Prague from A to Z

 

A family from Yekaterinburg has been living in Prague. "Personal guide" asked Janina and Andrei about the impressions.

Your family has lived in Prague for a long time. What is the character and mood of this city?

The character is relaxed-contemplative: no one is in a hurry anywhere, at 11 am everyone is already sitting with beer mugs, talking regularly, the atmosphere is completely dacha.

Therefore, the correct way to get acquainted with the city is as follows: not to rush for a guide, but to find a hill, ideally suited, for example, Svyatoslavskie vineyards near Prague Castle, armed with a glass and calmly look at the city.

You'll be soaked in the Lotsi Genius. And it is best to do this in the spring, when magnolia blooms.

Prague is a very green city. The first place in the world in terms of the share of greenery in urban development is 57%, and the seventh in terms of the number of greenery per inhabitant. In the spring - flowers, in the summer - fruits (squirrel, cherry, apples - everything grows right on the streets quite edible), in the winter - Christmas trees.

The mood of the city is romantic. The romantic spirit here is skillfully maintained and well paid. All these costume tours and endless wedding photoshoots on Charles Bridge.

By nature, Prague, perhaps, is like a cat: it can be mysterious, affectionate, but can also play tricks (for example, likes to circle tourists, returning to the same place).

Prague is traditionally considered a mystical city, Sergei Lukyanenko not in vain in his “watches” describes the capital of the Czech Republic as the capital of the dark forces. The black cat is one of the symbols of Prague. In addition, the word Prague is translated as “threshold” – between light and darkness, past and future.

Your expectations for the future move from Russia and reality. What happened? What were the pleasant and unpleasant surprises?

I don't even remember what we expected. It's very peaceful here, it's good to raise children. Nobody wants to make money off you. Today I saw a gorgeous bouquet in the flower room, I said: “Give me, please.” The florist replies, "Well, he's yesterday, wait, I'll make you fresh flowers."

Czechs It's quite cultural and athletic, it goes to all the major exhibitions; I often see people reading books, families on bicycles. On weekends and school holidays, our range simply dies out, especially in winter – everyone goes to the mountains to ski. And children are put on skis in kindergarten. Twice a year, children are taken to the School in nature: in winter – in the mountains, in summer – in the forests.

Czechs have a peculiar sense of humor, they will joke with themselves and at others. For example, we have such a cultural phenomenon as “red cowards”. Five years ago, artists from the Stogoven group climbed onto the roof of the presidential palace, lowered the presidential standard and lifted instead giant, three meters by four, coumach family pants in a sign that the government “blushed”, then the president called an urgent press conference and solemnly burned the notorious underpants. But Praguens do not give up and continue to have fun, hanging red underpants on balconies, making stickers on doors and signposts. There is one on the sign to Prague Castle.

But after this incident, all the approaches to Prague Castle were blocked, now this is the only place in the republic where you need to go through the police frame to get to.

I also really like the Czech language, there are words that are considered obsolete in Russian. For example, the word “lze” means “may”, “prach” means dust, “krásný” means “beautiful”, “belly” means “life”, etc.

It is a pleasant surprise that the Czechs love dogs. Literally, “no owner, a dog, or even two.” Apparently, out of love for dogs, the square and the metro station on it were named after Russian academician Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, the creator of the Pavlov Dog experiment. The station, colloquially "Ipak", is decorated with an image of dogs, one of which holds the book by I. P. Pavlov "Experimental Psychology and Psychopathology of Animals".

And Czech wine. It is not exported, the Czechs drink it themselves (they drink more wine than beer), is very popular, wins international awards.

There are many festivals dedicated to wine: wine harvesting is a holiday of the last grape harvest, when slightly fermented grape juice is sold everywhere - burchak; St. Martin’s Day is a celebration of young wine (similar to French Beaujolais); “Pink May” is a celebration of rose wine, etc.

The unpleasant here is not so much, but here 1968 we do not forget, always put on Wenceslas Square a couple of tanks, armored personnel carriers, so that tourists could take selfies with the invaders.

What are your favorite non-tourist destinations in Prague? Where would you recommend going – what to see?

No way. I won't recommend anything. I want to keep the corners for myself.

There is a beautiful park near us Gavlichkov gardens. When we first arrived, it was quiet and slightly neglected, people are not enough - I do not want to walk.

Then they began to actively reconstruct it, restored everything that was possible, began to write about it and organize all sorts of activities there. You can't get into the park now. In the grotto - dancing, on the lawn - weddings, under the trees - picnics, in the wine arbor - presentations. And foreign speech is heard everywhere.

And seriously: tourists like to flock and walk on the same track beaten by guidebooks. Often it is enough to take a step aside to get the same, but tourists do not stay long: New Light differs from Golden Street only in that there are no crowds and you do not have to pay for the entrance.

A walk around Vysegrad will give much more pleasure than a queue in St. Vitus Cathedral. And in the most remote areas you can always find something interesting: a “brewer”, some attraction. On Podoli, people feed hand otters by the river, in Nova Butovice, industrial robots pour cocktails in a bar.

Pankratz is the only area of the city where high-rise buildings are allowed. Pankraz skyscrapers in the form of the letters V and O (the letter A on the way) are visible from almost anywhere in the city, and they are built near a park that reminds me very much of Chkalov Park in my home district. Maybe that's why I like to walk there.

I would advise young people to come to Prague in May and climb Petřín Hill, by which time it is all white and pink from cherry blossoms, and on May 1 it is customary for lovers to climb the hill and kiss under the trees.

Families with children are not limited to the zoo and be sure to visit the botanical garden in the Troy area, large and diverse, with an excellent greenhouse "Fata Morgana" and a cafe. And there is also a vineyard of St. Clara, wine from which you can taste here on the spot. The vineyard offers a completely hypnotic view of the Troy Castle Park with its circles and triangles.

Where have you been to the Czech Republic?

We don’t have a car, we like to travel by train. We were in the resort triangle - Carlsbad, Marienbad, Franzensbad, were in the north and in the south, on Morava. Everything's fine!

Myths and legends of Prague. Is there a popular travel legend that isn’t true?

I think that all the legends are somehow true, Prague is full of miracles. Probably someone saw Golem after a tour of beer in Prague.

There is a beautiful legend that there is a unique house on Golden Street. The structure is shown only to those people who have a pure heart and a wise soul. You can enter this house only once in your life, on a foggy night, reaching the last lantern on the magical street. I don't know where you're going.

I don’t really like any tourist attractions like this street, where the entrance was paid. But one day I was there with good friends on a foggy autumn evening, when the windows of all the houses glowed and the lanterns swayed. Everything was so blurry and unreal that, in general, you could safely believe in this legend, but I did not dare to go to that house, wait for the next occasion.

How does a trip to the Czech Republic look like a trip to Russia, and what is their difference?

Distinguished by distances, to any point of the country can be reached with minimal cost in less time than it takes a trip from Elmash to Botanica during rush hour.

Is there any advice for people who would like to move to another country?

Think carefully what you know, what you will live on, with whom to communicate. The Russian diaspora is very dispersed here, and the Czechs are nice and polite, but private.

What do you miss about Russian in the Czech Republic?

I miss Russian spontaneous meetings, here you will not meet on the street a person with whom you went to university or kindergarten. There's not enough family gatherings. And so everything is - Russian products, Russian books. Even hawthorn tincture is sold.

Text and photo: Yanina and Andrei