English
Nederlands
2006-08-28
Black Theatre
Yesterday evening we ended our vacation in Prague with a visit to one of the many "Black Theatres".
Black Theatre is a special form of creating a theatre performance, which is very successful in the Czech republic. Language is an obstacle: The audience consists mainly of tourists and very few of them understand the Czech language. That is why mime is used a lot.
They also make use of a special lighting technique. Everything is black, it is pitch dark and with the aid of black light white and fluorescent objects are made visible.
In that way it is not possible for the audience to see how special effects are created. And this makes it possible to create magic on stage: People can fly, objects come to life...
We saw a nice story about a friendly guy having a good time in his simple life with simple pleasures. Unfortunately there is also a devil who is trying to convince him to sell his soul. Time and time again he resists this temptation, but eventually he does give in and signs a contract.
Now he has some big adventures. Together with the devil he travels all around the world (which is of course a good opportunity to bring many more attributes and clothing into the play on stage).
But his fate is to end up in hell of course (another great place to put on stage). And he is very sorry about his mistake. Who wouldn't be?
This is a radically different form of theatre compared to what we are used to see in Holland. No flashing dialogues, no profound backgrounds. These are nice performances for all the family; very nice for people who normally wouldn't go to a theatre.
Experienced theatre makers and technicians should also go and see this. Observe the special effects they create and try to guess how it is done!
Black Theatre is a special form of creating a theatre performance, which is very successful in the Czech republic. Language is an obstacle: The audience consists mainly of tourists and very few of them understand the Czech language. That is why mime is used a lot.
They also make use of a special lighting technique. Everything is black, it is pitch dark and with the aid of black light white and fluorescent objects are made visible.
In that way it is not possible for the audience to see how special effects are created. And this makes it possible to create magic on stage: People can fly, objects come to life...
We saw a nice story about a friendly guy having a good time in his simple life with simple pleasures. Unfortunately there is also a devil who is trying to convince him to sell his soul. Time and time again he resists this temptation, but eventually he does give in and signs a contract.
Now he has some big adventures. Together with the devil he travels all around the world (which is of course a good opportunity to bring many more attributes and clothing into the play on stage).
But his fate is to end up in hell of course (another great place to put on stage). And he is very sorry about his mistake. Who wouldn't be?
This is a radically different form of theatre compared to what we are used to see in Holland. No flashing dialogues, no profound backgrounds. These are nice performances for all the family; very nice for people who normally wouldn't go to a theatre.
Experienced theatre makers and technicians should also go and see this. Observe the special effects they create and try to guess how it is done!
2006-08-27
On the banks of river Moldau
Prague people love their 1060 feet high Petřin, in the Summer they go there to flee from the heat or the smog in the city, in the autumn they go to see the falling leaves and in winter to enjoy the feeling of fresh snow under their feet. Or they just come to watch the beauty of their city from a comfortable distance - a cornucopia of towers, domes and roofs. Walking this hill has been the classical outing on Sunday afternoons for countless generations. Tourists also find a pleasant variation from the intensive architectural and cultural sights of the city here.
Our final day in Prague was a Sunday, so it was the perfect opportunity for such a walk on the Petřin. We started at the subway station Malostranská and first went to Kampa Island to have our first coffee on the square in front of the Kafka museum.
We were touched by the view of a rather unusual statue there. The Belgians have "Manneken Pis", but here in Prague they have even two. It was funny to watch the reactions of people. Some of the ladies yelped when they realized what these statues were doing!
Last time we visited Kampa Island we had noticed some remarkable pictures that were on display there, but now we found out there were many more. Of course they are all copyrighted, so I won't be showing them here. Just go and see them yourself at Yann Arthus-Bertrand's site.
There was also a group of street musicians singing funny folk-like songs, but unfortunately we couldn't understand what they were singing.
Then we came to a large map of the world you could walk on (without shoes). I was hoping it was a 3-D map, so that you could feel the mountains beneath you feet, but it was just flat. It was a nice way to get a conversation going though. I started to point out all the places I have been to with my toes and when I was pointing to New-Zealand a guy said: "Yes, that is where I live!". It turned out he was from Christchurch. Oh yes, Julia and I know Christchurch. We have been there and visited "Rutherford's Den", but that is another story.
In this way we almost forgot to go and see the sights that were listed in our travel guide, like the watermill in the Čertovka (Devil's brook) and the "John Lennon wall" with hippie-graffiti reminding of the struggle over symbols of freedom that was fought here between the non-conformists and the police in the eighties of the last century. We went looking for the mill and the wall but we couldn't find them. By the time we did find them it was high time for lunch. Fortunately there was a very good Italian restaurant next to the watermill, where we had a delicious fish meal.
The next item on our list was the famous Lanová, the cable car, that would wussh take us to the top of the Petřin. Bad luck! When we found it, it turned out that it was out of operation for maintenance until September 1st. We were there just a few days too early.
So should we now climb the hill on foot instead? We didn't feel like that and we were too tired. So we returned to the hotel in a disappointed mood. Would this be the end of our visit to Prague? But we haven't finished yet! There is still so much to see and to do. We haven't even been to a theatre yet! We just had to try to get a little more out of it, so I decided we would go to a "black theatre" and enjoy a final dinner in the city. I will keep the story about the theatre for tomorrow, that will go in a separate entry.
We ate at JoeCafe a modern, fashionable business close to Wenceslas Square. Why not? We are tourists, so we can behave like tourists. We had a very good time there. They played nice music and everybody was happy and friendly. I noticed one of the waitresses was dancing to the music all night while she was doing her job. We had a vegetarian sandwich and Julia had a nice milk shake full of fresh fruits with it. I stuck to Czech beer: Krušovice. It was a nice way to end our vacation!
Our final day in Prague was a Sunday, so it was the perfect opportunity for such a walk on the Petřin. We started at the subway station Malostranská and first went to Kampa Island to have our first coffee on the square in front of the Kafka museum.
We were touched by the view of a rather unusual statue there. The Belgians have "Manneken Pis", but here in Prague they have even two. It was funny to watch the reactions of people. Some of the ladies yelped when they realized what these statues were doing!Last time we visited Kampa Island we had noticed some remarkable pictures that were on display there, but now we found out there were many more. Of course they are all copyrighted, so I won't be showing them here. Just go and see them yourself at Yann Arthus-Bertrand's site.
There was also a group of street musicians singing funny folk-like songs, but unfortunately we couldn't understand what they were singing.Then we came to a large map of the world you could walk on (without shoes). I was hoping it was a 3-D map, so that you could feel the mountains beneath you feet, but it was just flat. It was a nice way to get a conversation going though. I started to point out all the places I have been to with my toes and when I was pointing to New-Zealand a guy said: "Yes, that is where I live!". It turned out he was from Christchurch. Oh yes, Julia and I know Christchurch. We have been there and visited "Rutherford's Den", but that is another story.
In this way we almost forgot to go and see the sights that were listed in our travel guide, like the watermill in the Čertovka (Devil's brook) and the "John Lennon wall" with hippie-graffiti reminding of the struggle over symbols of freedom that was fought here between the non-conformists and the police in the eighties of the last century. We went looking for the mill and the wall but we couldn't find them. By the time we did find them it was high time for lunch. Fortunately there was a very good Italian restaurant next to the watermill, where we had a delicious fish meal.
The next item on our list was the famous Lanová, the cable car, that would wussh take us to the top of the Petřin. Bad luck! When we found it, it turned out that it was out of operation for maintenance until September 1st. We were there just a few days too early.
So should we now climb the hill on foot instead? We didn't feel like that and we were too tired. So we returned to the hotel in a disappointed mood. Would this be the end of our visit to Prague? But we haven't finished yet! There is still so much to see and to do. We haven't even been to a theatre yet! We just had to try to get a little more out of it, so I decided we would go to a "black theatre" and enjoy a final dinner in the city. I will keep the story about the theatre for tomorrow, that will go in a separate entry.
We ate at JoeCafe a modern, fashionable business close to Wenceslas Square. Why not? We are tourists, so we can behave like tourists. We had a very good time there. They played nice music and everybody was happy and friendly. I noticed one of the waitresses was dancing to the music all night while she was doing her job. We had a vegetarian sandwich and Julia had a nice milk shake full of fresh fruits with it. I stuck to Czech beer: Krušovice. It was a nice way to end our vacation!
2006-08-26
Mozart?
Today's route was entitled "Following the tracks of Mozart". Mozart has been in Prague a few times and people are still talking about that. You couldn't look anywhere in the city without being confronted by a sign urging you to come and see "Don Giovanni".
Our route started at the Theatre of the Estates (Stavovské divadlo) and now it became clear to us why they are doing these performances here: On October 29th 1787 the première of the opera Don Giovanni took place in this theatre. It must be the ideal location to go and see this opera.
Julia had had an almost sleepless night due to yesterday's enchiladas, but now she felt completely fit again. When I lost sight of her for a few minutes, she had found herself a boyfriend on a bench near Ovocný Trh, while I was trying to make a picture of the theatre. But to be honest I found this theatre a rather boring building. It looks like we had been spoiled by all the beautiful buildings in Prague.
Anyway we are not opera lovers at all we find Mozart a bit boring, so what were we doing here? Let's start walking in Mozart tracks then. Everywhere along the route there were buildings where Mozart had had a dinner or spent the night. People are very proud of that and it is still reflected in the names of some of the hotels and restaurants.
Meanwhile Julia had found herself a second friend already and this dog was a lot more receptive to her stroking than the bronze statue she approached earlier.
We were on our way to Charles Bridge (Karlův Most). After looking at it from a distance, we would finally be crossing it today. It is one of those touristic sights you just have to visit when you are in Prague. Since we are dutiful girls, we went to see the bridge, but we were in a mood ready to make fun of everything we saw.
I have to admit the bridge is very beautiful indeed. At both ends of the bridge you have to pass through a gateway to get onto it or to get off it. One could also climb the tower, but we didn't feel like that. We had climbed a tower already 
On such a touristic spot you are always surrounded by groups of tourists of course. You can tell they are groups, because they are all following a guide. And you can tell who the guide is, because that is the one carrying the funny umbrella...
Of course it was possible to buy souvenirs here, to have your portrait or caricature drawn and there were lots of street musicians.
But the sky was getting darker and it looked like heavy showers were about to begin, so we fled off the bridge by taking a left turn to ostrov Kampa (Kampa Island) before we reached the other end. There we found a terrace with parasols that would keep us dry during the rain.
The owner of the restaurant was not convinced his parasols would be enough to withstand the rain and started gathering all the cushions off the chairs. Fortunately he let us keep our cushions to sit on.
The shower wasn't so bad after all and we both had brought an umbrella, so within half an hour we could continue our walk to the west bank of the river.
oh, before I forget: Have a look at some of the statues on the bridge, that is what this is all about. But we were now nearing the gateway on the other end already.
Through the gateway we could see the first towers of Malá Strana (Lesser Side) already. This part of the city is full of palaces, which are nowadays foreign embassies. In the 18th century Mozart was often to be found here, when he fêted again by one of the noble families that were living there in those days.
Last time we were in Malá Strana we were coming down from the castle, but this time we were climbing: We were on our way to the monastery.
The Starov Monastery is the second eldest monastery in Prague. It was founded in 1143. In the 17th and 18th century baroque ornaments were added to it. The most famous sights in the monastery are (left) the theological and (right) the philosophical libraries with their beautifully painted ceilings.
It is not allowed to enter these rooms, you can only look into them through the doorway. Taking pictures was also prohibited, unless you bought a license for that. I didn't hear about that until I was upstairs, so I had to get down to the cash register again to buy such a license.
Using a flash light was strictly prohibited: It can damage the books and the paintings. But still an Asian-looking guy was busy take pictures with a flash light. I explained to him this was not allowed, but he thought differently. He had bought himself a license and it was rather dark. So how else could he take the pictures he had paid for?
I explained to him he could use a long exposure time instead of a flash light, but he said his camera couldn't do that.
He was being unreasonable, so I refrained from explaining to him that a flash light is useless in such a large hall, because the light won't reach far enough. He will find out about that soon enough when he is back home, in Japan.
When the dust had settled, I took my own pictures. With a steady hand and an exposure time of 1/2 a second. I think they came out rather nice.
At the front door of the monastery was a stop of street car #22, that took us right back to the hotel.
It was Saturday night, a nice time to go out. We had planned on visiting some gay-friendly bars and earlier this week that was not such a success because they closed too early or because there were too few guests. On a Saturday that would have to be different, right?
First we went to Café-Café on 10 Rytířská. According to our travel guide this was supposed to be a gay bar, although most of the customers are heteros. It is a beautiful place with large windows and lots of mirrors.
A place to look at people and to be seen yourself. It is very close to Václavské Náměstí so it is often visited by tourists. All the staff speaks at least some English. We wanted a French Coffee, but that wasn't on the menu, so I explained to them how to make one. Maybe it will be on the menu next year. They close at 11 PM, even in weekends!
That was way too early for us, so we proceeded to Street-Café Maler on 28 Blanická. According to the guide this would be a lesbo-club, where men are welcome as well. Even on this Saturday there were not many guests, but the pictures on their website prove that it is not always so quiet.
We found a very nice atmosphere here and although the bar tenders hardly spoke a word of English, we managed to have a nice contact with them by gesturing and by the help of English-speaking guests. The music in here is pleasantly modern.
Our route started at the Theatre of the Estates (Stavovské divadlo) and now it became clear to us why they are doing these performances here: On October 29th 1787 the première of the opera Don Giovanni took place in this theatre. It must be the ideal location to go and see this opera.
Julia had had an almost sleepless night due to yesterday's enchiladas, but now she felt completely fit again. When I lost sight of her for a few minutes, she had found herself a boyfriend on a bench near Ovocný Trh, while I was trying to make a picture of the theatre. But to be honest I found this theatre a rather boring building. It looks like we had been spoiled by all the beautiful buildings in Prague.Anyway we are not opera lovers at all we find Mozart a bit boring, so what were we doing here? Let's start walking in Mozart tracks then. Everywhere along the route there were buildings where Mozart had had a dinner or spent the night. People are very proud of that and it is still reflected in the names of some of the hotels and restaurants.
Meanwhile Julia had found herself a second friend already and this dog was a lot more receptive to her stroking than the bronze statue she approached earlier.We were on our way to Charles Bridge (Karlův Most). After looking at it from a distance, we would finally be crossing it today. It is one of those touristic sights you just have to visit when you are in Prague. Since we are dutiful girls, we went to see the bridge, but we were in a mood ready to make fun of everything we saw.
I have to admit the bridge is very beautiful indeed. At both ends of the bridge you have to pass through a gateway to get onto it or to get off it. One could also climb the tower, but we didn't feel like that. We had climbed a tower already On such a touristic spot you are always surrounded by groups of tourists of course. You can tell they are groups, because they are all following a guide. And you can tell who the guide is, because that is the one carrying the funny umbrella...
Of course it was possible to buy souvenirs here, to have your portrait or caricature drawn and there were lots of street musicians.But the sky was getting darker and it looked like heavy showers were about to begin, so we fled off the bridge by taking a left turn to ostrov Kampa (Kampa Island) before we reached the other end. There we found a terrace with parasols that would keep us dry during the rain.
The owner of the restaurant was not convinced his parasols would be enough to withstand the rain and started gathering all the cushions off the chairs. Fortunately he let us keep our cushions to sit on.
The shower wasn't so bad after all and we both had brought an umbrella, so within half an hour we could continue our walk to the west bank of the river.
oh, before I forget: Have a look at some of the statues on the bridge, that is what this is all about. But we were now nearing the gateway on the other end already.
Through the gateway we could see the first towers of Malá Strana (Lesser Side) already. This part of the city is full of palaces, which are nowadays foreign embassies. In the 18th century Mozart was often to be found here, when he fêted again by one of the noble families that were living there in those days.
Last time we were in Malá Strana we were coming down from the castle, but this time we were climbing: We were on our way to the monastery.
The Starov Monastery is the second eldest monastery in Prague. It was founded in 1143. In the 17th and 18th century baroque ornaments were added to it. The most famous sights in the monastery are (left) the theological and (right) the philosophical libraries with their beautifully painted ceilings.
It is not allowed to enter these rooms, you can only look into them through the doorway. Taking pictures was also prohibited, unless you bought a license for that. I didn't hear about that until I was upstairs, so I had to get down to the cash register again to buy such a license.Using a flash light was strictly prohibited: It can damage the books and the paintings. But still an Asian-looking guy was busy take pictures with a flash light. I explained to him this was not allowed, but he thought differently. He had bought himself a license and it was rather dark. So how else could he take the pictures he had paid for?
I explained to him he could use a long exposure time instead of a flash light, but he said his camera couldn't do that.
He was being unreasonable, so I refrained from explaining to him that a flash light is useless in such a large hall, because the light won't reach far enough. He will find out about that soon enough when he is back home, in Japan.When the dust had settled, I took my own pictures. With a steady hand and an exposure time of 1/2 a second. I think they came out rather nice.
At the front door of the monastery was a stop of street car #22, that took us right back to the hotel.
It was Saturday night, a nice time to go out. We had planned on visiting some gay-friendly bars and earlier this week that was not such a success because they closed too early or because there were too few guests. On a Saturday that would have to be different, right?
First we went to Café-Café on 10 Rytířská. According to our travel guide this was supposed to be a gay bar, although most of the customers are heteros. It is a beautiful place with large windows and lots of mirrors.A place to look at people and to be seen yourself. It is very close to Václavské Náměstí so it is often visited by tourists. All the staff speaks at least some English. We wanted a French Coffee, but that wasn't on the menu, so I explained to them how to make one. Maybe it will be on the menu next year. They close at 11 PM, even in weekends!
That was way too early for us, so we proceeded to Street-Café Maler on 28 Blanická. According to the guide this would be a lesbo-club, where men are welcome as well. Even on this Saturday there were not many guests, but the pictures on their website prove that it is not always so quiet.We found a very nice atmosphere here and although the bar tenders hardly spoke a word of English, we managed to have a nice contact with them by gesturing and by the help of English-speaking guests. The music in here is pleasantly modern.
2006-08-25
Kutná Hora
Some 40 miles east of Prague is the city of Kutná Hora. With a population of 22,000 it seem unimportant compared to Prague, but it has not always been like that. Kutná Hora has a history of great wealth, which originated deep underground. A lot of silver ore was found near the city. In the second half of the 13th century a competition started between Prague and Kutná Hora about which of them was the most important city. This wasn't limited to the economical point of view, but also included politics and culture. Many famous people originated in Kutná Hora, amongst them Journalist and playwright J.K. Tyl, the guy our hotel was named after!
Kutná Hora managed to keep up in this competition up to the last half of the 16th century, when the silver mines started to get depleted. Nowadays the city isn't so important any more, but this period in the past has given us more than 300 recognized historical monuments from the middle ages and the baroque. Kutná Hora has been added to the UNESCO list of worldwide cultural heritage.
More than enough reasons to go and have a look. Besides that it is always a nice adventure to travel by train in a foreign country. Yesterday we had been practicing getting to the station
so now it was time to go one step beyond that. We didn't have any trouble getting to Kutná Hora central station. But our train was ten minutes late. I had planned to continue the voyage in a local rail bus to takes us the old city center, but it had left already.
"That will go in two hours!"
Hey, come on! That is a waste of time! So let's take a taxi to the city center. We made a deal with a taxi driver to take us there for 100 Crowns. That is about $4. For that amount of money you may be allowed to look at a taxi in the Netherlands, but not for very long!
We first wanted to go to St. Barbara's Cathedral. You get there by a long straight road with the Jesuit college on you right hand side and a stone wall on your left. Over the wall you have a great view over the valley of the river Vrchlice. Everything here is under reconstruction: The college, the statues on the wall and the cathedral itself.
Fortunately not everything was scaffolded so there was still plenty to see. The cathedral is very impressive. Construction started in 1388 by Petr Parl&eacue;ř, the same architect who created the St. Vitus cathedral in Prague. As I said, Kutná Hora wanted to be at least as important as Prague. But the construction was not really completed until 1905. That is why we can see many styles together in this one building, like Gothic and Baroque.
Inside the church one can also see that everything in Kutná Hora was about mining and miners, hence this statue. This miner is in traditional attire. In his right hand is a tool, in his left hand he is holding a mine lamp and around his waist is a special leather apron the miners used to slide down into the mine on.
When we got out of the cathedral we were hungry and we found a Mexican restaurant where we ordered enchiladas. They tasted very well, but what we didn't know was that the meat was probably contaminated. We would find out about that very soon.
The first sight we ran into now was the Hrádek (Little Castle). In origin this was a late-Gothic castle from the 14th century which used to be part of the fortifications of the city. Nowadays it is home to a mining museum.
It was also possible to take a tour in the museum and we wanted that, but before the tour started we still had time to buy some silver, so we both bought a new ring.
The tour started with a lot of explanations about how mining was done in medieval times and we visited a horse-mill that was used to hoist heavy loads of ore and water out of the mine. The highlight of the tour was a visit to a real mine, but people with claustrophobia, heart problems and anyone who didn't feel quite well today were advised not to go there.
Well, I didn't feel quite well at all. Under normal circumstances I would have challenged my claustrophobia again, but all I really wanted now was to go to the restroom. The enchiladas felt quite heavy in my stomach. So I told our guide I wouldn't go into the mine. Julia did want to go and I was a bit worried about letting her go, but of course there were plenty of people with her to help her in case of any problem. All the adventurers got a white coat, a helmet and a torch light and they left for the entrance to the mine.
I stayed behind at the museum and started to look for a restroom. That was easy to find: Opposite the street was a tourist information office where the tickets for the museum were sold as well. Museum visitors could freely use the restroom in there, you just had to pick up the key at the cash register. So I got a key and headed for the girl's room.
"Hold on a second, wait a moment", the guy at the cash register called, waving another key. Apparently he had mistaken me for a man and handed me the wrong key. Fortunately he didn't have any objections to letting me use the restroom where I belong.
I soon felt a lot better again and I found a nice place to sit while waiting for the return of the heroes who had visited the mine: A little stone wall about thirty feet above the path where they would climb back up the mountain. Some people would not have liked to sit in such a high place, but I don't have a problem with heights. .
I noticed I had a very nice view on St. Barbara's Cathedral here, so this is where I took the picture of it.
It was a long wait and it got me quite nervous. I smoked several cigarettes before they finally showed up again. Yes, I have to admit it: In this vacation I have really started to smoke again and I will have to quit all over again
Finally there where. They came climbing up the mountain like a kind of procession in their long, white coats. Julia came last and although it was very tiring for her, you can tell from her face that she found the trip to the mine a wonderful experience.
We went back to the central square and had another drink. It was time to start thinking about our return to Prague. The taxi-ride was such a good idea this morning that we didn't even consider taking the train to the central station. I called a taxi from a phone booth and it picked us up within five minutes. We didn't negotiate about the price but just trusted we would be getting a fair deal. When we arrived at the station the meter read 87 Crowns. So we gave 13 Crowns as a tip for a total of 100. Apparently our negotiations this morning hadn't been necessary at all.
Our train tickets cost only 118 Crown and I thought that was ridiculously cheap ($5) for a return ticket over a distance of 45 miles, even in the Czech republic, so I asked the guy at the cash register where they were really valid for our return trip as well.
"Yes they are", he said.
This time the train took us as far as Kolín and there we had to change, but first I needed to go to the restroom again. I hate having to go at a railway station, but I just had to. I went to the lady's room and paid the amount due to the guy at the entrance. When I proceeded he called:
"Hold on a second, wait a moment!"
In surprise I turned back to him to find out what was the matter and he handed me a piece of toilet paper: There was no paper in the toilets and you had to get it at the entrance when you paid. Another lesson learned!
We had missed the fastest connection to Prague and now we had to take a train that went to Prague by a longer way. But what a train! This was the most modern, top of the bill railway material I had ever been in. The Dutch railways can envy the Czech for this! We traveled 2nd class but it was luxurious.
Outside the window we saw the sun setting and the landscape looked fairy-like. I could not make pictures of it. Aiming straight at the sun would have been the death of my camera and taking pictures under an angle got me ugly reflections in the window. So we had to just relax and enjoy it.
Finally we reached Prague at a different station than where we left off. From the station we walked to the west, looking for a place to eat, when we heard a large group of soccer-fans approaching behind us. I can't say I was too happy with that.
I thought I was quite passable lately, but our stay in Prague has learned me that I don't pass as well as I thought. In Prague people stared at me as if I were a being from another planet. Fortunately I haven't met with any aggression although one time in the subway I got into a rather threatening situation.
Apparently the Czech are not used to seeing transsexuals yet and do not take the same flexible attitude the Dutch people do. And apparently "it" can still be seen. This started me and I hope I will be able to retain my self-confident posture when I am back in Holland again...
The last thing I was looking for was a confrontation with a group of drunk soccer fans, so we quickly went into a restaurant. Suddenly we didn't have a problem which one to chose at all
And it turned out to be a very good restaurant.
Before we went to a table we both went to the lady's room. Julia's intestine was now quite upset too and it was obvious our problem had been caused by this afternoon's enchiladas, only it had hit me more quickly than Julia. Fortunately we did have a good appetite and we took a large salad with a fried egg and bacon. A rather unusual combination, but very good indeed!
Kutná Hora managed to keep up in this competition up to the last half of the 16th century, when the silver mines started to get depleted. Nowadays the city isn't so important any more, but this period in the past has given us more than 300 recognized historical monuments from the middle ages and the baroque. Kutná Hora has been added to the UNESCO list of worldwide cultural heritage.
More than enough reasons to go and have a look. Besides that it is always a nice adventure to travel by train in a foreign country. Yesterday we had been practicing getting to the station
so now it was time to go one step beyond that. We didn't have any trouble getting to Kutná Hora central station. But our train was ten minutes late. I had planned to continue the voyage in a local rail bus to takes us the old city center, but it had left already."That will go in two hours!"
Hey, come on! That is a waste of time! So let's take a taxi to the city center. We made a deal with a taxi driver to take us there for 100 Crowns. That is about $4. For that amount of money you may be allowed to look at a taxi in the Netherlands, but not for very long!
We first wanted to go to St. Barbara's Cathedral. You get there by a long straight road with the Jesuit college on you right hand side and a stone wall on your left. Over the wall you have a great view over the valley of the river Vrchlice. Everything here is under reconstruction: The college, the statues on the wall and the cathedral itself.Fortunately not everything was scaffolded so there was still plenty to see. The cathedral is very impressive. Construction started in 1388 by Petr Parl&eacue;ř, the same architect who created the St. Vitus cathedral in Prague. As I said, Kutná Hora wanted to be at least as important as Prague. But the construction was not really completed until 1905. That is why we can see many styles together in this one building, like Gothic and Baroque.Inside the church one can also see that everything in Kutná Hora was about mining and miners, hence this statue. This miner is in traditional attire. In his right hand is a tool, in his left hand he is holding a mine lamp and around his waist is a special leather apron the miners used to slide down into the mine on.When we got out of the cathedral we were hungry and we found a Mexican restaurant where we ordered enchiladas. They tasted very well, but what we didn't know was that the meat was probably contaminated. We would find out about that very soon.
The first sight we ran into now was the Hrádek (Little Castle). In origin this was a late-Gothic castle from the 14th century which used to be part of the fortifications of the city. Nowadays it is home to a mining museum.
It was also possible to take a tour in the museum and we wanted that, but before the tour started we still had time to buy some silver, so we both bought a new ring.
The tour started with a lot of explanations about how mining was done in medieval times and we visited a horse-mill that was used to hoist heavy loads of ore and water out of the mine. The highlight of the tour was a visit to a real mine, but people with claustrophobia, heart problems and anyone who didn't feel quite well today were advised not to go there.Well, I didn't feel quite well at all. Under normal circumstances I would have challenged my claustrophobia again, but all I really wanted now was to go to the restroom. The enchiladas felt quite heavy in my stomach. So I told our guide I wouldn't go into the mine. Julia did want to go and I was a bit worried about letting her go, but of course there were plenty of people with her to help her in case of any problem. All the adventurers got a white coat, a helmet and a torch light and they left for the entrance to the mine.
I stayed behind at the museum and started to look for a restroom. That was easy to find: Opposite the street was a tourist information office where the tickets for the museum were sold as well. Museum visitors could freely use the restroom in there, you just had to pick up the key at the cash register. So I got a key and headed for the girl's room.
"Hold on a second, wait a moment", the guy at the cash register called, waving another key. Apparently he had mistaken me for a man and handed me the wrong key. Fortunately he didn't have any objections to letting me use the restroom where I belong.
I soon felt a lot better again and I found a nice place to sit while waiting for the return of the heroes who had visited the mine: A little stone wall about thirty feet above the path where they would climb back up the mountain. Some people would not have liked to sit in such a high place, but I don't have a problem with heights. .
I noticed I had a very nice view on St. Barbara's Cathedral here, so this is where I took the picture of it.
It was a long wait and it got me quite nervous. I smoked several cigarettes before they finally showed up again. Yes, I have to admit it: In this vacation I have really started to smoke again and I will have to quit all over again
Finally there where. They came climbing up the mountain like a kind of procession in their long, white coats. Julia came last and although it was very tiring for her, you can tell from her face that she found the trip to the mine a wonderful experience.We went back to the central square and had another drink. It was time to start thinking about our return to Prague. The taxi-ride was such a good idea this morning that we didn't even consider taking the train to the central station. I called a taxi from a phone booth and it picked us up within five minutes. We didn't negotiate about the price but just trusted we would be getting a fair deal. When we arrived at the station the meter read 87 Crowns. So we gave 13 Crowns as a tip for a total of 100. Apparently our negotiations this morning hadn't been necessary at all.
Our train tickets cost only 118 Crown and I thought that was ridiculously cheap ($5) for a return ticket over a distance of 45 miles, even in the Czech republic, so I asked the guy at the cash register where they were really valid for our return trip as well."Yes they are", he said.
This time the train took us as far as Kolín and there we had to change, but first I needed to go to the restroom again. I hate having to go at a railway station, but I just had to. I went to the lady's room and paid the amount due to the guy at the entrance. When I proceeded he called:
"Hold on a second, wait a moment!"
In surprise I turned back to him to find out what was the matter and he handed me a piece of toilet paper: There was no paper in the toilets and you had to get it at the entrance when you paid. Another lesson learned!
We had missed the fastest connection to Prague and now we had to take a train that went to Prague by a longer way. But what a train! This was the most modern, top of the bill railway material I had ever been in. The Dutch railways can envy the Czech for this! We traveled 2nd class but it was luxurious.
Outside the window we saw the sun setting and the landscape looked fairy-like. I could not make pictures of it. Aiming straight at the sun would have been the death of my camera and taking pictures under an angle got me ugly reflections in the window. So we had to just relax and enjoy it.
Finally we reached Prague at a different station than where we left off. From the station we walked to the west, looking for a place to eat, when we heard a large group of soccer-fans approaching behind us. I can't say I was too happy with that.
I thought I was quite passable lately, but our stay in Prague has learned me that I don't pass as well as I thought. In Prague people stared at me as if I were a being from another planet. Fortunately I haven't met with any aggression although one time in the subway I got into a rather threatening situation.
Apparently the Czech are not used to seeing transsexuals yet and do not take the same flexible attitude the Dutch people do. And apparently "it" can still be seen. This started me and I hope I will be able to retain my self-confident posture when I am back in Holland again...
The last thing I was looking for was a confrontation with a group of drunk soccer fans, so we quickly went into a restaurant. Suddenly we didn't have a problem which one to chose at all And it turned out to be a very good restaurant.
Before we went to a table we both went to the lady's room. Julia's intestine was now quite upset too and it was obvious our problem had been caused by this afternoon's enchiladas, only it had hit me more quickly than Julia. Fortunately we did have a good appetite and we took a large salad with a fried egg and bacon. A rather unusual combination, but very good indeed!
Labels: trains
2006-08-24
Prague Jugendstil
Today we wanted to take the train to Kutná Hora, but I couldn't find the central station! Utterly stupid of me of course, I am afraid I am a lousy guide. We had just hopped onto a streetcar and I expected it to go to the central station as all street cars do in Holland. Well, this one didn't. It turned out it took us in a wide circle around the central station and then dropped us off in a god forsaken outskirt.
So we went back to the hotel where I had to study the maps again as a penance to find out where exactly the central station was located. By now it was too late to start a big trip by train, so I also had to come up with an alternative plan to spent the day. Let's do a day of gothic, renaissance, baroque, jugendstil and art-nouveau in the centre of Prague then.
So we headed to the starting point of our route, not by such a stupid streetcar but by that familiar, trusted subway.
"We will go from I.P. Pavlova via Muzeum and Hlavní Nádraží to Florenc and there we will change to line B for the final part to Náměstí Republiky", I said.
"Sounds good, dear", Julia said.
"By the way, do you know what Hlavní Nádraží means?"
"No, I don't?"
"Central station!"
SLAP!
"Auch!"
Julia had hit my behind. A well-deserved spanking. I should be ashamed of myself! Did I study the Czech language for nothing all those months? But the Czech have not made it particularly easy to find that station. On the subway maps it is crammed in between two main stations just like it is an unimportant stop. If you don't speak Czech, you will never find it. At least we won't have any trouble finding it tomorrow.
We started at Obecní Dům, the city hall. After Prague had been trough one of its most intense modernizations ever by the end of the 19th. Century - which involved bringing down the city walls, building railroad tracks to Vienna and Berlin, building some beautiful railway stations and regulating the river Moldau - the city council decided they wanted to build a 'representative capital city building'. Yesterday we had looked at the outside of it, but now we went inside. Some of the halls in the building are not open to the public. The famous Smetana-hall can only be seen if you buy a ticket to go to a concert in there. But there are several restaurants and a café in the building where you can just walk in. In the café in the basement we saw this beautiful lamp on the ceiling. Next to it you can see some of the iron work on the elevator shaft.
We decide to have a sandwich in the ground flour restaurant. A very impressive hall. The service in the restaurant was very poor. We had to wait for our food for ages and the waiter was rude and unfriendly. I tried to defrost him by asking for the bill in Czech language.
"Dvĕstĕdvacetšest", he said quickly.
I kept on looking at him with a friendly smile, while I was trying to decode this utterance inside my head, but he didn't wait for that:
"Two hundred and twenty six."
OK, my fault. If I speak Czech, I have to be prepared to get a reply in Czech of course. It was a legitimate joke to pull on me. What wasn't legitimate was to give me fifty crowns short in change. I didn't notice that until it was too late.
We went on our way and soon found a railway station. Not the central station, but Masarykovo Nádraží, the eldest station in Prague. It was opened in 1845.
I love trains and when I am on a vacation I always want to see the local railway station. Time for Julia to sit down for a while, while I a running from platform to platform, taking pictures of all the trains.
We went further on our route and also visited the central station. [At the moment I don't have room on Flickr to add photo's of it, I may add those later.]
Finally we got to restaurant Příčný Řez, where I was stupid enough to order a tall glass of white beer. It looked like an aquarium! It is funny to see that the better bars and restaurants in Prague sell the same Belgian Hoegaarden Witbier we always drink to home.
Příčný Řez is a very nice restaurant with a pleasant atmosphere, friendly waitresses, very beautiful decoration and delicious food. We ordered a "Pepek" ("Popeye"), which is made of spinach leaves, blue cheese and cream. It tasted very well indeed!
We were very tired already, but we had now nearly reached the river Moldau again. That is where I wanted to end our walk, at the Slovanský ostrov (Slavonian island) to be exact. Not for a visit to Mánes gallery, but just to stroll along the river and maybe even rent a water bike.
And so we did! You cannot get very far on a water bike on the Moldau because it is full of stowages to control the water level, but it is possible to go all the way around another island, Střelecký ostrov. From the water we had a beautiful view on Charles's bridge and on the beautiful buildings on the river shores again.
But still I think we did something wrong. These two girls had found a much better solution than we had: they had brought a man along to row a boat for them.
Utterly stupid of me of course, I am afraid I am a lousy guide. We had just hopped onto a streetcar and I expected it to go to the central station as all street cars do in Holland. Well, this one didn't. It turned out it took us in a wide circle around the central station and then dropped us off in a god forsaken outskirt.So we went back to the hotel where I had to study the maps again as a penance to find out where exactly the central station was located. By now it was too late to start a big trip by train, so I also had to come up with an alternative plan to spent the day. Let's do a day of gothic, renaissance, baroque, jugendstil and art-nouveau in the centre of Prague then.So we headed to the starting point of our route, not by such a stupid streetcar but by that familiar, trusted subway.
"We will go from I.P. Pavlova via Muzeum and Hlavní Nádraží to Florenc and there we will change to line B for the final part to Náměstí Republiky", I said.
"Sounds good, dear", Julia said.
"By the way, do you know what Hlavní Nádraží means?"
"No, I don't?"
"Central station!"
SLAP!
"Auch!"
Julia had hit my behind. A well-deserved spanking. I should be ashamed of myself! Did I study the Czech language for nothing all those months? But the Czech have not made it particularly easy to find that station. On the subway maps it is crammed in between two main stations just like it is an unimportant stop. If you don't speak Czech, you will never find it. At least we won't have any trouble finding it tomorrow.
We started at Obecní Dům, the city hall. After Prague had been trough one of its most intense modernizations ever by the end of the 19th. Century - which involved bringing down the city walls, building railroad tracks to Vienna and Berlin, building some beautiful railway stations and regulating the river Moldau - the city council decided they wanted to build a 'representative capital city building'. Yesterday we had looked at the outside of it, but now we went inside. Some of the halls in the building are not open to the public. The famous Smetana-hall can only be seen if you buy a ticket to go to a concert in there. But there are several restaurants and a café in the building where you can just walk in. In the café in the basement we saw this beautiful lamp on the ceiling. Next to it you can see some of the iron work on the elevator shaft.We decide to have a sandwich in the ground flour restaurant. A very impressive hall. The service in the restaurant was very poor. We had to wait for our food for ages and the waiter was rude and unfriendly. I tried to defrost him by asking for the bill in Czech language.
"Dvĕstĕdvacetšest", he said quickly.
I kept on looking at him with a friendly smile, while I was trying to decode this utterance inside my head, but he didn't wait for that:
"Two hundred and twenty six."
OK, my fault. If I speak Czech, I have to be prepared to get a reply in Czech of course. It was a legitimate joke to pull on me. What wasn't legitimate was to give me fifty crowns short in change. I didn't notice that until it was too late.
We went on our way and soon found a railway station. Not the central station, but Masarykovo Nádraží, the eldest station in Prague. It was opened in 1845.
I love trains and when I am on a vacation I always want to see the local railway station. Time for Julia to sit down for a while, while I a running from platform to platform, taking pictures of all the trains.
We went further on our route and also visited the central station. [At the moment I don't have room on Flickr to add photo's of it, I may add those later.]
Finally we got to restaurant Příčný Řez, where I was stupid enough to order a tall glass of white beer. It looked like an aquarium! It is funny to see that the better bars and restaurants in Prague sell the same Belgian Hoegaarden Witbier we always drink to home.
Příčný Řez is a very nice restaurant with a pleasant atmosphere, friendly waitresses, very beautiful decoration and delicious food. We ordered a "Pepek" ("Popeye"), which is made of spinach leaves, blue cheese and cream. It tasted very well indeed!
We were very tired already, but we had now nearly reached the river Moldau again. That is where I wanted to end our walk, at the Slovanský ostrov (Slavonian island) to be exact. Not for a visit to Mánes gallery, but just to stroll along the river and maybe even rent a water bike.
And so we did! You cannot get very far on a water bike on the Moldau because it is full of stowages to control the water level, but it is possible to go all the way around another island, Střelecký ostrov. From the water we had a beautiful view on Charles's bridge and on the beautiful buildings on the river shores again.
But still I think we did something wrong. These two girls had found a much better solution than we had: they had brought a man along to row a boat for them.2006-08-23
Josefov
Today we had scheduled a visit to the Jewish district.
It is more than 1000 years ago the first Jews settled in the shadow of Prague castle. Josefov, the Jewish settlement at the northwestern edge of the Old City, was founded around 1150.
After the 1848 revolution the emperor finally granted full civil rights to the Jews. The more well-off inhabitants then left Josefov and the district slowly turned into a slum. By the end of the 19th. century the hovels were demolished and replaced by modern buildings with a Paris-like elegance. Just the city hall, the old cemetery and a few synagogues were spared...
The starting point of our route was the square near the old city hall (Staroměstské Náměstí). The astronomical clock in the city hall is one of the main attractions for tourists. To be honest I found it difficult to just tell the time when I looked at it. And what else does it tell us? The phase of the moon? The zodiac sign? Probably yes! If only someone would be kind enough to tell how to read that off this clock...
Yesterday we had walked such great distances following the instructions from our travel guide, we now felt more like relaxing. Maybe a tour in this nice tourist "train" for instance? Fat chance! The "train" had a flat tire!
OK, then let's do a ride with a horse and carriage. The white one! By the way, do you see all those beautiful buildings in the background? Prague is absolutely full of such buildings, we could have taken thousands of pictures of them!
In the carriage we were taken around a few blocks with a full view on the behinds of the driver and his horses. When one of the horses lifted his tail for a relieve, the driver quickly picked up a long stick with a sack at the end and held it under his tail. So that is why not all the streets are littered with horse shit. Very neat!
The driver didn't bother to tell us anything about the sights we were passing. In the tourist train than would probably have been a lot different. But we just looked all around us and enjoyed the surroundings. Every building in every street is worth looking at. Wall paintings, ornaments and statues abound. Taking pictures however didn't work well in a carriage with iron wheels bumping on the cobble stones.
After we had taken this disgusting bourgeois-tour, we were back with both feet on the ground. Not everybody can afford a tour in a carriage like this. This gentleman who was begging on his knees for just a little of the wealth that was all around him, would probably have thought of an entirely different way to spend our crowns.
We went looking for Franz Kafka's statue. According to the travel guide it would not be further than we few hundred yards, but we didn't see him, not even when we walked on all the way to the river.
We did see another famous character there: Antonín Dvořák. What a beautiful, impressive head!
From this point we had a very nice view over the river Moldau ("Vltava", as the Czech call it) and in the distance we could see Charles's Bridge. But we hadn't come for that today. If we wanted to see any more of the Jewish quarters, we would have to go back east.
First we passed the Pinkas Synagogue. This building dates from 1535. It is now a memorial place for the nearly 80,000 Czech Jews who fell victim to the destructive madness of the German national-socialists. On the walls inside the names of the victims are listed. We didn't enter. We know all about the horrible deeds that were done in WO II. Something like that must never happen again! But it does happen. Time and time again. People are suppressed, prisoners are tortured, groups of the population are systematically killed off in "ethnic clinsings". It seems like people refuse to learn anything from history.
It was lunch time and we happened to find a Japanese restaurant. Neither of us had ever had sushi and we decided there is no better time than the present, so we decided to try it now. Being Dutch citizens, we should not be afraid of a little raw fish, should we? The fun already started with the sake, the Japanese rice wine the waiter recommended to go with the sushi. As you can see Julia enjoyed it very much.
When our food was brought, it turned out the only "cutlery" available were chopsticks. So we had a real lunch in Japanese style. Fortunately we didn't have to kneel on the ground as well and also the bottles of mineral water we used to flush down the sake were a dissonant of course.
Meanwhile we saw many people with rather unusual hats on the other side of the street. Without any doubt this was some form of expression of the Jewish religion, but why were the women wearing it as well? I always thought it was the men who had to cover their heads.
This was demonstrated once again when we entered the Old-New Synagogue. At the cash register there was a large stack of caps available and no man was allowed to go into the building without putting one of these on his head. Nobody made a problem of my entering bare-headed; apparently I was simply accepted as a woman.
Our travel guide said: this double-naved building with its high saddle-roof was built in the 13th. century so it is one of the eldest remaining European synagogues. The stone-masonry is of a high artistic value.
Well, to be honest I didn't like the building. At first I thought I had taken a picture of the back side of it, but the other sides looked even less appealing. The inside of it did not impress me either.
We went outside again and now we did stumble onto Franz Kafka's statue. Julia took my picture at the feet of this immortal poet, who may be most well-known because of the expression "a Kafkaesque experience".
By now we had had enough for today. We decided to take he subway to another part of town and have dinner there. We randomly picked a subway station to the south of the center, but that turned out to be a particularly dull area. So we quickly went back into the subway and went to "our" station, I.P. Pavlova, within 100 yards form our hotel.
There are lots of restaurants in this part of town. Kentucky Fried Chicken was only 20 yards from out hotel, but of course we have never entered that. We like the typical Czech restaurants, where the Czech people go for dinner themselves. And we found a nice café-restaurant at the corner of Lublaňská, where we were served a delicious potato-soup and more.
It is more than 1000 years ago the first Jews settled in the shadow of Prague castle. Josefov, the Jewish settlement at the northwestern edge of the Old City, was founded around 1150.After the 1848 revolution the emperor finally granted full civil rights to the Jews. The more well-off inhabitants then left Josefov and the district slowly turned into a slum. By the end of the 19th. century the hovels were demolished and replaced by modern buildings with a Paris-like elegance. Just the city hall, the old cemetery and a few synagogues were spared...
The starting point of our route was the square near the old city hall (Staroměstské Náměstí). The astronomical clock in the city hall is one of the main attractions for tourists. To be honest I found it difficult to just tell the time when I looked at it. And what else does it tell us? The phase of the moon? The zodiac sign? Probably yes! If only someone would be kind enough to tell how to read that off this clock...
Yesterday we had walked such great distances following the instructions from our travel guide, we now felt more like relaxing. Maybe a tour in this nice tourist "train" for instance? Fat chance! The "train" had a flat tire!
OK, then let's do a ride with a horse and carriage. The white one! By the way, do you see all those beautiful buildings in the background? Prague is absolutely full of such buildings, we could have taken thousands of pictures of them!
In the carriage we were taken around a few blocks with a full view on the behinds of the driver and his horses. When one of the horses lifted his tail for a relieve, the driver quickly picked up a long stick with a sack at the end and held it under his tail. So that is why not all the streets are littered with horse shit. Very neat!
The driver didn't bother to tell us anything about the sights we were passing. In the tourist train than would probably have been a lot different. But we just looked all around us and enjoyed the surroundings. Every building in every street is worth looking at. Wall paintings, ornaments and statues abound. Taking pictures however didn't work well in a carriage with iron wheels bumping on the cobble stones.
After we had taken this disgusting bourgeois-tour, we were back with both feet on the ground. Not everybody can afford a tour in a carriage like this. This gentleman who was begging on his knees for just a little of the wealth that was all around him, would probably have thought of an entirely different way to spend our crowns.We went looking for Franz Kafka's statue. According to the travel guide it would not be further than we few hundred yards, but we didn't see him, not even when we walked on all the way to the river.
We did see another famous character there: Antonín Dvořák. What a beautiful, impressive head!From this point we had a very nice view over the river Moldau ("Vltava", as the Czech call it) and in the distance we could see Charles's Bridge. But we hadn't come for that today. If we wanted to see any more of the Jewish quarters, we would have to go back east.
First we passed the Pinkas Synagogue. This building dates from 1535. It is now a memorial place for the nearly 80,000 Czech Jews who fell victim to the destructive madness of the German national-socialists. On the walls inside the names of the victims are listed. We didn't enter. We know all about the horrible deeds that were done in WO II. Something like that must never happen again! But it does happen. Time and time again. People are suppressed, prisoners are tortured, groups of the population are systematically killed off in "ethnic clinsings". It seems like people refuse to learn anything from history.
It was lunch time and we happened to find a Japanese restaurant. Neither of us had ever had sushi and we decided there is no better time than the present, so we decided to try it now. Being Dutch citizens, we should not be afraid of a little raw fish, should we? The fun already started with the sake, the Japanese rice wine the waiter recommended to go with the sushi. As you can see Julia enjoyed it very much.When our food was brought, it turned out the only "cutlery" available were chopsticks. So we had a real lunch in Japanese style. Fortunately we didn't have to kneel on the ground as well
and also the bottles of mineral water we used to flush down the sake were a dissonant of course.Meanwhile we saw many people with rather unusual hats on the other side of the street. Without any doubt this was some form of expression of the Jewish religion, but why were the women wearing it as well? I always thought it was the men who had to cover their heads.
This was demonstrated once again when we entered the Old-New Synagogue. At the cash register there was a large stack of caps available and no man was allowed to go into the building without putting one of these on his head. Nobody made a problem of my entering bare-headed; apparently I was simply accepted as a woman.Our travel guide said: this double-naved building with its high saddle-roof was built in the 13th. century so it is one of the eldest remaining European synagogues. The stone-masonry is of a high artistic value.
Well, to be honest I didn't like the building. At first I thought I had taken a picture of the back side of it, but the other sides looked even less appealing. The inside of it did not impress me either.
We went outside again and now we did stumble onto Franz Kafka's statue. Julia took my picture at the feet of this immortal poet, who may be most well-known because of the expression "a Kafkaesque experience".By now we had had enough for today. We decided to take he subway to another part of town and have dinner there. We randomly picked a subway station to the south of the center, but that turned out to be a particularly dull area. So we quickly went back into the subway and went to "our" station, I.P. Pavlova, within 100 yards form our hotel.
There are lots of restaurants in this part of town. Kentucky Fried Chicken was only 20 yards from out hotel, but of course we have never entered that. We like the typical Czech restaurants, where the Czech people go for dinner themselves. And we found a nice café-restaurant at the corner of Lublaňská, where we were served a delicious potato-soup and more.2006-08-22
Hradčany
The most important sight in Prague is probably Prague Castle (Pražský Hrad). Since the time the Přemyslid dynasty settled (initially in a wooden castle) on the hills at the left bank of the river Moldau around the year 1000, the lives of all Czech people have been under the influence of the decisions made in the Hradčany.
Starting at subway station Malostranská we climbed up the hill through beautiful gardens with pergolas that strongly reminded me of some of the drawings by M.C. Escher, like "Belvédère" and "Waterfall".
When we reached the top of the hill, we soon found out we were walking in the other direction than all the other tourists. We often do that. So we saw all the sights in the opposite order from the listing in our travel guide.
After we had passed the town gate, we first stumbled onto the "Golden Lane" (Zlatá Ulička). This is supposed to show something about every day life in medieval times in Prague. We had already read this street is more like a souvenir shop than like a monument, but we wanted to see it anyway. So we bought a ticket and entered the street.
In this street 24 little houses have been built in the arches of the Castle wall. Long ago alchemists tried to make gold here for Rudolf II, but they never were successful. Later it was inhabited by poor people. From 1912 until 1914 Franz Kafka lived here at number 22.
We first visited the castle wall, where lots of weapons and armors are now on display. You can even buy your own armor there, even in children's sizes. We also saw medieval costumes there and a "cozy" torture chamber.
Nowadays all the houses have been turned into souvenir shops and the cobble stones of the pavement wear under the feet of a constant flow of tourists. We looked at some of the shops, but soon we wanted to take a break so we rowed back upstream to Franz Kafka Café, which is situated near the entrance to the lane. We had a wedge of "Medovnik" and a glass of warm. red wine.
When we went on our way again, we first found St. George's Basilica, the eldest church on the Hradčany. And now we found out about the disadvantage of walking in the wrong direction: We needed tickets that were only available near the entrance at the other side of the castle.
So there was no other solution than to go to the ticket office first. It turned out tickets were only available for combinations of the attractions. The Golden Lane was always part of these combinations, but since we had seen that already, Julia managed to get a special deal for us: A ticket without the Golden Lane, but with St. George's Basilica instead.
With these we tickets we could visit St. Vitus's Cathedral and climb the tower, which is more than 300 feet tall. I was a little worried about that tower, because I feared Julia might not be able to climb up the nearly 300 steps or, worse yet, she might not be able to descend them again afterwards.
But I was also bothered by my own fear: A slight claustrophobia. I am afraid to go deep into a narrow tunnel, if a lot of other people are there as well, especially if you have to go back the same way you came in. My fear is that so many people may want to enter that I cannot get out again. It is a fear of tunnels and caves really, but on top of a tower you are just as trapped as you are below the ground.
I climbed the tower anyway. But with every step I realized that I would have to go back down all those steps again in case I wanted to escape. At the 66th. step I started to feel quite anxious. I asked Julia how she was doing. If she felt like going back, we could do that of course. But she wanted to go on and I managed to calm down. 67, 68, 69, ... 285, 286, 287. We made it! We were on top of the tower.
The view of Prague from up here was very impressive indeed, but I was a bit disappointed by the "peek into the 400 years old clockwork" that was promised here.
When I am on a spot like this I like it to look for details that other people don't notice like this tower-cock of one of the lower towers for instance. You could almost touch it from up here. One rarely gets a chance to look at a tower-cock so closely!
Isn't it wonderful an ornament that is to be placed more than 300 feet above the ground is crafted in such detail? From the ground nobody can see this, but yet someone has even gone into the trouble of modeling his toenails true to nature.
When we had seen enough, we descended the staircase again. We were rather proud of ourselves, because we had both performed beyond our expectations!
Down in the church there was so much to see, for instance Wenceslas's chapel and the grave of the holy Nepomuk. Unfortunately it was not allowed to take pictures in there, especially not with flashlight. I did try to make some pictures without a flash, but with a long exposure time instead. My camera can do all that, but you have to stand very still while taking the picture. So most of these pictures are unsharp due to motions of the camera. They are not good enough to publish here.
We were very impressed by all the extravagant art in St. Vitus's Cathedral, but we had another church on our schedule. St. George's Basilica. Julia had done the good work of getting us an admittance ticket, so we absolutely had to go and see it.
The difference is striking: This basilica is built in Roman style and has a completely other, sober atmosphere. To be honest I find this more impressive than all that art in the St. Vitus.
We were getting quite tired, but we had yet another building to visit: The Royal Palace. It was already past 4 PM and at 5 PM all the buildings would be closed. So we pulled ourselves together and took a look in there as well. It was very impressive with large halls built in a beautiful style.
Of course there was also a chapel in here and a beautiful throne-room, but we really had to hurry. We were the last people who were allowed into the building this afternoon and behind us all the halls were closed immediately.
When we were outside again, we thought we had seen it all. But then we saw these three soldiers approaching. They were on their way to the changing of the guards at the town gate, so we followed them to look at that!
After that we were completely exhausted. Our travel guide had warned us for a possible "overdose of art and history" and that was precisely what we were feeling. We left the castle and started to walk down towards the river again through the streets of the Maleá Strana ("Lesser Side").
We were too tired to really enjoy it and although it was still a little early for dinner, we were longing for a place to sit and relax for a while. We found a restaurant that served garlic soup. We didn't know that yet, so this was a good opportunity to try it. We ordered garlic soup as a starter and grilled pork for the main course, but something went wrong: Julia got the soup and I got the pork! So when we had finished half of it we swapped our plates, so that we could each taste all of it. Delicious...
Starting at subway station Malostranská we climbed up the hill through beautiful gardens with pergolas that strongly reminded me of some of the drawings by M.C. Escher, like "Belvédère" and "Waterfall".
When we reached the top of the hill, we soon found out we were walking in the other direction than all the other tourists. We often do that. So we saw all the sights in the opposite order from the listing in our travel guide.
After we had passed the town gate, we first stumbled onto the "Golden Lane" (Zlatá Ulička). This is supposed to show something about every day life in medieval times in Prague. We had already read this street is more like a souvenir shop than like a monument, but we wanted to see it anyway. So we bought a ticket and entered the street.In this street 24 little houses have been built in the arches of the Castle wall. Long ago alchemists tried to make gold here for Rudolf II, but they never were successful. Later it was inhabited by poor people. From 1912 until 1914 Franz Kafka lived here at number 22.
We first visited the castle wall, where lots of weapons and armors are now on display. You can even buy your own armor there, even in children's sizes. We also saw medieval costumes there and a "cozy" torture chamber.Nowadays all the houses have been turned into souvenir shops and the cobble stones of the pavement wear under the feet of a constant flow of tourists. We looked at some of the shops, but soon we wanted to take a break so we rowed back upstream to Franz Kafka Café, which is situated near the entrance to the lane. We had a wedge of "Medovnik" and a glass of warm. red wine.
When we went on our way again, we first found St. George's Basilica, the eldest church on the Hradčany. And now we found out about the disadvantage of walking in the wrong direction: We needed tickets that were only available near the entrance at the other side of the castle.
So there was no other solution than to go to the ticket office first. It turned out tickets were only available for combinations of the attractions. The Golden Lane was always part of these combinations, but since we had seen that already, Julia managed to get a special deal for us: A ticket without the Golden Lane, but with St. George's Basilica instead.
With these we tickets we could visit St. Vitus's Cathedral and climb the tower, which is more than 300 feet tall. I was a little worried about that tower, because I feared Julia might not be able to climb up the nearly 300 steps or, worse yet, she might not be able to descend them again afterwards.But I was also bothered by my own fear: A slight claustrophobia. I am afraid to go deep into a narrow tunnel, if a lot of other people are there as well, especially if you have to go back the same way you came in. My fear is that so many people may want to enter that I cannot get out again. It is a fear of tunnels and caves really, but on top of a tower you are just as trapped as you are below the ground.
I climbed the tower anyway. But with every step I realized that I would have to go back down all those steps again in case I wanted to escape. At the 66th. step I started to feel quite anxious. I asked Julia how she was doing. If she felt like going back, we could do that of course.
But she wanted to go on and I managed to calm down. 67, 68, 69, ... 285, 286, 287. We made it! We were on top of the tower.The view of Prague from up here was very impressive indeed, but I was a bit disappointed by the "peek into the 400 years old clockwork" that was promised here.
When I am on a spot like this I like it to look for details that other people don't notice like this tower-cock of one of the lower towers for instance. You could almost touch it from up here. One rarely gets a chance to look at a tower-cock so closely!Isn't it wonderful an ornament that is to be placed more than 300 feet above the ground is crafted in such detail? From the ground nobody can see this, but yet someone has even gone into the trouble of modeling his toenails true to nature.
When we had seen enough, we descended the staircase again. We were rather proud of ourselves, because we had both performed beyond our expectations!
Down in the church there was so much to see, for instance Wenceslas's chapel and the grave of the holy Nepomuk. Unfortunately it was not allowed to take pictures in there, especially not with flashlight. I did try to make some pictures without a flash, but with a long exposure time instead. My camera can do all that, but you have to stand very still while taking the picture. So most of these pictures are unsharp due to motions of the camera. They are not good enough to publish here.We were very impressed by all the extravagant art in St. Vitus's Cathedral, but we had another church on our schedule. St. George's Basilica. Julia had done the good work of getting us an admittance ticket, so we absolutely had to go and see it.The difference is striking: This basilica is built in Roman style and has a completely other, sober atmosphere. To be honest I find this more impressive than all that art in the St. Vitus.
We were getting quite tired, but we had yet another building to visit: The Royal Palace. It was already past 4 PM and at 5 PM all the buildings would be closed. So we pulled ourselves together and took a look in there as well. It was very impressive with large halls built in a beautiful style.
Of course there was also a chapel in here and a beautiful throne-room, but we really had to hurry. We were the last people who were allowed into the building this afternoon and behind us all the halls were closed immediately.When we were outside again, we thought we had seen it all. But then we saw these three soldiers approaching. They were on their way to the changing of the guards at the town gate, so we followed them to look at that!After that we were completely exhausted. Our travel guide had warned us for a possible "overdose of art and history" and that was precisely what we were feeling. We left the castle and started to walk down towards the river again through the streets of the Maleá Strana ("Lesser Side").
We were too tired to really enjoy it and although it was still a little early for dinner, we were longing for a place to sit and relax for a while. We found a restaurant that served garlic soup. We didn't know that yet, so this was a good opportunity to try it. We ordered garlic soup as a starter and grilled pork for the main course, but something went wrong: Julia got the soup and I got the pork! So when we had finished half of it we swapped our plates, so that we could each taste all of it. Delicious...
2006-08-21
Going to Prague
Today we left for a short vacation in Prague.
As you know I was a bit apprehensive about the passport check at the Dutch airport but it turned out to be no problem at all. The lady who had to check my passport looked very carefully at me and at my picture in the passport and she came to the only possible conclusion: This was indeed my passport. And that is all she needs to know. If I look similar enough to the picture in my passport it doesn't matter if I die my hair green or purple or grow breasts. So she smiled at me, handed back my passport and told me I was free to go ahead.
The second hurdle is the security check. But since I passed the metal detector without a bleep, people hardly looked at me there. Julia had a lot more trouble passing that stage. She hadn't taken off all her bracelets, so the detector bleeped and she was searched as if she were a terrorist. The personnel was quite unfriendly to her. Ridiculous to think we would want to blow up the aircraft on our way to a great vacation! If we want to do that, we will do it on our way back home!
We had not yet been in the air for very long when the pilot reported there was a problem with the airplane: "The feedback-switch on the latch of the hatch of the landing-gear is not displayed correctly. That doesn't mean that the landing gear isn't up, nor does it mean the hatch is not closed, nor that the latch isn't on it, but we cannot see that on the computer. This cannot be fixed in Prague, so we will have to go back to Amsterdam to have it repaired."
This way our flight took three times as long as expected, but eventually we did reach Prague.
We were staying in hotel Tyl, at Tylovo Náměsty, near subway station I.P. Pavlova and the famous Václavské Náměstí (Wenceslas Square). On our first evening we immediately set out to explore the environment. When we rounded the corner of Tylovo Náměstí, we saw the first interesting building already: St. Ludmila's Church. Our travel guide didn't mention it and we haven't visited it; we would soon find out that it is impossible to see everything in Prague...
The first thing we were looking for was a modest restaurant where we would be able to eat real Czech food. We found restaurant Ztrány nálezy and ordered Kachna pečená, a typical Czech dish consisting of grilled duck, red cabbage and potato dumplings.
After dinner we walked to Václavské Náměstí, a square measuring 70 by 800 yards; the place to be for strolling and shopping. It also has an important role in the recent history of Prague. In 1989 Václav Havel and Alexander Dubček announced the end of communism on this square.
17 years of freedom! The Czech people have made a lot of progress since then. We strolled down the square to the other end while the evening fell. On our way we could admire the modern, luxury shops where spoiled tourists can buy the same products as in London or Paris. For most Czech people this decadence is way beyond their league!
It took us about twenty minutes to reach the other end of the square. From this side you can see the museum in the distance. A gloomy, unattractive building we didn't want to enter.
We felt like a drink, so we ended up at Šenk Vrbocek, a so-called vinárna, that is a café where only wine is served. We had a large glass of white wine and we even had our first contact with a real Czech. It was an elderly man who spoke enough German to be able to have a conversation with, even in spite of the large number of wines he seemed to have had already. He was really charmed by Julia and me and kept on calling us "schöne Frauen" ("beautiful women"). He would have loved to accompany us back to our hotel, but understandably we were of a different opinion on that...
We returned to the hotel and celebrated our arrival with a glass of Grand Marnier.
Na zdraví (Cheers)!
As you know I was a bit apprehensive about the passport check at the Dutch airport but it turned out to be no problem at all. The lady who had to check my passport looked very carefully at me and at my picture in the passport and she came to the only possible conclusion: This was indeed my passport. And that is all she needs to know. If I look similar enough to the picture in my passport it doesn't matter if I die my hair green or purple or grow breasts. So she smiled at me, handed back my passport and told me I was free to go ahead.
The second hurdle is the security check. But since I passed the metal detector without a bleep, people hardly looked at me there. Julia had a lot more trouble passing that stage. She hadn't taken off all her bracelets, so the detector bleeped and she was searched as if she were a terrorist. The personnel was quite unfriendly to her. Ridiculous to think we would want to blow up the aircraft on our way to a great vacation! If we want to do that, we will do it on our way back home!
We had not yet been in the air for very long when the pilot reported there was a problem with the airplane: "The feedback-switch on the latch of the hatch of the landing-gear is not displayed correctly. That doesn't mean that the landing gear isn't up, nor does it mean the hatch is not closed, nor that the latch isn't on it, but we cannot see that on the computer. This cannot be fixed in Prague, so we will have to go back to Amsterdam to have it repaired."
This way our flight took three times as long as expected, but eventually we did reach Prague.
We were staying in hotel Tyl, at Tylovo Náměsty, near subway station I.P. Pavlova and the famous Václavské Náměstí (Wenceslas Square). On our first evening we immediately set out to explore the environment. When we rounded the corner of Tylovo Náměstí, we saw the first interesting building already: St. Ludmila's Church. Our travel guide didn't mention it and we haven't visited it; we would soon find out that it is impossible to see everything in Prague...The first thing we were looking for was a modest restaurant where we would be able to eat real Czech food. We found restaurant Ztrány nálezy and ordered Kachna pečená, a typical Czech dish consisting of grilled duck, red cabbage and potato dumplings.
After dinner we walked to Václavské Náměstí, a square measuring 70 by 800 yards; the place to be for strolling and shopping. It also has an important role in the recent history of Prague. In 1989 Václav Havel and Alexander Dubček announced the end of communism on this square.17 years of freedom! The Czech people have made a lot of progress since then. We strolled down the square to the other end while the evening fell. On our way we could admire the modern, luxury shops where spoiled tourists can buy the same products as in London or Paris. For most Czech people this decadence is way beyond their league!
It took us about twenty minutes to reach the other end of the square. From this side you can see the museum in the distance. A gloomy, unattractive building we didn't want to enter.We felt like a drink, so we ended up at Šenk Vrbocek, a so-called vinárna, that is a café where only wine is served. We had a large glass of white wine and we even had our first contact with a real Czech. It was an elderly man who spoke enough German to be able to have a conversation with, even in spite of the large number of wines he seemed to have had already. He was really charmed by Julia and me and kept on calling us "schöne Frauen" ("beautiful women"). He would have loved to accompany us back to our hotel, but understandably we were of a different opinion on that...
We returned to the hotel and celebrated our arrival with a glass of Grand Marnier.Na zdraví (Cheers)!
2006-08-20
Forty-sixth Column
Tonight my forty-fourth column was broadcast in Gendertalk #572.
You can find the complete program in the Gendertalk archive.
Or you can find just my column at:
http://eveliensnel.com/audio/SECUR01.mp3
A full transcript of the text is below:
Security
In a few days from now I will be flying to Czechoslovakia for a short vacation. Julia and I are both very excited about this trip, because it is our first real vacation in years. I think the last time was in 1997 when we visited Greece. After that we had other things on our mind, most of them centered around my gender problems.
I think you can imagine I have a special handicap when traveling by airplane. Before boarding I will have to go through all the security and have my passport checked. And of course my passport has my male name and an ugly looking "M" in it.
Fortunately I do have a nice picture in there that looks just as female as I do, so with a little luck I won't run into problems with it. As a matter of fact I have already used this passport to identify myself a few times without any problem. I was really surprised because on all those occasions people continued to address me as "madam" even after they had seen the passport. Are they so careless they don't notice? Or are they so friendly they just keep on playing along with me? I don't know.
I am not expecting security people at airports to be careless though. They may be friendly, but with the additional security checks that are now in place I think they will have to establish everybody's identity beyond any doubt. Fortunately we are not flying to the USA. To be honest I don't feel like going there at all in the current situation.
I know the measures have been taken "to protect our freedom", but I think some of these measures do more to hinder our freedom than to protect it and I am beginning to doubt whether the threats we are facing are indeed as real as some governments are telling us. Scaring people with stories of potential threats is a very effective way to force measures upon them they wouldn't agree to otherwise and it may also help to unite a nation around a strong conservative leader promising safety.
Another point that worries me a little is that Czechoslovakia is a former sovjet country. We have recently heard about the homophobia in such countries, so going there as a transsexual woman might also be risky. I think I will find out the truth about that real soon now.
For Gendertalk this was Evelien Snel from the Netherlands.
Thanks for listening.
I hope to be back here safe and sound to join you again... in two weeks!
You can find the complete program in the Gendertalk archive.
Or you can find just my column at:
http://eveliensnel.com/audio/SECUR01.mp3
A full transcript of the text is below:
In a few days from now I will be flying to Czechoslovakia for a short vacation. Julia and I are both very excited about this trip, because it is our first real vacation in years. I think the last time was in 1997 when we visited Greece. After that we had other things on our mind, most of them centered around my gender problems.
I think you can imagine I have a special handicap when traveling by airplane. Before boarding I will have to go through all the security and have my passport checked. And of course my passport has my male name and an ugly looking "M" in it.
Fortunately I do have a nice picture in there that looks just as female as I do, so with a little luck I won't run into problems with it. As a matter of fact I have already used this passport to identify myself a few times without any problem. I was really surprised because on all those occasions people continued to address me as "madam" even after they had seen the passport. Are they so careless they don't notice? Or are they so friendly they just keep on playing along with me? I don't know.
I am not expecting security people at airports to be careless though. They may be friendly, but with the additional security checks that are now in place I think they will have to establish everybody's identity beyond any doubt. Fortunately we are not flying to the USA. To be honest I don't feel like going there at all in the current situation.
I know the measures have been taken "to protect our freedom", but I think some of these measures do more to hinder our freedom than to protect it and I am beginning to doubt whether the threats we are facing are indeed as real as some governments are telling us. Scaring people with stories of potential threats is a very effective way to force measures upon them they wouldn't agree to otherwise and it may also help to unite a nation around a strong conservative leader promising safety.
Another point that worries me a little is that Czechoslovakia is a former sovjet country. We have recently heard about the homophobia in such countries, so going there as a transsexual woman might also be risky. I think I will find out the truth about that real soon now.
For Gendertalk this was Evelien Snel from the Netherlands.
Thanks for listening.
I hope to be back here safe and sound to join you again... in two weeks!
2006-08-11
Hair Day
Today started with an appointment at the hairdresser's. Jos and Tonny take very good care of my hair with a nice color and some sort of shampoo. They have advised me to take a slightly darker shade of die this time, a little more copper-like. Well they are the experts, I like to follow their advice.
As an icing on the cake they nicely put up my hair into a feminine, adult look. I feel great when my hair is done in such a way.
But I had another appointment and that was a lot more exiting. Julia has managed to find me a skin therapist and today she will have an intake-interview with me. I have explained and drawn in great detail what parts of my genitals need to be depilated and what the results should look like. The picture did look rather pornographic, so she quickly got rid of it after our conversation.
I think she is a very good therapist, because one of the first things she said is that depilation is not necessary, because they can easily do this for me during the operation. She was so right about that. It looks like she is more knowledgeable than the people at the hospital.
It does not sound very nice, but I cannot find any other explanation. All over the world the depilation is done simply and effectively handled by scraping a knife along the inside of the skin during the operation, but the VU in Amsterdam makes me suffer pain for months to reach (hopefully) the same result, just because they are too lazy to do the operation properly.
It turns out we will have to do a laser treatment after all. I thought electric epilation would be quicker, but she said no: "We will never manage that in half a year; the laser is your only option"
It is likely the laser will work better on pubic hair than on facial hair, so we stand a fair chance we will manage this on time. My pubic hair (I had to show it of course) is fortunately still quite black and that helps as well.
I have also asked her whether she can do anything about my remaining facial hair. I still have a lot of white hair on my face that cannot be handled by the laser. For those electrical depilation must be the only solution. Next time I will visit her (September 16th.) I will have to refrain from shaving for a few days so that she can judge the possibilities for that.
The hairs we will be treating on the other hand have to be shaved a few days before our next appointment. That way they will have an optimal length for laser treatment on that Saturday afternoon.
As an icing on the cake they nicely put up my hair into a feminine, adult look. I feel great when my hair is done in such a way.
But I had another appointment and that was a lot more exiting. Julia has managed to find me a skin therapist and today she will have an intake-interview with me. I have explained and drawn in great detail what parts of my genitals need to be depilated and what the results should look like. The picture did look rather pornographic, so she quickly got rid of it after our conversation.
I think she is a very good therapist, because one of the first things she said is that depilation is not necessary, because they can easily do this for me during the operation. She was so right about that. It looks like she is more knowledgeable than the people at the hospital.
It does not sound very nice, but I cannot find any other explanation. All over the world the depilation is done simply and effectively handled by scraping a knife along the inside of the skin during the operation, but the VU in Amsterdam makes me suffer pain for months to reach (hopefully) the same result, just because they are too lazy to do the operation properly.
It turns out we will have to do a laser treatment after all. I thought electric epilation would be quicker, but she said no: "We will never manage that in half a year; the laser is your only option"
It is likely the laser will work better on pubic hair than on facial hair, so we stand a fair chance we will manage this on time. My pubic hair (I had to show it of course) is fortunately still quite black and that helps as well.
I have also asked her whether she can do anything about my remaining facial hair. I still have a lot of white hair on my face that cannot be handled by the laser. For those electrical depilation must be the only solution. Next time I will visit her (September 16th.) I will have to refrain from shaving for a few days so that she can judge the possibilities for that.
The hairs we will be treating on the other hand have to be shaved a few days before our next appointment. That way they will have an optimal length for laser treatment on that Saturday afternoon.
2006-08-10
Sauna
Weeks ago we had made an appointment with our dear friends M and p to go to the nudist beach this week. A very exciting idea for them because, believe it or not, they have never been to a nudist beach before. Unfortunately it was not nice beach weather, so we decided to go to the sauna instead.
Although you take off all your clothes in a sauna as well, that doesn't bother them. I don't really see any difference. I didn't care anyway. What I wanted was to see my friends again and to hear how they have been getting on in the past few months.
I was impressed by the facilities of this sauna. Everything is in perfect order and clean. There are two Finnish saunas and a Turkish steam bath. Of course there are lots of showers (where you can take all the soap, shampoo, scrubbing-salt, oil and body lotion you want), a swimming pool, a jacuzzi, a cold bath, three moderately warm baths, several terraces on the roof and a cold swimming pool in the open air etcetera etcetera. It is not as big as Thermae 2000 in Valkenburg, but it is a very complete sauna and it is within walking distance from our house!
Today was a normal working day for me, so we didn't reach the sauna until 7 PM. Our friends had been inside for several hours already! For the same admittance fee you can stay in for as long as you want. Of course it was high time for dinner by now, but I wanted to go into the sauna first. Going in with a full stomach is not a good idea.
After a lot of sweating and cooling down the four of us had a delicious dinner, served in the relaxing room of the sauna. Julia and I had a spicy wok dish and it was very good, but way too large for us: We could only finish half of it. What a waste!
I have to admit it is very difficult to refrain from smoking in the presence of three smokers. I could not resist this temptation and smoked happily along with them. That is not a real problem as long as I don't let it become a bad habit again...
We had a very relaxing evening, we must definitely do this more often!
Although you take off all your clothes in a sauna as well, that doesn't bother them. I don't really see any difference. I didn't care anyway. What I wanted was to see my friends again and to hear how they have been getting on in the past few months.
I was impressed by the facilities of this sauna. Everything is in perfect order and clean. There are two Finnish saunas and a Turkish steam bath. Of course there are lots of showers (where you can take all the soap, shampoo, scrubbing-salt, oil and body lotion you want), a swimming pool, a jacuzzi, a cold bath, three moderately warm baths, several terraces on the roof and a cold swimming pool in the open air etcetera etcetera. It is not as big as Thermae 2000 in Valkenburg, but it is a very complete sauna and it is within walking distance from our house!
Today was a normal working day for me, so we didn't reach the sauna until 7 PM. Our friends had been inside for several hours already! For the same admittance fee you can stay in for as long as you want. Of course it was high time for dinner by now, but I wanted to go into the sauna first. Going in with a full stomach is not a good idea.
After a lot of sweating and cooling down the four of us had a delicious dinner, served in the relaxing room of the sauna. Julia and I had a spicy wok dish and it was very good, but way too large for us: We could only finish half of it. What a waste!
I have to admit it is very difficult to refrain from smoking in the presence of three smokers. I could not resist this temptation and smoked happily along with them. That is not a real problem as long as I don't let it become a bad habit again...
We had a very relaxing evening, we must definitely do this more often!
2006-08-06
Forty-fifth Column
Tonight my forty-fifth column was broadcast in Gendertalk #570.
You can find the complete program in the Gendertalk archive.
Or you can find just my column at:
http://eveliensnel.com/audio/HOMOPH01.mp3
A full transcript of the text is below:
Homophobia
Today the annual gay pride parade in Amsterdam was organized again. You may remember my column in Gendertalk #524 last year when I told you about my experience with this event. All this glitter and glamour is not really my cup of tea, but I think it is important gay people let the World know they exist and it is all a great, happy, pink festival.
Unfortunately such happy festivals are not possible everywhere. The latest big incident happened two weeks ago in Riga, the capitol of Latvia. The authorities banned the Friendship Parade that was scheduled for July 22nd., because they said "they would not be able to guarantee the safety of the participants".
Latvia has joined the EU a few years ago and should therefore adhere to the European legislation, which forbids any kind of discrimination against homosexuals. Also US ambassador, Catherine Todd Bailey, urged the Latvian government not to cancel gay pride celebrations in the city.
But it was all to no avail. The government was more inclined to listen to the Russian Orthodox church leader Nikolajs Tihonirovs, who said an event like this "offends the morals of Latvia's population and every Christian".
So the parade was banned. But politicians from all over Europe and even activists from the USA were already on their way to Latvia. People could hardly believe that a member state of the EU would give in to threats and blackmail from religious fundamentalists and right-wing organizations.
You may have heard about the results of this situation. Eggs, tomatoes and excrements were thrown at all participants, including the international guests when they left a church after a ceremony on Saturday morning. The police did nothing against it.
This incident is not unique, we have seen a lot of violence against homosexual people in the former Sowjet countries lately. Gay parades in Russia and Poland have led to similar reactions of homophobia.
In Amsterdam no violence is to be expected. Anti-gay sentiments can only be found in a small minority of the Dutch population. In fact several big companies have hired a boat to take part in the Amsterdam gay parade this year, alledgedly to show off how tolerant they are towards homosexuals, but probably they are also very keen on getting their company name on the millions of TV-screens that will be showing the event.
You can find the complete program in the Gendertalk archive.
Or you can find just my column at:
http://eveliensnel.com/audio/HOMOPH01.mp3
A full transcript of the text is below:
Today the annual gay pride parade in Amsterdam was organized again. You may remember my column in Gendertalk #524 last year when I told you about my experience with this event. All this glitter and glamour is not really my cup of tea, but I think it is important gay people let the World know they exist and it is all a great, happy, pink festival.
Unfortunately such happy festivals are not possible everywhere. The latest big incident happened two weeks ago in Riga, the capitol of Latvia. The authorities banned the Friendship Parade that was scheduled for July 22nd., because they said "they would not be able to guarantee the safety of the participants".
Latvia has joined the EU a few years ago and should therefore adhere to the European legislation, which forbids any kind of discrimination against homosexuals. Also US ambassador, Catherine Todd Bailey, urged the Latvian government not to cancel gay pride celebrations in the city.
But it was all to no avail. The government was more inclined to listen to the Russian Orthodox church leader Nikolajs Tihonirovs, who said an event like this "offends the morals of Latvia's population and every Christian".
So the parade was banned. But politicians from all over Europe and even activists from the USA were already on their way to Latvia. People could hardly believe that a member state of the EU would give in to threats and blackmail from religious fundamentalists and right-wing organizations.
You may have heard about the results of this situation. Eggs, tomatoes and excrements were thrown at all participants, including the international guests when they left a church after a ceremony on Saturday morning. The police did nothing against it.
This incident is not unique, we have seen a lot of violence against homosexual people in the former Sowjet countries lately. Gay parades in Russia and Poland have led to similar reactions of homophobia.
In Amsterdam no violence is to be expected. Anti-gay sentiments can only be found in a small minority of the Dutch population. In fact several big companies have hired a boat to take part in the Amsterdam gay parade this year, alledgedly to show off how tolerant they are towards homosexuals, but probably they are also very keen on getting their company name on the millions of TV-screens that will be showing the event.
2006-08-05
Growth
We had a very nice evening at T&T this month. It is difficult to say what it is that makes the difference for me between the dull evenings and the nice ones. This time I have chatted with lots of people and I have also enjoyed myself dancing.
I also took some pictures by the way, but I won't put those online. There are still people who would not want their faces recognizable on the Internet and of course I respect that.
Like almost every month my Hurdy-Gurdy-friend was present as well. She didn't bring the hurdy-gurdy this time, but she did bring a book about henna tattoos. She is now learning this technique and she is getting pretty good results already.
It is always nice to see how people grow and develop. The transsexuals get a little bit more feminine each month and the transvestites are always improving their skills to look their best in clothing and make-up.
And every month we get new guests as well. The first time they visit is usually a great experience for them and after that they keep on coming and start growing like the rest of us.
Previous T&T-evenings: July, June, May, April, March, February, January, December, November, October, September, July, June, May 2005, April 2005, March 2005, February 2005, January 2005, December 2004, November 2004, October 2004, September 2004, August 2004, July 2004, June 2004, May 2004 and April 2004.
I also took some pictures by the way, but I won't put those online. There are still people who would not want their faces recognizable on the Internet and of course I respect that.
Like almost every month my Hurdy-Gurdy-friend was present as well. She didn't bring the hurdy-gurdy this time, but she did bring a book about henna tattoos. She is now learning this technique and she is getting pretty good results already.
It is always nice to see how people grow and develop. The transsexuals get a little bit more feminine each month and the transvestites are always improving their skills to look their best in clothing and make-up.
And every month we get new guests as well. The first time they visit is usually a great experience for them and after that they keep on coming and start growing like the rest of us.
Previous T&T-evenings: July, June, May, April, March, February, January, December, November, October, September, July, June, May 2005, April 2005, March 2005, February 2005, January 2005, December 2004, November 2004, October 2004, September 2004, August 2004, July 2004, June 2004, May 2004 and April 2004.
2006-08-04
Veghel
Today I had the VU hospital on the phone again. It was the gender team secretary, who proudly announced that she had set up an appointment for my adam's apple reduction at Bernhoven hospital in Veghel.
"But I thought I would get my treatment at Máxima hospital in Veldhoven?"
Now the secretary was confused. It turned out the gender team co-ordinator had mixed up Veghel with Veldhoven. He took the phone and personally apologized for this misunderstanding.
Yeah, looking from Amsterdam, Veghel and Veldhoven are close together, but I would not want to walk that distance.
It is such a pity because I was really looking forward to my treatment at Máxima's: I have very positive experience with that hospital and it is only two miles from my home.
I also got an email today from the skin therapist in Nieuwegein that was recommended to me by the gender team. She does not do this treatment and pointed me to a therapist at the Groene Hart hospital in Gouda.
Gouda is nowhere near my home or my work, but since I don't have any alternative yet, I have called them up and left a message on their voice mail; now I have to wait for a response from them.
"But I thought I would get my treatment at Máxima hospital in Veldhoven?"
Now the secretary was confused. It turned out the gender team co-ordinator had mixed up Veghel with Veldhoven. He took the phone and personally apologized for this misunderstanding.
Yeah, looking from Amsterdam, Veghel and Veldhoven are close together, but I would not want to walk that distance.
It is such a pity because I was really looking forward to my treatment at Máxima's: I have very positive experience with that hospital and it is only two miles from my home.
I also got an email today from the skin therapist in Nieuwegein that was recommended to me by the gender team. She does not do this treatment and pointed me to a therapist at the Groene Hart hospital in Gouda.
Gouda is nowhere near my home or my work, but since I don't have any alternative yet, I have called them up and left a message on their voice mail; now I have to wait for a response from them.
2006-08-03
Depilation
Yesterday I called the VU hospital to inquire about the details regarding my depilation and today there was a little envelope in the mail already. It contained a photo copy of an information sheet from the Humanitas foundation. So the VU doesn't even have this information available for their patients! They need to borrow it from another organization. Duh! Anyway, the information is clear: The perineum needs to be cleared of hair and so does the penis, plus about half an inch around the base of the penis.
I also asked them for an address of a skin therapist that would do this for me, but at first they wouldn't name any. They told me to ask my own skin therapist about that. But I don't have a skin therapist! The laser hair removal of my face was 'completed' long ago.
So finally they coughed up an address in Nieuwegein, close to my work place. It was not a new address to me, because I have already been looking for therapists myself of course. I have sent emails to a list of therapists, including the one they mentioned. It is a bit difficult to use the telephone for finding a therapist, because I work in a large room with ten other people. Privacy is completely impossible there. And I need to explain exactly what I want to have done of course.
I am afraid it is already too late to have this done with a laser treatment. On my face that took a year and a half, so I think electric epilation is the only possibility now...
I also asked them for an address of a skin therapist that would do this for me, but at first they wouldn't name any. They told me to ask my own skin therapist about that. But I don't have a skin therapist! The laser hair removal of my face was 'completed' long ago.
So finally they coughed up an address in Nieuwegein, close to my work place. It was not a new address to me, because I have already been looking for therapists myself of course. I have sent emails to a list of therapists, including the one they mentioned. It is a bit difficult to use the telephone for finding a therapist, because I work in a large room with ten other people. Privacy is completely impossible there. And I need to explain exactly what I want to have done of course.
I am afraid it is already too late to have this done with a laser treatment. On my face that took a year and a half, so I think electric epilation is the only possibility now...
2006-08-01
Eight months to go
Just like every three months I had my usual appointments at the VU hospital today. But there was one big difference: I had now completed my 'Real Life Test'! So I was hoping I would finally get some more information about the further steps in my treatment.
In the past few weeks I had been worrying a lot. What is the exact procedure to get on the waiting list? I should have been put on the list on June 3rd., because that is the day I completed my RLT. But now it is August already. Does that mean I have lost an additional two months just because I didn't happen to have an earlier appointment? That would not be fair, would it?
"No, no, that is not the way it works", said the psychologist reassuringly: "We do not really have a waiting list, it is just that many people have passed their RLT already and those who have done that earlier will also get to be operated earlier."
Well, to me that sounds just as much like a waiting list as the queues in front of attractions at an amusement park, where you find those merry signs, telling you: "Waiting time from here approximately ... minutes."
But OK, the date you happen to visit the hospital after finishing RLT does not make a difference for your position on the waiting list. What counts is the moment you have started using female hormones. I have seen the list and I am on it. If my eyesight would have been better, I could now list the names of several other people on the list as well, because we are all merrily put together in an Excel-sheet on Jos's computer. Fortunately I don't see very well, because I don't want to know the names of the others and I guess they value their privacy.
I did know my genitals would have to be depilated before my operation at the VU hospital, but I always thought the hospital would take care of that. After all when someone is brought in with an appendicitis, they don't send him to a hairdresser to have his belly shaved before operating. But no! They do not lift a finger to do my depilation. I need to find my own beautician or skin therapist to do it for me. I don't like the idea of entering a beauty salon and ask for a treatment like this.
And if they had told me earlier, I would have had more time to get it done. Now it is suddenly an issue that needs taking care of ASAP. And it isn't even completely clear to me what exact area I need to have depilated. They spoke about the perineum, but I would think the penis would need treatment as well. They did promise me information about it, but I didn't get any. Guess I'll have to ring them tomorrow.
The reduction of my adam's apple will also take place in the near future and that will happen... you would never guess it... at Máxima Medisch Centrum in Veldhoven! That is only two miles from my home! I have had an operation there two years ago and I felt very good there. Later I have often passed this hospital on my bicycle when I was on my way to visit a client and then I looked longingly up to the window of the room where I stayed after the operation.
When I left the hospital I saw a little sign saying:
In the past few weeks I had been worrying a lot. What is the exact procedure to get on the waiting list? I should have been put on the list on June 3rd., because that is the day I completed my RLT. But now it is August already. Does that mean I have lost an additional two months just because I didn't happen to have an earlier appointment? That would not be fair, would it?
"No, no, that is not the way it works", said the psychologist reassuringly: "We do not really have a waiting list, it is just that many people have passed their RLT already and those who have done that earlier will also get to be operated earlier."
Well, to me that sounds just as much like a waiting list as the queues in front of attractions at an amusement park, where you find those merry signs, telling you: "Waiting time from here approximately ... minutes."
But OK, the date you happen to visit the hospital after finishing RLT does not make a difference for your position on the waiting list. What counts is the moment you have started using female hormones. I have seen the list and I am on it. If my eyesight would have been better, I could now list the names of several other people on the list as well, because we are all merrily put together in an Excel-sheet on Jos's computer. Fortunately I don't see very well, because I don't want to know the names of the others and I guess they value their privacy.
I did know my genitals would have to be depilated before my operation at the VU hospital, but I always thought the hospital would take care of that. After all when someone is brought in with an appendicitis, they don't send him to a hairdresser to have his belly shaved before operating. But no! They do not lift a finger to do my depilation. I need to find my own beautician or skin therapist to do it for me. I don't like the idea of entering a beauty salon and ask for a treatment like this.
And if they had told me earlier, I would have had more time to get it done. Now it is suddenly an issue that needs taking care of ASAP. And it isn't even completely clear to me what exact area I need to have depilated. They spoke about the perineum, but I would think the penis would need treatment as well. They did promise me information about it, but I didn't get any. Guess I'll have to ring them tomorrow.
The reduction of my adam's apple will also take place in the near future and that will happen... you would never guess it... at Máxima Medisch Centrum in Veldhoven! That is only two miles from my home! I have had an operation there two years ago and I felt very good there. Later I have often passed this hospital on my bicycle when I was on my way to visit a client and then I looked longingly up to the window of the room where I stayed after the operation.
When I left the hospital I saw a little sign saying:
Estimated time remaining
eight
months
© 1985-2006 E.G. Snel
