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Greetings from Vienna! Truthfully, I didn’t do much here this week besides the Kunsthistorisches Museum, which was fabulous (Dutch master painters, collections of Habsburgian curiosities, and antiquities of all kinds) and go to a silks class where I learned a new but incredibly strenuous sequence. Today’s recap is going to mostly about last weekend, which I spent in Prague. Also known as “the city of a hundred spires,” Prague is the capital of the Czech Republic, which is the part of Europe that used to be known as Bohemia. Funny thing about that— the term “bohemian” is derived from a mistaken assumption by the French that their local Romani gypsies arrived by way of Bohemia, rather than, well, Romania. The name stuck, however, and in a plot twist of history, Bohemia ended up adopting elements of bohemianism rather than being the movement’s starting point. I arrived by train around mid-afternoon last Saturday and walked a quick ten minutes from the central train station to my hotel, which was just a block from the Gunpowder Tower. The tower is a large Gothic structure with gold details contrasting against the stone walls that have darkened with the passage of time. Originally, there were thirteen of these towers guarding the entrance to the old city, but today only three or four still stand. After a quick bite to eat, I set out armed only with a short list of recommendations and a few hours to kill before my absinthe tasting. I arbitrarily picked the Kafka museum as my farthest point of exploration for the day, which was just across the river and beyond the old city. For being a late October day in the time of corona, it was surprisingly crowded, but it was also a clear and sunny Saturday afternoon… I have to assume that people were, like me, trying to make the most of it. I went through the old city square, past the famous astronomical clock, and crossed the Charles Bridge which was thick with tourists. The bridge itself was a wide stone structure, clearly very old, and lined with statues from one side to the other. One in particular caught my eye because the birds were just so perfectly perched on top of the figures that I had to snap a photo. Across the bridge in Malástranska, I found the Kafka museum, and I was about to buy a ticket when I remembered suddenly that I never liked Kafka in school and that I didn’t actually want to spend several hours reminding myself that I never enjoyed his work, so I walked out and kept exploring. Instead, I bought a ticket to go up one of the towers to the observation deck, from which I could see most of the city: the monastery that also doubled as a brewery, the palace that took 1000 years to build, the bridge I had just crossed, dozens of other cathedrals, theatres, and points of interest. I explored a nearby park, made note of a few interesting shops to check out, and then headed back around to the other side of the river. I stopped in a Sephora for some decent SPF, bought some street food (including a “chimney cake” filled with ice cream and caked in cinnamon sugar), and then headed back to the hotel until my absinthe reservation. I had originally booked an Airbnb experience that was supposed to be a guided group tour to a few absinthe bars, trying both the French and the Czech methods of consumption, but the host ended up having to cancel. As a consolation gesture, she offered to book me a table at her favorite spot and set up a tasting there, which I accepted. Green Devil’s Absinth Bar is a kitschy little basement bar in the old city (if Beetlejuice were roommates with the Grinch, their apartment would look like this place), but the people who worked there were very professional and knowledgeable about the drink and its varietals. I let them choose my samplings, and they gave me servings of French, Swiss, and Czech absinthes along with a sample the knock-off “absinth” which is made without anise or any of the really good stuff that give it a nuanced and palatable flavor (according to this blog, absinth-without-the-e is usually served as a shot that’s set on fire, but I did not personally try that). The presentation was interesting: they rolled up a bar cart to the table with four glasses around a dispenser of ice water, which had four spickets (one over each glass). Each glass had a flat absinthe spoon with a sugar cube spanning over the top with about a shot’s worth of the liquor underneath. As the water filters through the sugar and the spoon, the anise in the absinthe reacts with cold water to turn a milky white (much like Turkish raki, which had a similar, albeit less sweet, taste). Even though I chose the most secluded table at the bar to post up alone and read Sherlock Holmes on my phone while sipping absinthe (it felt apropos), the other tables quickly filled up and glanced at me with what I perceived to be a mixture of curiosity and judgment. I left as soon as I had reasonably gotten my money’s worth out of the tasting. Overall, I liked it, would do it again but not by myself. Also, no— I did not see any green fairies. But the drink does produce a different kind of feeling than your generic poison of choice. More mellow and chill, less loopy and lowered-inhibitions, and no immediate headache (looking at you, red wine). The next day, I did a walking tour with Airbnb, hosted by a local university professor of history who was exceptionally gregarious and in love with his city. He told us the story of the maker of the first astronomical clock in Europe, whom the city officials had blinded so that he couldn’t make another one anywhere else and detract from the distinction of Prague having the first (and therefore best) clock. Despite his blindness, he took revenge on the city officials by breaking his own clock and escaping the city to make an even more fantastic clock somewhere else. We learned about the historical role of the city executioner, his prestige and anonymity, the heredity of the role, and walked the path they’d drag the bodies along so they could be donated to science. We heard about Hitler’s actions in the Jewish Quarter in the late 30’s. We saw the cubism museum, cafe, and coffee shop, which was voted the most beautiful cafe in Europe. We learned about Casanova and Mozart’s exploits in the city, went by the Kafka museum (again), went to the gingerbread bakery (cookie pictured above), and walked the John Lennon Wall (insert Imagine joke here). Our guide made myriad recommendations and I ended up exploring several of them, including the Cubism coffee shop (take it from me, cubist chairs are not comfortable), the belle époque Cafe du Louvre (frequented by many locals of note over its 100+ years in business), Shakespeare & Son’s bookshop (I picked up a copy of Vaclav Havel’s Open Letters), a shop for handmade Czechoslovakian goods in the Maltese embassy (…oops), and Tretter’s speakeasy (really top notch cocktails). Overall, I greatly enjoyed Prague. It’s a place I definitely would like to go back to sometime and explore more deeply. Also, I highly recommend doing the local Airbnb walking tour anytime you’re in a new city— it’s a great way to orient yourself and get a crash course in what’s awesome about that particular place. With that said, I’m tired of traveling, and it’s showing in my increasing number of logistical blunders: things like striking out on dinner restaurants three times in one night (first place was closed, second was “full,” third was impossible to find on a map), missing my train (by assuming it left from the same station I arrived at), taking the wrong bus home in Vienna out of desperation, and leaving the stove on for several hours while at silks. I’m ready to get home, y’all. I miss my cat.
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