New Years In Prague

•January 1, 2007•

Paul and I almost never go out on New Years Eve so staying home and going to bed at ten is no sacrifice. It's the tradition here to shoot off fireworks, not just little poppers but big, loud boomers. It sounded like war had broken out. Paul's cousin, Milan, usually spends New Years Eve in his front yard with a hose at the ready in case fireworks set his roof on fire. The main celebration takes place in Wenceslas Suare and is covered on the local TV station.

Which brings me to television in the Czech Republic. I'm sure there are the equivalent of cable stations but we don't get them in our apartment. One local station shows old episodes of Night Rider, Charlie's Angels and Air Wolf all dubbed in Czech. These are shows I never watched when they were current much less in Czech and how ever many years later. Current American shows like Monster Garage, Pimp My Ride and Orange County Cycles are popular here, all dubbed in German. We get CNN and thankfully Conan O'Brian and Jay Leno.

We've gotten addicted to a German reality show called the Ludolf's about four, bachelor brothers who own a car parts junkyard in some small German town. It's in German with Czech subtitles and the characters are so compelling we never miss an episode. The two middle aged brothers live in an apartment above the junkyard and look as though they haven't bathed, cut their hair or changed their clothes in weeks. They all love to play with model cars. Everything in the yard is piled high in well organized rows and the oldest brother has total recall of every item. If someone needs a carburetor for a 1970 Volvo sedan, he knows if they have one and exactly where it is in the yard. It's a kind of idiot savant show and we're hooked. I wonder what that says about us?

•January 10, 2007•

It is coming up on three months since we arrived and I have to extend my visa. Our first trip to the Czech Republic was in 2002 for a family reunion. Three generations of relatives came from Canada, Slovakia and America. Paul and I became enchanted with the country, decided to buy a house here and began the complicated bureaucratic process to establish foreign ownership. We spent months in the States searching Czech real estate sites on the Internet. We wanted to buy an apartment in Prague but even in 2002 that was really out of our reach. The price of real estate, like everything else here, is going up and the British and Dutch are buying in. 

Photos of Prague by Paul Wells

December 21 - 28, 2006 Christmas in Prague

•December 21, 2006•

It feels much longer than two months since we've been here. It's unlikely that we will move back to California but we're having difficulty deciding where to settle next. Of our own choosing, we are displaced persons without a home here or elsewhere to go to. Strange feeling. It was fine when we were young, moving from place to place, but age tends to make us all want to sink roots.

The best advice I would give any young person is to travel. Young people are welcome almost anywhere and have the flexibility to adapt to situations and minor hardships. It doesn't take a lot of money to travel if you're willing to stay in hostels, camp out or meet other young people who will let you couch surf. At best, I think travel can teach tolerance and broaden human understanding and at worst it makes you appreciate home more. Having extolled the virtues of travel, I must admit I'm ready to go back to the U.S.A.  I've begun to count the weeks until we return. So much for life as an ex-patriot.

•December 24, 2006•

A traditional Czech Christmas dinner includes a baked carp. Two men have set up a table on the corner of our busy street. They have big, beautiful carp in water filled troughs and people line up to buy them. The men pull the fish out by the tail and then smash them over the head with a heavy wooden mallet. It's horrible. On and on it goes, thud, thud, thud. I makes me think of the lyric from that old Beatles song, Bang, bang Maxwell's silver hammer came down on their heads. Puts me right off fish. Two blocks from our apartment is the Flora, a large, multi-level shopping mall. It's lavishly decorated for the holidays and full of shoppers. In the Levi's store they are selling an ordinary looking pair of jeans for $200. Am I out of touch or is that nuts? Everything in the Flora is expensive but it doesn't slow down spending. 

Credit cards are a fairly new phenomenon in the Czech Republic so now the Czech's can dig themselves into debt just like the rest of us. It's a real sign of prosperity when people can buy what they can't afford. Eva goes to Germany where she can get quality merchandise for less money. It's only a two and a half hour drive to Dresden and a four and a half hour train trip to Vienna. I bought Paul an etching and a beautiful book on Czech Cubism for Christmas.

•December 25, 2006•

Today we went to Eva's for a couple of hours. She made sandwiches and cookies and that was our Christmas dinner. It was just the three of us. Very grim. Now I know how lonely the holidays can be for people with no family. One year in Oakland I decided not to cook Thanksgiving dinner and we went to a restaurant instead. I remember feeling so sad to see people eating a restaurant turkey dinner all alone. To me the holidays aren't about presents or parties. Holidays are about family together, telling funny and touching family stories and remembering loved ones who are gone.

So this was our Prague Christmas. Pretty dismal but Christmas, like paying taxes, comes every year and there will be others.

•December 28, 2006•

We went to a fabulous exhibit in Old Town of Czech Cubist and Expressionist painters and print makers. You would have difficulty finding the name of a Czech artist in most of the books on Modernism, Fauvism and Cubism. it's a shameful omission that artists like Emil Filla, Josef Capek and one of my favorites, Jan Zrzavy, have been so overlooked. We saw an exhibit of paintings by Rudolph Kremlicka, one of the first Czech Modernists, and friend of Andre Derain at the Tower of the Stone Bell in Old Town when we first arrived. I was very inspired by his paintings. He made me want to come home and paint.

At last a dusting of snow! Excuse my enthusiasm but I'm from California and haven't seen snow since I left Ohio at ten. There is so little of it that it will be melted off by tomorrow but for the moment I'm enjoying every flake on my coat and in my hair.

Art Is Everywhere In Prague

December 12 - 19, 2006

•December 12, 2006•

   The four a.m. music again and this time Paul knocked on the right door. Sure enough, when it opened a young man stood there looking as though he had just smoked a bong full of weed and the apartment reeked of it. The guy spoke English and Paul told him to turn it down. The guy apologized and Paul told him to get some earphones.

•December 16, 2006•

   I have neglected the journal lately. I've been sitting day after day at the kitchen table drawing, painting and constructing mobiles and paper dolls for Christmas presents. Our tree is decorated, there are festive decorations all over the apartment but it still doesn't feel like Christmas. I'm homesick.

   Our original plan was to move here in June and be back in the U.S.A. by Christmas but our house didn't sell until June and the debacle with our studio was unexpected so our plans were moved later into the year. Paul doesn't attach much importance to the season but I knew for myself that the holidays away from family back home would be lonely. I had anticipated having Christmas with the Czech family but for some reason that is not going to happen. Thanksgiving was weird. We had a bad Chinese dinner in a shopping mall and then went to see The Illusionist at the IMAX.

•December 19, 2006•

   Some personal observations about the Prague Czechs: They do everything in a rush,walk, eat, talk. The average Czech man is unusually tall and not terribly fashionable but the average Prague woman is beautiful and stylish. The current rage is the long, straight dyed black hair and tanning salon look. They wear fur lined jackets and very high heeled boots. It's amazing to watch these women navigate the treacherous cobblestone streets in these high heeled, pointed boots and shoes.

   The average Praguite has no sense of personal space. They could have an empty boulevard and yet they still manage to get as close to you as possible without physical contact. On the street they make these speedy advances toward you and you're sure that they will bump you or knock you down. Just before impact they artfully twist a shoulder or step sideways and move on. For a person like myself with limited mobility issues, getting on and off a tram and subway is a nerve wracking experience.

   Politically correct hasn't made it to the Czech Republic. That's a good thing or a bad thing depending on your weight, race or disability. There is no such thing as disabled access in many buildings and the cobblestone sidewalks and streets can be hazardous with the odd missing stones. You see very few people of color in Prague and fewer still in other cities with the exception of the Chinese and Vietnamese. I've heard that some Czech's have their prejudices against Asians living here because of the flood of cheap goods they sell in their shops. They feel this gives them an unfair advantage over the Czech shop owners. Just wait until Walmart opens here.

   Prague has a problem with the Romas. Some of them are thieves and criminals. They ride the trams in small groups pickpocketing and stealing purses and briefcases. Paul and I have both had to fight them off on the streetcars. Prostitution is legal here and there are brothels in the Wenceslas area. Like any big city there is crime and drug dealing here. We read on the English version of the Prague Post that one rapidly growing crime is elder shoplifting. As I wrote before, everything is getting more expensive here and some of the elderly on fixed incomes have taken to the old five finger discount. When they're caught the police make them return the goods and frequently let them go without charges.

   Paul had a funny experience along those lines. He was in a small market near the apartment and had put his gloves in the shopping cart. He was choosing produce and when he turned back to his cart some guy was trying on his gloves. Paul made him aware that they were his and the guy was appropriately apologetic but probably would have made off with them had he not been caught.

Photographs by Paul Wells

Winter In Prague

Prague Journal December 3 & 5th, 2006

•December 3, 2006•

The rains that have been pounding western Europe are now moving east so our drive through the countryside will have to wait for better weather. We have been spending a lot of time in the Stare Mesto these past few days. It's being turned into a replica of a medieval village in preparation for the holidays. There are food stalls selling sausages and mulled wine, shops selling traditional crafts and sweets, and a large stage in the middle of the square for musical performances. It's like the tower of Babel here. People come from everywhere to spend Christmas in Prague. Judging by the chill in the air we should have a white Christmas. My poor arthritic knees are feeling the wear and tear of walking everywhere and soon we will have to break out the thermal underwear.

Art is everywhere in Prague, right down to the iron gates and fences. The city is full of examples of Jugendstil, Cubist and Futurist architecture. Today we visited the Cubist Museum. Artists like Kubista, who changed his surname to reflect his art, Gocar and Gutfreund made a strong impression on me. The museum has a wonderful collection of furniture, paintings, sculpture, ceramics and graphics on three floors. Czech cubism is so dark and muscular, not fanciful like so much French cubism. We had lunch in the museum restaurant with its evocative black and white decor. Lousy food but great ambiance. 

Around the corner from the museum is the Dorotheum auction house annex. We bought some etchings by Czech artist Emil Orlik and a lovely drawing by T. Frantisek Simon of a Dutch woman by the sea. There is so much affordable, beautiful art to buy here. I feel like a kid in a candy shop. Soon I will venture out and do some drawing of my own around town.

Down a side street we came upon the Estates Theater where Mozart conducted Don Giovanni. There is a fabulous sculpture in front, a cloaked figure with no body inside. We watched an ice skating rink being erected across the way. The juxtaposition of the old and new looks so strange.

•December 5, 2006•

All over town tonight you see groups of three dressed up like bearded St. Nicholas in a long white robe, an angel and a devil parading the streets. Parents are out with their little children and when one of these trios approaches they ask if the child has been good or bad all year. If the child has been good the angel gives him/her a treat if the child has been bad the devil will take them. Of course no child will admit to being bad. Seems a little like Halloween with treats and frights.

Last night we attended a vocal concert given by the students of Charles University where Eva teaches. The students ranged in age from 15 to 18 and were quite good. The concert took place at the top of a 17th century tower which used to be the entrance to old Prague. We climbed the creaky wooden stairway and sat with about thirty parents and teachers. It was strange to imagine that hundreds of years ago guards stood watch in the very room where we sat. I think more than anything I will miss the ever present reminders of Prague's rich history.

I'm getting wanderlust and want to be out in the fresh air of the countryside. The air in Prague is pretty bad because of all the diesel fuel. Eva says there is something called the Prague cough. You don't see smog like you do in L.A. Here it's low lying  bad air. You see black grime on the first floor of buildings and dust accumulates in the apartment. I'm not sure one is related to the other but everyday I sweep piles of dust. It must come in on our clothes and shoes because it's too chilly to open the windows. Mystery dust.