A Good Friday in Praha

Out the door at half nine as we've a deadline today ― we spend the morning on an English-language walking tour. Our guide is a Praha native, a student during the 1989 demonstrations that sparked the Velvet Revolution and saw the communist regime fall in just 10 days. How far this city has come in just 15 years. Praha has developed at least as quickly as Berlin, though perhaps Praha started somewhat ahead. Greatest irony on the tour: a former aristocratic palace that now houses the (private) communist-era museum, a McDonalds, and a casino.

Walking the famous Charles Bridge, Jesus hangs from his cross over the middle of the span. Though it is Good Friday, the throng of tourists don't seem to notice him there ― inconvenient, perhaps. We will be having a remembrance of our own later tonight ― with The Passion of the Christ still reverberating for me from a week ago...

Praha has a long tradition of giving painted eggs at Easter time. (The other Easter tradition involves men swatting their favourite women with willow switches, but that doesn't happen till Monday...) Bronwyn had been looking forward to seeing these, and in the various markets we have seen these eggs not just for sale, but have been able to watch them being painted and decorated. Bronwyn bought a set of three precious eggs, which we hope to use as Christmas decorations in years to come. Can we transport three empty egg shells right around the globe? We shall see.

Tonight we're off to our concert of Dvořák and Smetana as well as Zelenka, Bach, Schubert, Mozart, and Beethoven, at an apparently historical baroque palace. In fact, it's time for us to return to the hostel and get ready. Eventually, this paragraph may be replaced with a bona fide review of the evening! Until then, dobry vecer!

Update from bronwyn: The trusty LP had warned that some of the so-called “amateur” concerts in the Prague Spring classical music festival were less than the best but I am pleased to say that we were far from disappointed. I had thought that it would be a Chamber ensemble ― which it was I guess, but actually it was an oboe quartet. We could have figured this out if we had analysed the fine print. Shrinking Dvořák's Symphony for a New World down to an arrangement for quartet was interesting but pretty successful. We particularly enjoyed the Mozart piece which exhibited terrific virtuoso performing by the oboe player. A lovely experience overall and sad to say that I think this is the only classical music concert that I have attended as a paying adult. mmmmm!