Important Knowledge: "Where Is The U.S. Embassy?" Is "kde je americké velvyslanectví?" in Czech

~The day after our visit to Krumlov, my group was given a tour of the Czech Parliament building and the attached library. The Parliament building is located not far from the castle complex where the Czech President lives.

^ The main entrance to Parliament. I assume they only open the larger doors for special events and/or furniture additions.

^ A closer look at the crest over the doorway. Note the metal netting over the statues. I'm told the nets are there to keep the statues from accidentally falling and killing a VIP.

^ The Czech Parliament, like the U.S. Congress, is bicameral (divided into two Houses). Above is the Session Room of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower (and more powerful) House, analogous to the U.S. House of Representatives.

^ The Session Room is opulently decorated with gilded statues, chandeliers, and so forth.

Which makes me wonder: when Slovakia broke from Czechoslovakia, what government buildings did they get to keep? I'm guessing that the Czech Republic, with Prague, got the better part of the deal in that department.

The parliament library, as you might guess, consists mostly of law and reference books. The librarians there were very friendly and told us about how the books circulate (no, they don't fine lawmakers for overdue books, as much as they wanted to).

^ Above is a centuries old government document that hangs in the parliament building; you can see dozens of seals, each belonging to a different nobleman, attached to the document.

^ After touring the parliament, our group went to the U.S. embassy (seen above) for a tour and presentation at the American Center, an embassy division that promotes U.S. culture in the Czech Republic.

Nowadays, the job of U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic is considered a relatively easy diplomatic assignment to a strong, if small and relatively unimportant U.S. ally. Hence, the job usually goes to a fundraiser for whichever U.S. President is in power. Currently, the job is held by Richard Graber, one of President Bush's top fundraisers and former Chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party.

Of course, being ambassador to the Czech Republic wasn't always an easy "reward" assignment. When Czechoslovakia was behind the Iron Curtain, it was an important posting that demanded a lot of diplomatic skill (diplomacy hint: Don't Drink the Water). The most famous ambassador to Czechoslovakia was former child star Shirley Temple, who was wildly popular among Czechs when she was posted in Prague.

Currently, the most pressing issue facing U.S.-Czech relations is the proposed installation of a NATO radar station for tracking missiles in 2012. Many Czechs are upset about the base; older citizens remember when Soviet troops invaded and are apprehensive about foreign troops again being stationed in the country. Others believe the radar will have detrimental effects on the health of those living nearby. The government opposition party is trying to hold a national referendum on the issue, which if successful would almost certainly result in the cancellation of the radar.

The U.S. embassy is heavily promoting the radar by touting it as harmless. All over the American Center are posters of lush, tropical Pacific islands where the same kind of radar installations are set up, and the posters show happy-looking locals who are completely unconcerned about the gigantic white domes behind them.

The American Center also contains a library of books about American history and culture, and many periodicals. They provide assistance to students researching the U.S. and can help businesses who want to conduct business in America.

^ The "David Restaurant" is near the U.S. embassy. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to sample its fare. Maybe next time.

^ When our tour of the embassy was over, we were given a lecture about this "baroque" library, which belonged to a town-dwelling nobleman in Prague many years ago. You know what they say...if it ain't baroque, don't fix it.

The books in this library are in many different languages, including Latin, German, French, Czech, English, Dutch, and Italian. It's unlikely the owner was able to read all of the books in his own library, but scholars often requested the use of such libraries. Thus, owning a well-stocked library was seen as a way of raising one's status and popularity.

^ Actually, there are some things that ARE being fixed in this baroque library. Above, you can see blurry paintings that are on the ceiling. These paintings were only recently re-discovered during a renovation of the library, as they were concealed under paint for centuries. Restoration is in progress.

^ One of the coolest things about the baroque library was the secret door (it seems like all the libraries I saw in the Czech Republic had one). This bookcase swings open...

^ To reveal a passageway leading to a stairwell, which takes you to the otherwise-inaccessible second-floor balcony of the library.

^ When our scheduled events for the day were over, I went with some friends to see the famous "John Lennon Wall".

After Lennon's murder, this wall became filled with memorial graffiti for the fallen Beatle, and anti-Soviet screeds. The communist authorities of the time painted it over...only to find that it soon became covered again in Lennon graffiti. The cycle of paint-to-graffiti went on for years, until finally the authorities gave up. The wall has since become a colorful cultural attraction.

Another interesting fact: the wall is currently owned by the Knights of Malta, who allow new graffiti to be put on the wall.

^ I wonder how someone stuck this face onto the wall? Superglue, perhaps?

^ Me in front of the wall.

~Coming next: the creepy Ossurary of Kutna Hora!

Krumlov: The Tourist Trap

~The new semester begins in a couple of weeks, and it should be a lot of fun. For now, I bring you more pictures from my trip to the Czech Republic. First, however, I'd like to point your attention to these pictures of the creepy TV tower in Prague. The last picture, in particular, is very disturbing. I'm almost glad that I didn't get close to the tower...

Getting back to the topic at hand: after my group was finished with the Zlata Koruna monastery, we were bussed out to the town of Krumlov, which is several hours away from Prague by car.

^ The town is built near the famous Krumlov Castle, but today the town is mostly a tourist trap, filled with souvenir shops and taverns. The day we visited was blazing hot, but it was a great chance to down some authentic mead. When I tried it, I had the sudden urge to stand up, give a heroic boast, and call my thanes together to battle Grendel.

^ To enter the town from the bus parking area, we traveled underneath this bridge that links different parts of the castle. It reminded me of a Roman aqueduct.

^ At first, I thought the castle wall was crumbling away. This is not the case; instead, the wall is built into the cliff face.

^ This tower on one side of the castle immediately drew my attention.

^ You can climb the tower (height: 54.5 meters), but it will cost you. Luckily they give discounts to students. Hooray for price discrimination!

^ Here's the entrance to Krumlov, taken from the tower. I crossed the bridge on the right when entering the town. The pub with the best mead in town is on the waterfront on the left side; it's the 5th or 6th house from the left.

^ Straight down from the tower is the bridge leading into the castle. The area immediately below the bridge contained a bear. Yes, you read that right: a bear. I felt terribly sorry for it, as it didn't seem happy at all, confined to such a small area.

^ Also taken from the tower, but in the other direction. As you can see, Krumlov stretches out quite a ways beyond the castle.

^ While I was on top of the tower, I met a Japanese family that was taking pictures. Exercising my rusty command of the Japanese language, I held out my camera and asked, "Shashin wo kudasi" (please take a picture). They were shocked to hear someone speaking their language and asked me all sorts of questions (in English). They did also take a picture for me.

^ Here's a panoramic image I took from the tower (click the picture for a bigger view). As with Prague, the farther out from the center you go, the more modern the buildings become.

^ Walking through the steets of Krumlov, I couldn't resist taking a picture of this Gothic-themed "Horor Bar" sign. I'm guessing this bar isn't popular among pirates, because it's missing an RRRRRRRRRR.

^ The town itself is about as scenic as they come in the Czech Republic. Here we have the Hotel Mlyn, which is supposed to be a nice place to stay if you're in the area.

^ Finally, here's another panoramic of Krumlov. On the left you can see the castle tower and the Hotel Mlyn. Click for a bigger view!

~More on the way, as always.

Zlata Koruna, part 2

~Clearly, a lot of work went into the art and buildings of the Zlata Koruna monastery. In fact, renovations were ongoing while I was there, as the Czech government has designated it a historical site, and is trying to increase tourism to areas of the country beyond Prague. Here are some of the more impressive works of art I saw while I was there:

^ The hallways around the courtyard are beautifully illustrated with religious scenes.

^ A closer view. The idea behind these illustrations is that the monks were supposed to walk around and around the courtyard while staring upwards and meditating on the scenes depicted.

^ Statues are built into everything, or so it seemed to me.

^ The main chapel of Zlata Koruna. A far cry from St. Andrew's, that's for sure...if you're someone who finds religious iconography to be inspiring. At the very least, it was impressive.

^ A closer view of the rear area. As you can see, much of the chapel is gold or gilded. I can't even imagine how much wealth poured into the monastery over the years of its construction to support this kind of rich artwork. Recall that King Přemysl Otakar II gifted the surrounding lands to the monastery. Now you know where all the money from that land and its people went to.

This chapel, located inside the monastery, was for male monks only. The people of the surroundings lands, whose labor paid for the treasures you see in these images, were not allowed to worship here.

^ The ceiling of the chapel. Painting this must have been tricky.

^ On either side of the chapel are these impressive mixed sculptures, which have been carefully maintained. This sculpture is on the left.

^ I can just imagine what's going through the mind of the person on the left: "What's in the box?"

^ Religious icons and statues surround the chapel on every wall.

^ There are also many paintings. I imagine that this frame was a custom job.

^ The organ is on a balcony in the rear of the chapel. It's huge!

Infinite Books

~The trip to Prague was a seminar organized by UNC in association with Charles University, which, unlike most American universities, does not have a single, main campus. Instead, the various academic departments that comprise Charles University are scattered throughout the city. I imagine that scheduling one's undergraduate classes becomes something of an adventure under this system.

^ One part of Charles University that my group toured included this large hall, which is used for graduation ceremonies and large lectures. The hall is located in the mansion of a rich merchant who, during the middle ages, became a government official in charge of Prague's finances. The statue on the left is, of course, Charles IV, while the banner, which is centuries old, was made during his reign.

After our tour of the graduation hall and a lecture in another part of the building, my group visited the Municipal Library of Prague. The public library system of Prague consists of many branches which vary widely in size; some, like the municipal library, are quite large, while others consist of only a single small room. One of the priorities of the library system is to consolidate smaller branches, while another challenge is to integrate all existing branches into the online catalog system.

^ This tower of books is in the entrance hall of the municipal library. I'm not sure if the books are glued together, but I was hardly going to test it by pulling a book out! As impressive as this sculpture is, the real fun comes when you look inside through the gap:

^ There are mirrors on the top and bottom of the tower, so when you look inside, the books seem to be infinite! Looking down gave me a brief sense of vertigo.

^ I saw this interesting frieze on a wall just outside the municipal library. I was told by the library assistant director that it depicts the legendary founder of the Czech people. His name, oddly enough, is Czech, and he's the guy on the left.

Another issue the Prague library system faces is under-use. I learned from the library director that only around 13% of the population of Prague have library cards. The reasons for this are several, but are mostly cultural; Eastern Europe, I was told, simply lacks the Western tradition of using public libraries. People prefer to buy books rather than check them out.

I'm not sure how accurate that reasoning is, and I rather suspect that the small annual fee the library charges card-holders has something to do with it. Even though the fee is quite small, paying is a hassle and a deterrent.

Two days after touring the Municipal Library, we embarked on our first day trip outside of Prague, to a monastery named "Zlata Koruna". The monastery was founded by King Přemysl Otakar II (a king whose fame in the Czech Republic is second only to Charles IV), and the surrounding lands (with their peasants) were given to the monastery to support it. There are no longer and monks or nuns at Zlata Koruna, but it is now a historical site.

^ This rose-colored section of the monastery is older than the surrounding structures. Aside from the color, there are a couple of things about this building that caught my attention:

^ First, I noticed this interesting frieze of leaves over the door.

^ Second, there's this sundial. It's hard to see on a two-dimensional image such as the one above, but the black line just right of center is a metal rod that projects outwards. As the sun travels overhead, the rod casts a shadow that slowly moves over the numbers below the yellow part of the sundial indicating the time of day. The sundial itself is quite old, as evidenced by how faded it is.

^ The main reason we went to Zlata Koruna was that it has a small but famous library of rare books hand-copied by the monks that once occupied the monastery. I was amazed at how casual the staff members were about letting us hold and leaf through these centuries-old books. In any comparable American library, there would be protective cases and you'd have to get special permission to look through them, have to wear gloves, etc. But here, they just handed them out and let us look through them. I guess they trusted us, because we're library students.

While I was in the monastery library, I took pictures of a few of the more interesting books:

^ A "Universal Geography" book written in German, showing the known universe.

^ A book of hymns in old-style musical notation, beautifully illustrated.

^ An illustrated bible, which was attached to a pedestal and was one of the few books we couldn't look through. Notice how the guy on the right is having a very, very bad day. Game over man, game over!

^ A map of Britain. I liked the map title in the upper-right: "Magna Britannia". All Hail Britannia!

^ Another large bible was heavily illustrated with woodcut images. Here we have Eve tempting Adam with the apple, and Adam saying, "Talk the the hand, baby."

^ Cain vs. Abel: Heaven or Hell, Fight! A novel I'm currently reading came up with a rather novel theory (if you'll pardon the pun) regarding the Cain and Able fable. Most Christians understand the story to go like this: Cain gets mad at Abel because Cain is jealous that Abel's animal sacrifice is more pleasing to God than Cain's plant sacrifice, so Cain kills Abel. Angry at mankind's first murder, God "marks" Cain and exiles him to the land of Nod.

But what if, rather than punishing Cain, God was rewarding him? What if Cain's murder of Abel, rather than a murder, was a sacrifice more pleasing to God than Abel's offering of animals? After all, after being "cast out", Cain does quite well for himself: in Nod, he finds other people (apparently created just for him), gets married, and fathers a massive dynasty that founds human civilization. His people invent the tent, the city, musical instruments, and bronze-working, among other useful things.

Forgive my tangent. Anyway, here's another panoramic, taken on the outskirts of Prague. If you click on it for a better look, you might be able to see the TV Tower on the mid-left.

~More later, of course.

Prague by Boat

~One evening in Prague, our group went on a pre-arranged tour boat ride up and down the Vltava river, which runs through the middle of Prague and is crossed by several bridges (most notably, Charles Bridge). While aboard, we enjoyed a buffet-style dinner and complimentary drinks. I noticed "grog" on the menu and ordered it, and was disappointed when all I got was a Pilsner beer. It turned out that I hadn't said "grog" correctly: in Czech, it sounds like "grok".

^ This was not our tour boat, but the one we rode on looked a lot like this.

^ Charles Bridge, taken from the boat in the evening.

^ I'm told this picture makes me and the girls look like we're in a band. Supposedly, I'm the band leader and they're my all-female backups.

^ A statue of Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV (or "Karolo Quarto", as it says on the pedestal). Charlie here is the greatest hero of the Czech people, a legendary monarch who ruled over a golden age of culture, victory, and prosperity. Charles University, Prague's oldest and most distinguished institution of higher learning, was founded by him. This particular statue lies at the East end of Charles Bridge (also named for Charlie), although it has been moved repeatedly eastward over the centuries as the area became more and more crowded.

Prague is filled with art and statues, but some of the statues are more unusual than others. Here are a few of the more unusual statues I saw in the city:

^ The tower on the east side of Charles Bridge holds this unusual statue. Seen from behind, he seems to be scratching himself. How embarrassing to be frozen like that for all time!

^ "Let me give you a hand!" These hand statues, of which I found at least three, seem to be scattered around Prague at random. I don't know what significance they have. Perhaps the gesture the hand is making is some sort of secret recognition signal, like the "Live long and prosper" sign of Star Trek fame.

^ Another of Prague's most famous sons is author Franz Kafka, who wrote "Metamorphosis" (among other weird stories). This statue, located on the edge of Prague's old Jewish district, was made by Czech sculptor Jaroslav Rona, and was inspired by Kafka's story "Description of a Struggle".

By the way, did you know that Kafka wanted most of his stories to be burned when he died? His executor couldn't bring himself to carry out his Kafka's dying wish, and instead had them published, bringing Kafka great, if posthumous, fame. This, to me, raises an interesting philosophical question: are we, as humans, obliged to honor the wishes of the deceased? Or do their desires and wants become meaningless when they die?

While you ponder that, enjoy the panoramic image of Charles Bridge below. The original is heavily overexposed, so I used PhotoShop to tone down the brightness. The result looks a bit strange, but much better than it did before. As always, please click on the image for a better look.


~More to come soon!