Newer Vanities of Prague

August 30th 2021

Postkarte an Oma

Liebe Oma,
Prag ist sehr schön. Wie du vielleicht weißt, ist Prag im Krieg kaum zerstört worden. Deshalb sind die Häuser hier alle sehr schön. Es gibt außerdem viele Parks. Die sind auch sehr schön. Das Wetter ist etwas wechselhaft, aber dafür gibt es auch viele schöne Museen. Und wir haben die Hand vom Präsidenten von Deutschland gesehen.

Viele Grüße von Nils und Lino

We live in Žižkov, the district of artists and bars, sandwiched between the district of the hipsters and the chic district of clubs and queer people. Fourth floor but no problem due to an elevator that takes the perfect amount of time for me to untie my shoes when coming home. That way, we spend less time in the room of a thousand posters for movies we haven't seen. We feel quite uncultured, recognizing Parasite's director's name on a poster for The Host but not having seen this probably way more artsy and experimental and important movie of his.

The room we stay in is called Amir, probably named after another movie character we don't recognize. The rooms of the other two guests also have names, just like the guests who also have names. Room Leyla houses different guests during our stay, room Nike hosts a chill Israeli who just finished his military service and is staying in Prague for three weeks. We meet him on the beautiful rooftop deck where he kindly offers to share his joint.

The AirBnB has some very pleasant Hostel vibes in general — the kitchen, terrace, and living room are shared between the guests and our hosts, there are lots of plants and a fireplace and books and paintings and a slightly confused Roomba. As the day goes by, people just drift in and out of these spaces, occasionally stopping for a quick chat or a bite of the communal focaccia with home-grown tomatoes.

It might be the first time the paintings in a hotel (-like accommodation) actually look nice.
With our home base taken care of we are ready to explore Prague. And luckily Jakub, one of the owners, can help with that, too: Not only does he provide us with multiple maps and guide books but somehow he also personally knows every single cafe and location in Prague.

(for added immersion, imagine the italic lines in a nice French accent)

"Hey good morning, you're heading out? Where are you going today?"

"We thought about going to this Café Louvre."

"Ah yes, the Café Louvre. It's quite nice and has great atmosphere. People mainly go there for the atmosphere but it's not the most beautiful cafe in Prague. A really nice cafe is the cafe Lounge&Melange in the hipster district."

"Oh we actually wanted to go there anyway because there's this new contemporary art gallery."

"Ah yes, that gallery is quite nice, they have a small exhibition by Karel Zopnek. My favourite piece by him is a statue of a Siberian cat located close to the castle though."

"Ohh I have a Siberian cat at home!"

"Yes, he is quite nice but I also really liked the guinea pigs you had as a kid, they were very cute and it is astonishing how they were always able to escape the cage."

The Post-Industrial Age

With Prague shifting from its Soviet-era economy towards tourism and services, the city has entered the post-industrial age — or so we're told. Essentially that means there are lots of cafés and bars and theatres in places that used to be other places, like slaughterhouses or military barracks.
Standing up on a hill underneath a giant horse sculpture near our home, we can hear faint, base-y music from somewhere below. Following the sounds down some stairs and around a few corners, we end up in the courtyard of the Kasárna Karlín.
What used to be a large military complex not too long ago is now populated by children playing in the sand of a beach volleyball field, adults sipping beers, and the Yoyo Bandem playing Czech Reggae live on stage — it's not bad, this post-industrial life.

Skulls, mostly, but also other things

When the rain gets too heavy, we seek refuge in various museums and galleries, once even camping outside a small gallery, ready to enter the minute it opens in good German tradition. Inside, we meet what I can only describe as Huge Husky, Destroyer of Art, who has taken a liking to one of the very stick-shaped artworks that is temptingly displayed on a pillow on the floor.
Another time, we visit the DOX — a large-ish contemporary art museum with an interesting zepellin construction on the roof — which currently shows various Czech artist's takes on Vanitas. Very cool among these is Death Victorious II, a glass box with a complete human skeleton crawling with actual, live bugs and larvae. Apart from that, there's just about every way you could picture a skull and then some.
Still trying to shake off the skull-overload, we come home to Jakub burning a bouquet of flowers in the fireplace which, after hours of death and bones and wilting flowers, feels oddly poetic and ceremonial to me.
And so I watch for a while, as the purple coneflowers slowly go up into smoke and flame...

Using it

At this point we need to give a big shoutout to the Use-it Map Prague, a map with recommendations and advice for young™ travellers. It's called Use-it because all the tips on the map are actually usable, and — oh boy — are we using them. We already mentioned some places from the map, but here are some more highlights:

That one spot at the Vltava where you can spot nutrias. To be fair, the map makes us expect beavers, whereas nutrias are smaller and have a ratlike tail — but the cuteness totally makes up for the taxonomic error.
Nutrias were brought to Europe from South America for their fur and meat but investors eventually realized they had overestimated the market for them soooooo they were abandoned and are now a lowkey plague in Prague.
The botanical garden of the Faculty of Science is mostly free and has a lot of exotic plants and old rocks. If you have a friend who's studying for her second pharmacology Staatsexamen and you want to send her pictures of random plants and quiz her on them — THIS is the spot for you.
That bakery close to our home that sells great cinnamon rolls. And of course buchty, yeast dough rolls filled with plum jam or poppy seeds. And škvarkové placky, which I buy out of curiosity. Trying the flat bread bun, we first think it might contain pieces of nuts. Then we realize it's probably meat. If you don't recognize an ingredient here, it's probably meat. But the fried pork pieces are pretty tasty. Meat cute.

Thank you for reading
or, with the words of the American tourist who just received his Pho in the Vietnamese restaurant:

Arigato