Something

This is a grab of graffiti on the John Lennon Wall, in Prague, taken when I was there in 2010. The wall is covered in pictures, lyric snippets like this, and then just random people saying "hi mom", and "I was here", and other meaningless rubbish. It is covered over and over, just by time and people who add to it - so no two visits would be the same.

I loved finding the relevant tributes, and this and one grab that Belinda captured who two of the ones we saw. I bought 3 stills from a photographer on the Charles Bridge of three others, supposedly taken in the same year, although we saw no trace of them on our visit.

A lovely, ever-changing tribute to a peace-visionary.

Weird Art in Prague

Reading from the Lonely Planet, we discovered that there are a number of weird art installations out and about in the city of Prague, and were fascinated enough to stake them out as much as we could. The work of contemporary artist, David Cerny, the controversial and funny pieces, are easy to track down with a map and the inclination.

Our first piece was Hanging Out, a man hanging from his hand above a street in the New Town, which was pointed out to us on one our our walking tours. After finishing our walking tour on one of our days, we then made our way out to the TV Tower, to check out the crawling Babies all over it. They were cute and disturbing, all at once!



We managed to find the back gate to the German Embassy, practically climbing through fences to get to it, to spot the car on legs, as a symbol of the displaced people who camped on these grounds after the war, seeking asylum.

The Pissing Men in the grounds of the Kafka Museum had us intrigued, as they spelt out infamous Czech sayings! The people-watching around this one was hilarious.

Cerny's Dead Horse is his version of the upright and regal one in Wenceslas Square of triumphant King Wenceslas, tucked away in one of the shopping centres off the Square.

We did walk for an age to find the one at Cerny's studio, being the Futura Gallery, only to find it removed for repairs, or a new installation. The piece features the bottom half of two men, bent into a wall - you can climb up ladders and stick your head up the bums, and view a video of two prominent Czech politicians feeding each other gruel....random!

This guy has recently caused ripples in Europe with an installation depicting each of the EU nations in not the most favourable of lights, and it seems he has new ideas, and new controversies every so often.

Pretty Cute Prague

Breakfast on our Parisian street for our final French morning, we farewelled Jessie, Health, Rooey and Hemsey, before Belinda, Jess and I grabbed our flight to Prague. We found our mansion-size 3-bed "dorm room" at Little Town Hotel in Malastrona, we had our first Czech beers before wandering up to Charles Bridge.

The rain pulled us back to our side of the river, the Castle side, for dinner of goulash, pork knuckle and duck, before finding a little underground basement bar, in an attempt to mix with the locals.

Taking this stop on our big trip pretty easy, we walked across to the Old Town Square the next day, noted the 'something lame' that happens on the hour at the clocktower, according to our researched tips from Dillo, before finding a free walking tour from the Square. Our Czech guide took us across to Prague Castle, telling us about Czech history from occupation to the Velvet Revolution. Walking through the grounds of the Castle, and taking in the massive St Vito Cathedral, we then stopped in various pubs all the way back down the hill to our neighbourhood.

More drinks in our mansion, before we wandered past the John Lennon Wall, then through to under Charles Bridge and along the river.

Starting a bit earlier the next day, we met another walking tour in Old Town Square, and were taken through New Town, past Wenceslas Square, and the Communist Museum (which we later went back to, and discovered more of the awesome sense of humour of the Czechs!). Jana, our guide, told us of her memories of when she was 10 and the times of lining up for bananas.

Through the cute streets, and gorgeous, gothic and baroque buildings, Jana pointed out the first of our weird art spottings, before taking us through the Jewish Quarter and to the statue of Kafka. Here, we went off for lunch, before heading out to Prague 3 for more art, and more pubs with beer.

Staying across the road from St Nicholas Cathedral, we finally popped in the next morning for the 'bloody brilliant' bling inside (another Dillo quote, and recommendation), before more art hunting around the city. We then caught a tram across town, and got up to Letna Gardens, for the beer gardens and pints overlooking Prague.

*Written from notes dated 31/05/2010