this time! You have to attach the feet before you carve the legs to make sure that they'll go together. It's coming along!

Toes-ies

The starts of a foot... You just draw it on the outside like this, and then start hacking away! The little one on the right is one that Martin gave me as an example to work from. I was going for a little different look with mine, but it was nice to have the guide there!

Communist Architecture at it's Finest

This is the Zizkov TV Tower that the communists built starting in 1984. Some Czechs think it's futuristic, but many just find it ugly... It's apparently got some great views, though, and the little things crawling on the outside are a piece of art by David Cerny called "Babies" - they're creepy, slot-faced metal babies crawling up and down the sides of it. I walked past this every day to go to Martin's studio to do my carving - interesting, at least!

St. Vitus ceiling

A less common view of the cathedral - standing just south of the cross (transept?), looking straight up.

More at St. Vitus

This is actually from the first time I visited Prague Castle, on a guided tour I joined through town. It was just me, the guide, and two cute little English ladies called Sue and Jill. We didn't actually go through the interior on this day, but I thought I would show you the exterior view here as well. This is the oldest Gothic end, seen from the west as you pass St. George's Basilica.

Come a little closer...

Here's a closer look at his face. The eyes will be painted on (when I get to that part, likely when I get home), but you can see him in little more detail here! Can't wait to see it finished!

My carving!

I forgot to take a shot at the very beginning before I started carving, but this is still a pretty early stage. You can see the round little body, and the head is mostly carved as well - still details to go. You can see my design and tools in the foreground, and on the back of the table are the cutouts for the hands, feet and legs. Martin pre-cuts them to the dimensions of the design, but they come out squared off, as you can see, and then the carver has to go from there. I'm really enjoying it so far - sharp things make fun toys! :)

St. Vitus Cathedral at Prague Castle

This was my first interior view of a big, classic cathedral - beautiful! The cathedral itself is the biggest and most impressive part of Prague castle, as far as I'm concerned. It was built mainly in three stages - the rear section was begun in the Gothic era, the middle continued in the Renaissance, and then the end of it was finished in the 19th century in Neo-Gothic style. Quite the span, huh?

Living it up in Karlstejn

This is me with Steve (my Australian friend, on the left), and the crazy, fun Swiss guys we met on the train to Karlstejn. They had left their wives at home and gone for a "man's weekend" in the Czech Republic! Left to right are Heinz, Rene, Michael and Martin. We had a lovely dinner after walking up the huge hill and seeing the castle, and then decided we had time for one more beer in this little pub before catching out return train home. We made it with minutes to spare! :)

Karlstejn Castle

More of a fairytale-type castle than Prague Castle (which is really more like a big fancy cathedral in a complex - still amazing, but not a castle in my traditional sense!). It was one big long hill on the way up, getting steeper and steeper until you finally reached the top - what a climb! I had to take my jacket off since I was dying from the heat, but during our tour through the old stone rooms inside, I was sure glad to have it again. The wind was blowing it's fiercest on the way back down, too - the four Swiss guys we were with were envious that the Canadian girl was well prepared with her gloves!

St. Barbara Cathedral in Kutna Hora

The other main sight in town - after the gory fascination at the Ossuary - is St. Barbara Cathedral, seen here from across the valley. They're doing some restoration work on it, hence the scaffolding, but still beautiful - an impressive example of Gothic architecture in the Czech Republic.

The Chandelier at Sedlec Ossuary

Oops - here's the chandelier! I'm still getting the hang of this blogging thing...

How about a little atmosphere?

This is a little intro shot to the Sedlec Ossuary in Kutna Hora - the second pic is the chandelier that apparently contains every bone in the human body, plus at least one or two duplicates, as far as I could see!
The "Bone Church", as it's known, had piles of bones just sitting around after they were dug up to make room for plague victims - until an artist decided to get "creative" with them in the 1800's. There were all kinds of delightful creations in there, including a family crest of the sponsoring family...just the thing to get for the person who has everything!

My first carving!

I carved the hand on the left - Martin's is the one on the right I was working from. Not bad for my first time out, I thought, and I only ended up with a couple of nicks for my trouble...

Oh, the 72 Stairs...

Yes, I counted - 72. These are the stairs I had to carry my suitcase up on the day I arrived, since my hostel was on the other side of the railroad tracks from the metro station. I now go up them at least once a day, as well - plus the metro stairs and the inevitable hills on which every attraction seems to be located! At least I'm working off those Czech beers...

Sunset on Charles Bridge

A view of Charles Bridge at sunset - so far, the most sunlight I've seen at this locale! I've been on the bridge three times now, but all after dark - it's beautiful and enchanting, but I'd still like to see it during the day when all the vendors and buskers are out. It's on the "to do" list!

The Astronomical Clock in Old Town Square - the windows open at the top and some guys come out and scroll by, and the figures beside the face all move as well It was built during the 14th and 15th centuries - pretty fancy for it's time! (haha...no pun intended!)

Me and Dave at Hallowe'en - 80's rock star meets hobo!