(no subject)
Prague is undoubtedly the most beautiful country I've ever visited,
the architecture, culture, art, literature, streets and sights...
love love loveee it to death!
Despite being with the company of 10 other bristoluni kiddies,
it was an abjectly lonely trip :(
i guess with friends like these with vastly different interests
some beach or some island would be more appropriate.
In short, the destination itself was completely wrong,
and i spent almost every moment that I was appreciating Prague,
wishing that I was in the company of people as madly
in love with art and history and literature as i am.
i was craving so badly for the kind of conversation
that illuminates and inspires... the kind that, sad to say,
hardly any of them care much for.
jm tweeted months ago about how travelling isnt like throwing
a sweet into your mouth and saying that you've tasted it.
OMG COULDNT HAVE PHRASED IT BETTER MYSELF!! SO TRUE!!!
had dinner with gill & laura a few nights ago, &we
exchanged stories of our experiences, of the people we've met...
anyway, gill and i agreed that its true, it is so important
to travel with the right group of people for a particular destination,
because there is only so much we can learn on our own,
and so much we can take out of that experience...
ultimately, all aesthetic judgements aspire for objectivity,
&people who make these judgements naturally desire the
kind of company that can validate or challenge and improve their views,
and attain that degree of objectivity that comes from consensus.
this is why i also dont personally believe in backpacking by myself...
because there is really just so much value in sharing the aesthetic experience,
and in learning from a fresh intellectual perspective that is not your own.
I guess when it comes down to it,
I really want to spend more time with my Brizzle sg friends,
but I have to concede that I am a radically different type of traveller,
and if I want to have as much fun and do what they want to do with them,
then i suppose some beach would be the best place to go.
St Vitus Cathedral
It was a beautiful coincidence that I had brought along Kundera's The Curtain
to read along the trip. The book was a 19th bday prezzie from stin (:
who gave me a book of Kant's essays as well... SO I AM RLY RLY GRATEFUL!!
it was an awesome gift, and one which i wish i had more time to appreciate fully;
and it was the most illuminating companion for this trip.
It was incredibly apt because Kundera is from Czech himself and this essay,
like many of his works, throws light on his opinion of European art, literature and history,
and the significance of Prague, of European culture-
"All the nations of Europe are living a common destiny, but each is living it differently,
based on its own separate existence", and these multitudinous experiences
"constitute an inexhaustible reservoir of inspiration":
he draws an example from Iceland, "where the 1st great prose treasure of Europe
was created in its smallest land", which invented the sagas in the 13th and 14th c
way before the French of the English.
I was particularly moved by Kundera's explanation of the distinction between
small European nations and the large ones, of the effect of history on them:
for the former nations, "their existence is not a self-evident certainty but
always a question, a wager, a risk; they are on the defensive against History,
that force that is bigger than they, that does not take them into consideration";
"there are as many Poles as there are Spaniards. But Spain is an old power
whose existence has never been under threat, whereas History has taught
the Poles what it means not to exist...
"Poland has not yet perished" is the poignant first line of their national anthem..."
Miss Sophie's Boutique Hotel:
our awesome crib in Prague, this amazing boutique hotel, where every room is distinct in the design from the other- this was the wall on one side of our bedroom, outlining the prominent spots of Prague, St Nicholas, Prague Castle, St. Vitus, St George.
Streets and Architecture:
St Nicholas Cathedral
Love all the intricate handpainted details on the buildings
Sternberg Palace
Old Town Square on an evening after our concert
Dancing House, Vlado Milunić & Frank Gehry
view from the top of Prague Castle grounds
Day 1-
Prague Castle, St Vitus Cathedral, Sternberg Palace (European Art Exhibition),
Swan Lake Ballet, Municipal House for dessert
Venus disarming Cupid, Anthoine Bloclandt van Monfoort
idk what this piece is called but i really like it!
Swan Lake @ Hybernia Theatre:
Dessert @ Municipal House
Quite proud of ourselves actually (:
ys, lm and i planned and drew up an itinerary, settling everything
from timing to transport and in the end, being so detailed really did pay off!
the day was perfect: visiting palaces, a gothic cathedral,
moving around by ourselves on public transport, admiring the streets of Prague,
appreciating the art pieces in Sternberg Palace,
watching russian ballet and eating cake at the grand Municipal House. (:
ahhhhh i miss art so much! a few days after that on my trip to Berlin,
gill told me about the entire history of art and oh man,
i wish she went along with me to Prague!
would have really been so grateful to have someone like her
to help me make further sense of all the sights.
Day 2-
Terezin Concentration Camp, Sedlec Ossuary (Church of the Bones),
Municipal House for a concert
We should have gotten a guide for this place! :(
anyway, I really like the art exhibition that had in this camp
of all the art works produced by the inmates and
other local artists, pertaining to the themes of war, politics and pain...
i remember noting that many of the art pieces were clearly expressionist in style
and i remember wanting so badly to take pictures of a few of them
because they were such poignant and beautiful portrayals of suffering...
but i didnt cause there were so many cctvs and i was a wimp :x
Sedlec Ossuary:
i have never seen so many bones in my entire life!!!!
but interestingly enough, when employed for the purposes of Art,
i felt more awed by the grotesque beauty of the ossuary than scared or horrified,
as i thought i should be, especially in comparison
with the mass burial of skeletons i saw in Cambodia,
where all the skulls and bones were just laid in heaps...
perhaps, it is the knowledge that the latter is a remnant
of the country's violent history, a lasting reminder of their bloody past?
still, i have never seen so many bones in my entire life!!
it was still chilling to know that past all the skin,
we are all similarly reducible to piles of ugly bones and dust.
Day 2-
Konopiste Castle (once lived in by Franz Ferdinand), Charles Bridge
The Palace Gardens:
how nice it must be to have lived so lavishly!!
hahaha touring in the castle and seeing all the animals that franz ferdinand
had killed and had mounted on his wall, led one of us to conclude
that it would not be surprising if the person who murdered him
was also an animal activist.
there is an incredibly embarrassing story behind this picture.
what happened was that in a bid to earn more from us tourists,
the guy in charge of the trainride to the castle
gave us an irresistable offer to drive us down all the way-
and it really was A REALLY REALLY LONG WAY BY FOOT-
to the train station.
so... on this incredibly kiddy train, we went onto the main roads
and public highway... uhm... and if that wasnt embarrassing enough,
what with all the stares from people from the sidewalks and in their cars,
we caused a huge jam behind us hahahaha-
it was damn hilarious and mortifying to see a long trail of cars behind us,
beeping and exasperated... heh heh. :x
bc it was damn hard to capture the whole of Charles Bridge,
here it is in a touristy streetside painting:
Day 3- Strahov Monastery's Library, Mirror Maze
I could just die hereeeeee in this library ((:
the smell of all the 1st-editions, of endless knowledge to be acquired....
that's the smell of bliss and the promise of fulfillment!! ((:
Mirror Maze:
one of the many fun-mirrors in the hall- we cldnt stop laughing at linus!!
Kafka Museum:
i decided to just walk on my own after the mirror maze
because it was our last day and i wanted to see 2 art exhibitions
and THIS!! ESPECIALLY THIS!! HOW COULD I MISS THIS!!!
how many museums are there in this world dedicated to literature?!!
i was so glad i made it in the end,
because i knew very little of Kafka, much less the significance
of Prague and his father to his works...
but ever since i picked up my first book on Kundera,
i realised that i have become more&more intrigued by the literature from east europe,
and how history seems to be inextricable from their narratives and texts,
and how it pervades their social conscious.
the whole exhibition was very well put together, and very impressive,
especially through the way the constructed quite a few installations
that complemented certain themes in Kafka's narratives.
walked to Old Town Square after that for the Salvador Dali Exhibition,
basking in the splendour of Prague's streets,
while grabbing some local fare for lunch... (:
all that is left to perfect everything is the right company :(...
i guess i was just filled with that constant longing
throughout the rest of the day... that when it comes down to it,
though it is oft said that the strong must learn to be,
we are not meant for loneliness.
Salvador Dali's exhibition!! i kept thinking of xh,
because of how much she loved Dali, and how much Dali inspired her,
and how Dali's influenced her art pieces.
though those days are long past, it feels so good to reminisce
to that point of my life where i had thought that art was my calling
and that if i could trust to nothing else, i could at least trust
that my art will not fail me.
but that was me so many years ago.
and whatever ability i had has probably deteriorated... much like dance.
Sleep
Family Of Marsupial Centaurs
Persistance of A Memory
dream caused by the flight of a bee around a pomegranate a second before awakening
That mystical elephant-insect that appears in many of his works!
&i didnt know until i came here, but apparently,
Dali did illustrations of the whole of Dante's Divine Comedy?!!!
It was seriously epic, i wish id taken pictures of all of it
so that i can look at it as I re-read Inferno, Purgatario and Paradiso-
it'd be such a lovely complement to the texts!
if you havent seen this video of Dali, you should!
i love how they spoke back then, especially the narrator!
if only everyone spoke like that now (:
anyway, it is quite hilarious because they're supposed to guess his career
but because he is an artist... he considers himself to be many things???
just watch it, its quite funny!!
Click to viewAfter that exhibition, I decided to take the road less travelled
and visit the 2nd art exhibition, 'Love is Blind, Sex is Elsewhere',
that was not very popular at all
since it was a much humbler exhibition featuring works by local artists.
National Museum:
WHOOPWHOOP omg im finally done...
but it had to be done! i couldnt stand not writing it down
even though it is a very distilled version of my reflections
since time has passed and diluted the intensity of whatever i felt then.
but oh well. nonetheless, i really loved Prague...
and i really want to go somewhere just as cool soooon :>>>
i only have to find the right people!!!
there's just so much of Europe to see, and so little time and $$!!!