Prague Summer Seminar: Free Weekend

I stayed in Prague for our free weekend. It was time for sightseeing and museum visiting!

Day 7 - Saturday, May 21

In search of modern and contemporary art, I first I went to the main National Gallery at Old Town Square and eventually discovered I wanted to go to the Veletržní palác (Trade Fair Palace) in the Holešovice area of Prague -- I hopped on a tram and made my way over there!

First I took in Ai Weiwei's Zodiac Heads and did some self-congratulations on the fact I saw it at LACMA a few years ago.

Then I had some lunch in the cafe, which was quite nice, and they served free tap water.

Once I actually made it into the museum, the guard ushered me into the elevator and told me to start at the top and work my way down. As a result I spent way too much time in there. I was essentially overwhelmed and exhausted by the end. But I found the one Van Gogh in the place and looked at it and wrote in my journal for a long time. My jam.

Got a little distracted by the view... 

El Hadji Sy's kites 

Then I booked it over to Prague Castle... got there just a little too late to go in the cathedral but I was tripping on the gargoyles jutting out... it really summoned up that medieval hallucination of haunted castles... thinking of lost travelers trying to make their way in a dark, stormy night and spirits poppin' up and impeding their progress.

I also took some funny selfies and enjoyed the view.

Can you spot the jutting gargoyles? 

Whomp. 

Petřín Tower -- a future destination

I made my exhausted way back to the area of the hotel, ate a sausage and potatoes for dinner, and went back to the hotel. I missed the boat on going out with various peeps from the cohort, and ended up wandering around town for another couple hours. It's impossible to keep yourself indoors in Prague on a Saturday night!

Following the full moon around Prague pic.twitter.com/hCnKRcOauE

— ₭elci M. ₭elci (@bibliobebe) May 21, 2016

There's always some theme I amuse myself with when traveling internationally.
The USA retail theme was my choice for this trip... 

Day 8 - May 22

On Sunday I went to another modern/contemporary art museum called The Dox. They had an impressive exhibit called The Soul of Money that made me think of a lot of things... past strong feelings about capitalism, the global economy, and human rights... feelings of helplessness regarding that fight... past important people sharing those same feelings... beliefs empowering you... beliefs imprisoning you.

The Soul of Money featured works by a variety of artists working in a variety of mediums. Upstairs was a connected exhibit called Supermarket of the Dead by Wolfgang Scheppe, which focused on the Chinese tradition of paper sacrifice to ancestors. Utterly fascinating. And it explained the paper Gucci wallets and Dior slippers and Rolex watches that are sold in packs in my neighborhood in San Francisco.

Love the texture on the currency replication art work.

Goin' shoppin' at the Supermarket of the Dead...

In another part of the museum was an exhibit devoted to Huxley's Brave New World, and that was simply freaky. (Baby doll heads traversing tubes through each floor...) 

In the bathroom at The Dox.

Do you ever go somewhere and it strikes a cord of memory so strong you wish someone from your past was there with you, and because they never will be, you end up feeling full of inspiration but simultaneously empty and lonely? That's how I felt so I was pretty happy to jet out of there to meet Erica at Petřín Tower.

Turns out the line for the funicolare (I will always call it by its Italian name because my first encounter with one happened in Naples with Christie) was super long, and separately both Erica and I thought we were late to meet each other, so we both jetted up the hill on foot and just about died once we got to the mid-point pub where we were gonna meet.

Ultimately we each recovered and had a nice meal then took the funicolare to the top. We lavished in the lavender gardens, loved the bees, climbed the tower, had great conversation, and took it the great sights!

Petřín Tower is in the background, on the left side. It's Prague's (smaller) version of the Eiffel Tower.  

There's Prague Castle, where I was the day before.

The cool thing about Prague is it seems like there are a million high spots to go up to enjoy awesome views!

Once we came back down, we got gelato and eventually went to a raw vegan restaurant called Clear Head... very interesting menus! Pretty delicious meal. Even if it triggered me into being convinced I was coming down with the norovirus that had been going around the group (spoiler alert... I survived pretty much with no incident).

It was a good weekend.