Five-sense Saturday

This post was almost named "Nutty November" because BW and I got about half the sleep we should have during this very busy month. Part of me is exhausted for it, but most of me is grateful for the new opportunities we've had. As the old adage "stop and smell the roses" goes, I'm thinking about all the things my sense have enjoyed during these last vestiges of Fall.

TOUCHED...

...a lot of fake mustaches. I directed and produced our school's play, the Russian satire "The Government Inspector" by Nikolai Gogol, at Theater Na Pradle. It was a riotous success, a ton of fun and incredibly well-acted; the kids were professionals. So thankful for the talented pair of friends who built/painted the set, the mom who made many of the costumes and a whole host of other people who chipped in to help! (photos by our school director)

TASTED...

...Thanksgiving sushi! We worked Thanksgiving Day and couldn't manage to do a proper dinner, so we threw propriety to the wind and took ourselves out for an uni-tamago-tobiko-hamachi treat.

...a "gingerbread" muffin from Costa Coffee that actually tasted like maple, save for a spot of ginger jam in the middle. Nonetheless, I happily scarfed it down. I rarely get káva s sebou (coffee to go) and this was a nice treat to start a full 11-hour Saturday of schoolwork.  

... the homemade Czech foods svíčková (beef with cream sauce and dumplings) and ovocné knedlíky (fruit dumplings). It was for a competition BW did with the kids where they had to film themselves shopping at a local market and then making traditional regional food. Fingers crossed that they win!

HEARD...

...only Czech on a backstage tour of the Estates Theater, where Mozart premiered Don Giovanni in 1787. (It's a bit more hi-tech now.) Scotswoman and I theater-hopped for Prague's Noc Divadel (Theater Night), where the city open loads of its stages for free. We even scored passes to the Prague Quadrennial theater scenography festival in June.

SAW...

...a good friend try on wedding dresses for her July nuptials. I learned that in the Czech Republic, you can rent wedding dresses; what a novel idea! This needs to catch on in the U.S. If you don't care about keeping your dress, it's loads more cost effective.

SMELLED...

...the crisp Fall air, laced with woodfire and svařák (hot wine) and trdelník (cylindrical sweet pastry). And Christmas markets are starting to open... my heart is shaking its pom-poms!

via Pinterest

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25 years later in Prague

It's hard to believe only 25 years ago brutal totalitarianism ruled here in former Czechoslovakia.

One friend of ours tells stories about spending a huge chunk of his monthly income on bootleg black market cassette tapes of Western music - even with the risk of being caught. Another friend relays that her grandmother hid a bottle of French perfume in a hole in the wall for decades and dabbed a little on during the holidays. A former landlord told of being forced to become a Math teacher in university because his mother was a Catholic; he was at the top of his class and had wanted to study medicine.

And of course many have far more horrific accounts of life under Communism, such as the people whose pictures and stories were on display last weekend near Prague's National Theater.

Although the past is painful, this Nov. 17 marked a beautiful and moving day of celebration in Central Prague, to honor Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day.

The day, originally called International Students' Day, first commemorated a Nov. 17, 1939, student demonstration against Nazism. In revenge, Nazis executed 9 demonstrators and declared all Czech universities closed for three years. 

Fifty years later, students honoring the victims in a peaceful demonstration were attacked by Communist riot police. The event sparked hundreds of thousands of people to take to the streets and mobilize the Velvet Revolution, which led to the fall of Communism here.

We missed the parade but saw the confetti and many people carrying signs around, such as the Slovenian gal above. Below, someone had set up a 1980s-era Czech living room that you could take photos in. (Interesting how it was so "behind the times".)

As evening fell, the glow of the candles from attendees because even more luminous. This flickering strip was outside of the building where a famous plaque commemorating the Velvet Revolution is hung; the wait to get inside the building stretched for blocks and it was bursting with candles, as well. The street that's outside the building is where Communist police beat student demonstrators.

There were a lot of interesting artifacts and bits of information laying around, such as this collage showing what life was like under Communism vs. what it's like now.

This was apparently a holding cell, and the sign on it announces a human light chain starting there at 5 p.m.

There were a couple of places where you could try your hand at graffiti...

...and plenty more where you could leave notes and messages.

There were also a number of music stages, including these old trams that had DJs and bands playing in them.

By 5 p.m., the human chain came together and it was heart-stopping. Just indescribable.

Linking this post up with Bonnie, Cynthia, Yalanda and Courtney. Sorry the post doesn't follow the prompt, ladies; this one was time-sensitive and extra-special :)

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Democracy: A reason to celebrate

We get Monday off this week. Sure, yeah, it's lovely to get a free day, but that's not why
I'm eagerly anticipating it.

Monday is the 25th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, the end to 41 years of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. It "officially" started when violent riot police attacked a peaceful student demonstration in Prague; citizens took to the streets and in a few days, half a million people swelled through the city, demanding democracy. Some poignant and powerful photography:

The students lit candles and chanted ''we have bare hands'' - i.e. that they were unarmed. But riot police sealed off escape routes before attacking them. - From Radio Free Europe

The demonstrations grew rapidly. On November 19, riot police blocked a bridge to prevent protestors marching to Prague Castle, the seat of the Czechoslovak president. - From Radio Free Europe

Non-violent protesters filled the streets. - From Havel at Columbia

On November 24, the crowds had grown to 300,000. Vaclav Havel, a dissident playwright and former political prisoner, addressed the massive crowd from a balcony overlooking Wenceslas Square. He became President when Communism fell. - From Radio Free Europe

If you're in or around Prague, Expats.cz has posted a helpful list of things to do and see relative to this monumental day.

Also, Prague blogger Ricky Yates wrote an exceptional post about commemorating the Velvet Revolution on its 20th anniversary here.

On a related note, a Prague Maidan protest we saw in Old Town Square last weekend coincided (purposefully, I'm sure) with the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution.

Saying prayers for peace and stability in Crimea, and looking forward to celebrating the beauty of democracy here in the Autumnal Czech Republic.

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Questions for Ms. Venice

We took two marvelous-yet-foot-weary trips to Venice during our stay in the Friuli region of Italy; it was only a hour's train ride away from Pordenone, where we stayed.

Lord Byron, who lived in Venice with his mistress and a small zoo of monkeys and birds, called Venice "a fairy city of the heart." Yes, I know the Brits love Byron, but his Romantic-era sappiness doesn't do it for me. (Fairy city?)

Conversely, a guidebook we read personified Venice as a fancy Madame welcoming you with one hand while slipping the other in your pocket. Now that is an adept description. If Venice really was a dame, these are the questions I'd ask her (and, yes, some are rhetorical):

Q: Are you really going to sink into oblivion? We read that you're settling into the water at a rate of 2mm more per year.

Q. Could your markets BE any more stellar? We could have spent hours in them with all the Venetians buying their seafood and produce.

Q: Does everyone dry their laundry this way?

Q: We heard you're trying to get rid of the pigeons, which were brought in by the Hapsburgs. Really? They make the squares so idyllic! (But we do concede BW's backpack got pooped on.)

Q: Do you think a cicheti (Venetian tapas bar) would fly in Prague? Glasses of wine and mini-sandwiches/seafood snacks for a euro each is brilliant.

Q: What's up with all the kids climbing on statues?

Q: Is it possible to take a bad picture in your environs? Stunning backdrops abound.

Q: Why do your gondoliers all look like they stepped out of a Tag Heuer or Montblanc ad? Is that a prerequisite for getting the job?

Q: Has anyone fainted in your churches from being overwhelmed by their beauty? 

Q: How can you tell the authentic food from the bogus stuff? We sat down at a pizzeria and it was definitely the frozen variety; another night we had homemade goods for roughly the same price.

Q: Where do we get there from here?  (We were lost dozens of times and asked ourselves that repeatedly.) Like Ma W jokingly asked, "How do we get from point A to point B without hitting C, D and E?"

Q: You have so. many. windows. Is it a fashion or function thing?

Q. And most importantly of all... WHEN CAN WE COME BACK?!

Linking up with the Sunday Traveler and the bloggers above! (Click on the icon to visit them.)

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