Having arrived the night before and gone straight to my hotel, I woke up refreshed and ready to see the sights. The sun was shining and the skies were deceptively blue. I say 'deceptive' because it looked like summer but felt every bit like Siberia in the winter. The temperatures were lingering around -10°C (14°F) and you could feel every one of those!
In a bid to keep warm I walked purposefully and quickly. I soon located the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Staroměstské náměstí (Old Town Square) and was delighted to discover that it was every bit as stunning as it appears in photos. From Týnský chrám (Týn Church) to the Staroměstské Radnice (Old Town City Hall) I was in architecture heaven. Seeing Pražský orloj (Prague clock), a medieval astronomical clock was the icing on the cake. Dating from 1410, it's the third oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest one still working.
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| First look at Old Town Square |
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| Entering Old Town Square |
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| City Hall |
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| The medieval astronomical clock |
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| Close up of the clock face |
It was just too cold to stand there and appreciate it though. So I kept moving, eventually locating the beautiful Karlův most (Charles Bridge), which took me across the river and up into the castle area where I took many more photos.
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| First look at the iconic Charles Bridge |
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| View of Castle Hill from Charles Bridge |
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| One of the many statues |
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| The castle side of the bridge |
Before long I was so cold I could no longer feel my toes, so I headed back down the hill, over the bridge and into Old Town Square in search of a nice warming cup of tea. The first thing I came across was a Starbucks and I happily dived inside.
Having thawed out, I decided to go walkabout again. I wandered back through the square and down pretty streets photographing everything in sight until I reached the Jewish quarter. I was just about to buy a ticket to see the synagogues and the old cemetery when my camera battery died. So I headed back to the hotel to charge it.
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| Arches within arches somewhere near the castle |
An hour later I ventured back into the cold and headed straight for the Jewish quarter. A mere CZK 300 (approx. £9/€11/US$15) got me a walk through an old synagogue and an even older cemetery. While there are approximately 12,000 visible tombstones in the cemetery, there may be as many as 100,000 burials in all. Jewish law states that Jews must not destroy Jewish graves, and neither must they remove the tombstone. Thus, when this particular cemetery ran out of space and was unable to purchase extra land, they lifted up the tombstones, covered the existing graves with soil, placed more graves on top of them and then placed the old tombstones on top. Consequently, the cemetery has twelve layers of graves! As the soil has subsided, so too have the graves, causing them to appear lop-sided.
I think I could have used the ticket to see a couple more synagogues but by this time the light was fading and the temperatures dropping. And so I headed back to the hotel stopping off in Costa Coffee en-route...
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| Starý židovský hřbitov, the Old Jewish Cemetery |
I spent the next morning hunting down all things Jan Palach, starting with his memorial in Václavské náměstí (Wenceslas Square). Palach was a young Czech student who set himself on fire in 1969 in protest at the impact the Soviet occupation had on Czechoslovakians. A month later another student – another Jan, this time Zajíc – burned himself to death in the same place.
My mother, a former politics student, greatly admired Jan Palach's unwavering beliefs, bravery and self-sacrifice, so much so in fact that when my older brother was born, he got lumbered with Jan (pronounced Yan) as his middle name. Had it not looked so feminine it would have been his first name...
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| Memorial to Jan Palach and Jan Zajíc in Wenceslas Square |
A short distance from Old Town Square, on the banks of the River Vltava is Náměstí Jana Palacha (Jan Palach Square) and it is here that a bronze memorial plaque with Palach's death mask can be found.
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| Jan Palach's memorial plaque in the square named after him |
Having found and photographed said memorials, I decided to tackle Pražský hrad (Prague Castle). I bought a 'short visit' ticket which gave me entry to Katedrála svatého Víta (St Vitus' Cathedral), Bazilika svatého Jiří (St George's Basilica), Starý královský palace (Old Royal Palace) and Zlatá ulička (Golden Lane), a row of 16th century houses which takes its name from the gold beaters who used to live there. I crammed as much sightseeing into an hour or so as I possibly could but eventually had to concede defeat. At -18°C (0°F) it was simply too damn cold to be out and about. Far better to go back to the hotel and warm up.
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| Steps leading to the castle |
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| Castle Square |
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| The view from the South Tower of St Vitus' Cathedral |
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| Another view from the South Tower |
I had almost reached Old Town Square when I noticed an old man kneeling on the ground. I thought he had fallen but quickly realised he was begging. In -18°C (0°F)! I was horrified but unwilling to get my wallet out on the street. So I made the decision to go to Starbucks and buy him a coffee (and me a tea), which would probably benefit him more than a few coins.
I went to the Starbucks near the Old Town City Hall. I remember noticing that the store was quite busy but I got served fairly quickly. While I was waiting for the coffee I decided to put milk in my tea. I had just picked up the milk jug when someone leaned uncomfortably close to me. He appeared to be leaning over me to pick up a leaflet from the bar but something didn't feel right. Instantly I realised what he was up to. My hand shot to my bag but I was too late. My wallet was gone and so was he. It had taken him just ten seconds. I rooted around in my bag in the futile hope that I was wrong. I checked the floor. But it was all in vain. The thieving tw*t had got my wallet and made his escape. Staff saw my panic and thought I was looking for the coffee. I wanted to scream that I didn't care about the freaking coffee. Instead, barely holding back the tears, I told them what had happened they were really nice about it. They checked the CCTV, which confirmed everything, but beyond that there was nothing they could do. I was told to go to the police and report the crime.
Still holding the coffee for the beggar, I decided that that needed to be my first priority. Of course when I reached the street the beggar had gone. I cursed myself from a great height. If I hadn't felt sorry for the guy, I wouldn't have gone to Starbucks. And if I hadn't gone to Starbucks, I wouldn't have had my wallet stolen. Miserable and still clutching the unwanted coffee I went in search of a police station. On my way to what I believed was the nearest one I saw another beggar, kneeling face downward on the pavement. I tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Przepraszam" (the Polish word for "excuse me" – apparently Czech and Polish are similar). He looked up and gratefully accepted the coffee and I felt that if nothing else, I had brought a little warmth to someone else's day.
I eventually located a police station only to be told that I needed to go to another one as they weren't State Police. On reaching the other one, I was told to go to yet a third one as they weren't State Police either. But I couldn't find the third one so I stopped to ask some police on the street where the nearest station was. They all but laughed in my face and gave me directions to the police station I'd just come from. Frustrated and close to tears I figured I may as well just head back to the hotel. I had almost reached the hotel when I saw two more policemen on the street and decided as a last-ditch attempt to ask them. They were very sympathetic and very helpful and I easily found the station. But when I got inside the woman on the desk told me it was the wrong station and that I needed to go elsewhere. At this point I was so very close to tears that I could barely tell her that this was my fifth attempt at getting help. She saw how upset I was and agreed to take a statement. Mind you, had I known it would take almost two hours I probably wouldn't have bothered.
Matters were not helped by my not being able to remember what I had in my wallet – which cards were there and which were in the hotel?! To be on the safe side, I reported four cards stolen, although on returning to the hotel I discovered it was probably only one. I also lost my driving licence, my social security number card, my EHIC (a reciprocal health card that gives me free medical treatment in the EU), two loyalty cards and around CZK 2,000 (approx. £60/€73/US$100). To cut a long story short, I managed to cancel the credit card and renew my driving licence, which set me back £20 (€25/US$33). There was nothing I could do about the rest.
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| Little absinthe shop near Old Town Square – the last photo I took in Prague |
I still had another full day left in Prague, after which I was supposed to catch a train to Bratislava, Slovakia. But that night, unable to sleep thanks to endlessly replaying the day's events in my head, I decided I didn't want to continue with my trip. Actually, that's not true. I wanted to be brave, to pick myself up, dust myself down and carry on, but some things are easier said than done. And so I made a decision – if the hotel booking was refundable, I would cancel my trip to Bratislava.
Keen to finalise said decision I powered up Mr Red (my netbook) and logged on to booking.com. It was like a sign: free cancellation if cancelled by 23:59 on 3 February. That gave me twenty minutes. I cancelled in seconds, feeling cowardly but relieved. Bratislava was no more. So now all I had to do was spend one more day in the city, then get a train to Český Těšín the following day, walk across the bridge to Cieszyn and get a bus back to the relative safety of Bielsko-Biała, my temporary home in Poland...
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