Prague, Czech Republic

The new place

I woke up bright and early, despite last night's excursion, and bid Praha 7 adieu. I followed another set of red markings on a pocket map and soon, I found myself pressing the buzzer to a condo on a quaint little side street in Praha 2.

I stood on the street for a few minutes, peering into the door's window for any sign of life. Moments later, the single elevator came down and out came a stocky, rough-looking man. It crossed my mind to turn tail and run, but then again, he could be walking this way to let me in. In broken English, he gruffly motioned for me to follow him. I did.

The elevator was absolutely tiny. Between him (who was twice as wide as me), me and my pack, there was barely enough room to breathe. I don't know how people live like this. I would have gladly taken the stairs, despite the weight of all my stuff. It's better than being in such intimate quarters with someone who looked like he was about to make me his bitch.

I met the landlady, an incredibly nice, elderly lady, who was hunched over from advanced stages of osteoporosis. Mrs. Kohutva spoke English sparingly, and after a little muddling around, we got everything settled. I gave her the money, she gave me a receipt and showed me around.

From what I can tell, there are two other rooms that are being rented out, and with any luck, I will never find out whom they are rented to.

I'm thinking the burly guy (who turned out to be really nice) is her son or assisstant or something. He made the beds in my room and told me to call him if I had any questions.

Then both left and I was alone in the apartment.

A cup of tea

The new place was doing wonders for my mood. I was alone and it actually felt like home, rather than a boarding house for drifters. I unpacked my stuff, took a shower and made myself a cup of tea.

It's been raining all morning. I will wait it out in my room. I saw a lot of stuff yesterday (almost everything that was recommended to me) and have no qualms about taking my time here. Kinda tired and have no desire whatsoever to trudge around in the driving rain.

Today's going to be uneventful. I just know it.

Killing time before the walking tour

I left the apartment around 3, as the rain didn't look like it was going to let up. Walked over to Namesti Miru because it was close and I liked the way the station's name sounded. Nothing much there, so I took the metro to Staromestska station to see the Astronomical Clock, not realizing hat I had already seen it on my first day, when I went to visit the Old Town Square (that'll learn me to pay attention).

I hung around the square for a while, sipping hot wine and marvelling at the place. I had some time to kill before a tour I wanted to go on started, so I went in search of an internet cafe to check email and to read up on some news. Bumped into some Japanese girls on the way and helped them find the metro station and take their photo.

You know, the only thing I hear more than "Sumimasen. Nihonjin desu ka?" when I travel is, "Are you Japanese?"

Conversation with a Czech tour guide

I'll be honest with you, I had to look up the word esoteric afterwards. That was the name of the tour I wanted to check out, despite not knowing what the name meant. It piqued my interest because it had a picture of Golem next to it in the brochure I picked up from the first hostel I stayed at. So, at the appointed time, I made my way back to the Astronomical Clock to look for the tour guide.

The night was damp and there was a chill in the air. As such, the guide stood alone beneath a white umbrella, emblazoned with the tour company's name. I approached him and asked if the tour was still a go. He said it would be if a few more people showed up in the next 10 minutes. So I stood beside him and we talked about Prague.

I told him that I thought he was blessed to be born here, that it was quite incredible for me to be here - in a place where I could point at a brick from any given building and say, "Behold this brick. It is older than my country."

He shook his head and said, "It's not that great here. As a visitor (I noticed he avoided the word 'tourist'), you see the beautiful buildings and cheap beer. But it's the day to day life that isn't very good."

He went on to tell me about the lack of government support for small businesses (most buisnesses are foreign-owned here), the lack of opportunity for advancement as a Czech citizen and the general shittiness of everyday Czech life.

"Life in the Czech Repbulic is about surviving. You survive better or you survive worse, but that's it. You cannot expect to do better than that."

When I asked what he aspired to do in the future (as he was fluent in a few languages and rather intelligent, from what I could tell), he replied simply, "I don't know, but I do know that I want to get the fuck out of here."

He looked to be about the same age as me, so he would have gone through the communist days here. I asked him about that as well, and partway through his story, two Brits showed up and asked about the tour.

Though I was glad that the tour was on, I was kind of resentful of them showing up, as I was gaining more insight than any tour could give me.

Golem

(note: this photo was not taken by me, I stole it from Audrey, via Google)

As we walked through the cold night, stopping occasionally for a ghoulish story here and there, my mind began to drift. I was thinking about what the guide had told me about life here and how much of a contrast it was to what I saw. However, I snapped back when I heard him mention Golem.

Story of Golem

Rabbi Low was brought into Prague by Rudolph II, for scientific research (i.e. turning lead into gold, elixir of eternal life, etc.), via alchemy, black magic and white magic. Rabbi Low was considered one of the foremost experts in alchemy and the study of Kabbalah.

The rabbi sculpted an enormous man out of clay (the Golem) and placed a golden sphere in its forehead, which animated the figure. The Golem did its master's bidding, doing heavy labour and other tasks without fail. Each night, the rabbi would have to take the golden sphere out, in order to let his slave rest.

As the story goes, one night the rabbi was so caught up in his studies, that he forgot to remove the sphere and the Golem stayed active overnight. Having completed all its chores during the day, it began destroying buildings and property, in order to have something to repair later on. People who tried to stop the Golem were injured or killed.

When word got back to the rabbi, he hurried to the site of all the destruction and removed the sphere. The rabbi was forbidden to use the Golem again and was ordered to destroy it. He hid the body in a synagogue and put a curse on it to prevent anyone from looking for the Golem henceforth.

The body of the Golem, unused, turned to dust.

Nice story, but I'd heard it before. What made it really interesting for me was the explanation of what inspired the legend.

Once the fear of the curse and superstition in the general population began to wane a few hundred years later, people began looking for the Golem. They searched the synagogue where it was supposed to have been hidden, but found nothing.

However, a researcher who was looking back through some archives found record of the rabbi burying an extremely large man in a Jewish cemetary, around the same time the Golem rampage was supposed to have taken place. What most likely happened was that the rabbi was taking care of an enormous mental patient (Golem), whom he was giving medicine to keep him in check (golden sphere).

One day, he must have forgotten to administer the medicine and the patient's insanity took him, causing him to go berserk.

The tour ended in Lesser Town and I was chilled to the bone from the dampness. I headed to a pub near where I was staying for a quick meal, then back to the welcoming warmth of my room.