Have you ever heard someone saying the sentence I felt like the
only person on earth or something like that? It really gets often dropped in
talks about travel. And there is nothing wrong with it at all. But I had to
laugh about it while strolling through Prague. In Prague I experience the
opposite, more like there are no other human beings left anywhere else
in the world, because the city is simply heaving with visitors. The whole
population of mother earth must be here surely?
Never have I seen something like this before. I mean it. Even the very
popular island of Santorini in August looks deserted ... compared to these
cheerful crowds. Queues at museums and sights are several hundreds of metres
long (at least it looked like it).
It does not come as a surprise that Prague in the Czech Republic was ranked in fifth place of the world's top destinations by Tripadvisor. Ranking is as follows: 1. Istanbul, 2. Rome, 3. London, 4. Beijing, 6. Marrakech, 7. Paris, 8. Hanoi, 9. Siem Reap, 10. Shanghai.
Prague Narrow streets and sunshine
To make the best of my sunny time in Prague, I decide to
just stroll around and look at buildings and statues and go for coffees and boy
have I a great time. It is spring and the sky is bright blue for most of my stay. It feels like the weather god would know I am here for the first time and
organised these stunning conditions to please me. The architecture is
simply stunning, this town looks like from a picture book, so perfect are its
many narrow streets and wide open squares. On some corners I can still see how life must have been
before the iron curtain came down, all these years ago. I picture how it must
have felt, when Prague and its citizens were isolated from the west, and in the
fangs of the communist world.
There
is this statue of St John of Nepomuk on Charles Bridge. He used to be the court
priest of King Wenceslas IV until 1338, when he had been killed by his boss for
treachery. Today a cross and stars mark the exact place where he had been
thrown into the Vltava River from the bridge. The story goes that whatever your
wish, when you touch the cross with your left hand, it will come true. In
previous times countless people in the hope of reforms and a new regime, must
have touched the cross and stars near the statue of St John of Nepomuk on
Charles Bridge.
Even today, nearly any person who trots over the stone
bridge, touches them and hopes for being lucky or healthy or rich or whatever.
I love to look at people and to see how excited and happy everyone gets by
simply touching the cross and the stars. A bit of superstition never
hurt anyone or does it?
Searching for St John of Nepomuk |
Have you ever been to a place as busy as Prague and had despite the
massive crowds such a brilliant time as I had?
From Berlin with love
P.S. Yes, I touched the cross and stars and made a wish.