Tag: Public Transport

Religious Art in Prague and judging by outward appearances

Samuel annointing David as King © Ricky Yates

Not all exterior art and sculpture on Prague buildings, as illustrated in my previous post about Prague architecture, is Greco-Roman in style and only featuring semi-naked figures. It is also possible to find many examples of religious art, usually featuring the Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus, often accompanied by angels. However, the picture on the left shows an artistic relief on the outside of a building which had both Sybille and I mystified for some time as to what it was illustrating.

This relief is on the corner of a building in the heart of Prague which thousands of tourists, as well as city residents, walk past every day. It is in Na Mustku, a street that leads into the bottom of Václavské námestí / Wenceslas Square and adjacent to the major Metro station called Mustek. I think it was about the third time that we stopped and looked up at it that the penny finally dropped – it is an illustration of the Jewish High Priest Samuel, anointing David as King of Israel in succession to Saul.

The Biblical story of how Samuel came to anoint David as the future King of Israel, is to be found in the First Book of Samuel, chapter 16.  God tells Samuel that he is sending him to Bethlehem and that he will indicate to him when he gets there, which one of the sons of a man called Jesse, is to be the next king.

Within the story is one of my favourite verses of scripture. Seven sons of Jesse are lined up to pass before Samuel. The eldest son called Eliab, is tall, strong and good-looking and Samuel thinks to himself, ‘Surely this is the one God has chosen’.

‘But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things human beings look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart”’ 1 Samuel 16. v7, TNIV

The story continues with the other six sons passing before Samuel but with God indicating to him that none of them either, is the one he has chosen to be King. It is only when David, the youngest son of Jesse, is summoned from the fields where he has been tending the sheep, that God clearly points out that here is the future King and Samuel duly anoints him. Whilst I like the artwork illustrated here, I have to say that the artist has made David look little more than a toddler rather than a young man who can tend his father’s sheep!

It is so easy to make judgments about people purely based upon the way they look. Politicians are forever concerned about having the right image otherwise they fear they won’t get elected. In recent years, there has arisen a group of people who style themselves as ‘Image Consultants’, who will help you look and dress in a manner that they assure you will project the ‘right image’, whatever the ‘right image’ is meant to be. Of course, they will also charge you a substantial fee for doing so!

Sadly, many of us do concentrate purely on someone’s outward appearance, the way they appear, rather than finding out who they are and what motivates them. And much as I try to avoid making instant judgments about people based on the way they dress and look, I know that from time to time, I still do so.

Last summer, a lady walked into our Sunday Eucharist a little after the service had begun. Whilst I know that trying to judge a woman’s age is a dangerous occupation, I thought that she was probably somewhere in her fifties. But along with a fairly conservative blouse, she was wearing suede ankle boots, together with a rather short denim skirt. I have to admit that I immediately assumed her to be a visiting tourist who had stumbled upon an open Church and who would disappear again after five to ten minutes. Because we worship in a city centre Church, we do often get people who wander in at the back during services, because the doors are unlocked, and wander out again a few minutes later.

But this lady didn’t disappear – she stayed for the whole service and came forward and received Communion. And afterwards, she joined us for Coffee Hour in the hall on the third floor of Klimentská 18 across the road from the Church. And so it was that I spoke with her over coffee, asking who she was, where came from, and how had she found us.

The reply was delivered in a fairly broad antipodean accent. She was Dawn, from Ballarat, Victoria in Australia. She was touring Europe but was a regular Churchgoer and therefore had put ‘English-speaking Church, Prague’ into Google on Saturday evening, in order to find Christian worship to attend the following day. She told me how much she had enjoyed the service and her only complaint was that our Church website didn’t explain how to get to the Church by public transport. So, courtesy of Dawn, we have now inserted a link to the Prague Public Transport website as part of our ‘How to find us’ instructions, in order to address the issue that she raised.

Dawn also told me that she was going on to visit Turkey, in order to ‘follow in the footsteps of St. Paul’. And before I could say anything, she acknowledged that she knew full well that she would need to dress differently when travelling in rural Turkey. But today was a warm sunny summer’s day in Prague!

I felt duly rebuked after my conversation with Dawn. I had initially, completely misjudged her, purely based on her appearance. But God hadn’t done that – he saw and knew her motives. He did not look on her outward appearance, but instead, saw and understood the thoughts of her heart.

Dawn – if you should ever read this post, I apologise – especially if I misjudged your age! But also, I ask your forgiveness for initially making a judgement based solely on your outward appearance. After all, why shouldn’t a lady in her fifties wear a denim miniskirt with suede ankle boots, if she has the confidence to do so, especially on a warm summer’s day? And as I’ve said previously many times, when speaking to people at the Church door who are busy apologising to me for what they are wearing when coming to Church, “The Lord doesn’t look on the outside, the Lord looks at the heart”.

 

My Prague dislikes and minor irritants

Mindless graffiti in the centre of Prague © Ricky Yates

At the end of my first post of 2011 entitled ‘Why I like living in Prague’, I did say that there were a small number of things that I don’t like about living here but referred to them as ‘minor irritants’. At least two commenters have since remarked that they would really like to know what these things are. So for Karen and Vance, together with everyone else who read that post and thought the same but didn’t leave a comment, here goes!

Mindless graffiti – The picture on the left, together with the two below, illustrate far more clearly what I mean than anything I can write. This is mindless, pointless graffiti. Please don’t let anybody try to tell me that it is art – it isn’t! And sadly, it is very widespread right across Prague.

More mindless graffiti © Ricky Yates

I am well aware that it is a problem that is not unique to Prague – it occurs in very many urban areas around the world. When I lived in the Oxfordshire countryside before I moved to Prague, from time to time I used to travel into London by train. One of the things that always struck me as the train entered the London suburbs was the appearance of graffiti on walls and buildings alongside the railway tracks. In the villages of which I was Rector for over fifteen years, graffiti was virtually unknown.

Here in Prague, graffiti is more commonly seen on walls and buildings which are not in a very good state of repair. It is not often that you see it on newly renovated buildings. But it is rarely far away and it so detracts from nearby beautiful art and architecture. For example, the picture below shows a building in central Prague with a series of attractive mosaic squares on it. But the mindless graffiti underneath completely dissipates the beauty of the artwork.

Beautiful mosaic and pointless graffiti © Ricky Yates

As in the UK, once you leave the city and head out into the countryside, graffiti is rarely seen. Why this should be is a question to which I do not know the answer. Sybille rightly says to me that, rather than just complaining about it and suggesting that the police should do more to try and catch the culprits, one should rather ask what drives people to mindlessly spray or write things on buildings in the first place. Is it boredom, frustration or a feeling of helplessness and an expression of the social ills that there are here in Prague?

What ever the reasons – I do wish that graffiti wasn’t there defacing buildings.

Filthy ashtray © Ricky Yates

Smoking – Unfortunately, the enlightened practice of banning smoking in bars and restaurants that has been introduced by law in many European countries in recent years, has yet to penetrate very far into the life of the Czech Republic. Since the middle of last year, bars and restaurants have been required to display a sign saying whether smoking is allowed everywhere within the premises; or that they have separated areas for smokers and non-smokers; or that smoking is not allowed anywhere within the premises.

In the vast majority of bar –restaurants, particularly small to medium sized ones, most proprietors allow smoking everywhere. Some larger premises do have separate rooms or areas where smoking is allowed and those where it is not allowed. Even in these places, the level of separation often leaves much to be desired. Very few bar-restaurants, with the exception of some of the more upmarket ones in touristy areas, have opted to ban smoking altogether.

Change will eventually come – but it will take some years. In the meantime I have to suffer my clothing smelling of stale tobacco smoke and the unseen but very real dangers of passive smoking.

And now to two things which really can be described as Prague peculiarities or minor irritants.

Clock & timer on a Prague Metro station platform © Ricky Yates

On the left is a picture of a digital clock and timer of a variety that you will see at the end of the platform of every Prague Metro station. At the top is a very accurate clock showing the exact time in hours, minutes and seconds. Underneath is a timer. But instead of counting down to the time when the next train will arrive, it counts upwards telling you instead, how long it is since the last train departed! How absurd. Unless you know the frequency of trains on that line, at that time of day and on that day of the week, the information is useless!

Just for once, the London Underground is better. There you have clear electronic signs saying how many minutes until the next train arrives and what its destination will be as different trains share the same lines in certain places. Would it take that much work to make these timers on the Prague Metro do the same?

The second minor irritant is rather difficult to illustrate with a photograph so I won’t try. Since the middle of 2006, it has been compulsory to have dipped headlights turned on when driving in the Czech Republic, whatever the time of the day or time of the year. Research has shown that driving with dipped headlights during the many dark days of winter does help reduce the occurrence of accidents. However, I fail to see why on earth you need to use them on a bright sunny day in the height of summer. I much prefer the law adopted recently in Croatia which requires you to always use dipped headlights once the clocks have gone back at the end of October each year, until they go forward again at the end of March.

However, the Czech approach to road safety does appear to be somewhat contradictory. Research shows that most road accidents happen at dusk because of the change between daylight and darkness. Yet street lights which help mitigate this problem, never come on just as it is getting dark. Instead, it can sometimes be nearly dark for half an hour before they do. Even on days like today when the sky was very clear, near darkness had descended before they came on. On cloudy days, the situation is inevitably far worse.

Clearly, rather than working off light sensors which would make most sense, streetlights in Prague are turned on by timers, regardless of the level of light. Why do I have to drive with dipped headlights on a bright sunny day in June when the city authorities in Prague cannot turn the streetlights on as soon as it begins to get dark in mid-winter?

The sensible Czech attitude to children and their safety

The Vltava River and Charles Bridge © Ricky Yates

A really pleasant sight here in the Czech Republic is to see children, some probably no more than seven years old, making their way from home to school and back again on their own! They do this on foot or combine it with the use of public transport. It is such a throwback to my own childhood when I too nearly always took myself to primary school either by walking there or travelling on the bus. Yet now in the UK, (and I gather also in the USA and many other western countries), hardly any parents allow this to happen because of fears regarding their children’s safety.

It isn’t just to school and back. Here in Prague, I often see children and young people in the late afternoon or early evening, making their own way back home from their sports club, dancing class or music lesson, also without a parent in sight. And the corollary of this – rarely do I ever see an obese child!

In the past twenty years or so in the UK, there has been a massive rise in concern for the safety of children, both with regard to the amount of traffic on the roads, together with a small number of highly publicised cases of child abduction, resulting in parents now driving their children everywhere. This inevitably compounds the amount of traffic on the roads together with many children getting very little physical exercise.

Another refreshing difference in attitude between the Czech Republic and the UK & USA was very clearly illustrated to us just over a year ago. The 6th December is Svaty Mikuláš/St. Nicholas Day. Each year on the evening of 5th December Svaty Mikuláš Eve, there is a Czech tradition of children dressing up as the Bishop/St. Nicholas, together with other children dressing up as angels and one as a devil. This website explains more.

On the evening of 5th December 2009, we walked around Staromestské námestí/Old Town Square where there were many children dressed up in the Svaty Mikuláš tradition. Most were accompanied by their parents, but what astounded both of us was that these parents were happily encouraging complete strangers to take photographs of their children dressed up in their outfits. In the UK, such is the paranoia about paedophilia that many schools do not even allow parents to take photographs of their own children in school drama productions, for fear of the photographs ending up in the hands of paedophiles.

I do not in any way want to belittle the incredible damage done to children who are abused by paedophiles. But research shows that nearly all child abuse is carried out by adults the children already know, be it their mother’s new boyfriend or a longstanding so-called friend of the family. Very rarely is a child abducted or abused by a complete stranger.

One further relaxed attitude we noticed last summer. On a couple of occasions on my day off when the weather was very hot and sunny, we drove south from Prague to the lake behind the Slapy Dam. Near the little village of Ždán, we visited a grassy ‘beach’ where it is possible to sunbathe and swim in the lake. Here we saw children, some up to seven or eight years old, happily paddling at the water’s edge, totally naked. Shock-horror as far as many Americans are concerned!

It was so nice to see children relaxed and being allowed to play au naturel, without being made to wear something. In particular, not to have little girls made to wear bikini tops to cover non-existent breasts, thus sexualising them before they have even reached puberty.

As far as I am concerned – long may these attitudes and practices continue. Yet sadly, I do see some children being driven to and from school by their mothers in a 4×4, SUV, or ‘Chelsea Tractor’. Mostly these are expat families with children who attend the various international schools here in Prague. But some are wealthy Czechs who, for whatever reason, are beginning to adopt the relatively recent practices of the UK and USA. Sybille has taken to calling such vehicles ‘Bubenec Tractors’, after the nearby suburb where many diplomatic and wealthy Czech families live!

Sadly, there has also been a recent case of a young child called Anna Janatkova, disappearing whilst walking home from school. Because this event is so unusual, it has rightly received a large amount of publicity, unfortunately so far without a positive result.

I do hope that the practices and attitudes I have described in this blogpost, do continue and that increasing affluence and this recent extremely rare case of a child disappearing, do not bring about unwanted change. Because what I observe, are children who have a far greater degree of self-confidence than I see in many British children. And children who, almost without exception, are not overweight.

Why I like living in Prague

St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague photographed from Petrín Hill on New Year's Day 2011 © Ricky Yates

“Do you like living in Prague?” This is a question I’m frequently asked by Czech people once they discover that I’m not a tourist but that I’ve actually chosen to live and work here. Many Czechs cannot understand why someone from Western Europe might actually want to come and permanently reside in their country.

The same question is also frequently posed by English-speaking visitors who join us for worship at St. Clement’s Anglican Episcopal Church and by family and friends when they write or speak with me. So for my first post of 2011, I’m going to set out some of the reasons why I enjoy living particularly here in Prague and more widely in the Czech Republic. Some of these I’ve mentioned in previous posts so there are an inevitable number of links to things I’ve written previously in this blog.

Metro station at Jirího z Podebrad © Ricky Yates

Public Transport

Prague has the most wonderful public transport system consisting of buses, trams, the Metro and even a number of little ferries. Why is it wonderful? Because it is:

Incredibly cheap – Last week, Sybille and I went to renew our annual season tickets for the Prague public transport system. It cost each of us 4750 Kc – at current exchange rates, just over £160.00 / €193.00 / US$250.00. For this sum we can travel anywhere in Prague, at any time, for a whole year! The Church reimburses me for my season ticket – we just have to pay for Sybille’s.

Escalator on the Prague Metro © Ricky Yates

Integrated – Each part of the system links to the other. At Dejvicka, the current terminal of the A/Green line of the Metro and the nearest Metro station to our flat, you walk out of the station and immediately in front of you is place where buses depart to take you out further into the suburbs or to the airport. The Dopravní podnik hravního mesta Prahy or dpp for short, have a wonderful website that speaks Czech, English and German. Put in the starting point of your journey and your destination, the time you either want to start or arrive and then click. Out comes a journey plan with times, where to transfer from one form of transport to another, etc.

Frequent – If you know where you are going and you are travelling on a weekday between 07.00 and 19.00, there is no real need to visit the dpp website. Once you reach your point of departure you will only need to wait a few minutes at the most. Even on Sunday mornings, there is a tram every twenty minutes which will take us from the Podbaba tram terminus near our flat, all the way to Dlouhá Trída, just around the corner from St. Clement’s Church.

Reliable – there is a timetable and nearly always, it is adhered to. Sometimes buses and trams do get delayed by other vehicular traffic, but usually only at peak periods. And when it snows, everything keeps running – it doesn’t grind to a halt as in Britain.

It isn’t just within the city of Prague. The Czech Republic, along with Slovakia, has the densest rail network of any country in the whole of Europe. One member of my congregation lives in Milovice, about 50 km from the centre of Prague. But in 45 minutes, he can travel by train into the city centre and then have a 10 minute walk to Church. I don’t exactly know what his rail fare is for the return journey but he assures me it is extremely reasonable.

Bar-Restaurace U Topolu © Ricky Yates

Eating and Drinking

Prague has an abundance of bar-restaurants. And provided you avoid the expensive tourist traps in the city centre, ‘eating out’ can be remarkably inexpensive. As I’ve written previously, some single people tell me that it is often cheaper for them to ‘eat out’ rather than buy food from the supermarket and cook for themselves.

Half a litre of Kozel beer © Ricky Yates

The photo on the left is of U Topolu which, since it’s refurbishment in July 2010, has become our favourite local place to eat and drink. A main course here, even with a side dish, costs no more than 150 Kc / £5.00. The quality is excellent and portions are generous.

The further great attraction at U Topolu is the beer. As well as Pilsner Urquell and Gambrinus, they have Kozel beer, directly from the tank. It is light, fresh and costs 26 Kc for half a litre. In British terms that is under £1.00 a pint! What more do I need to say?

Architecture and Buildings

As I’ve previously written, Prague suffered remarkably little structural damage during the Second World War. And whilst many historical buildings suffered years of neglect during the Communist era, since 1989, great effort has been put into restoration. What is really pleasing is how well restoration work has been done.

Restored building in Vinohrady © Ricky Yates

This photograph is of a building just around the corner from where my dentist has her surgery in the suburb of Vinohrady. It consists of residential flats on four floors with retail outlets on the ground floor level. But as you can see, all the intricate detail above the windows on each level has been lovingly restored, together with the ironwork that forms the railings to each balcony. Likewise, the render on the outside of the building has been repaired before being attractively painted.

These buildings are typical of those which form much of the inner suburbs of Prague. Yes – there are still ones like these that are crumbling. But increasingly they are a minority. And rather than wholesale demolition, buildings like these are being preserved and their interiors sympathetically modernised.

I could write and illustrate several blog posts about the architecture of Prague which I promise I will do during the coming months. But for the time being, just let me say that walking the streets of the centre of Prague, together with the inner city suburbs, is always a delight to the eyes.

Not too big but not too small

Prague only has a population of about 1.3 million people. Therefore, as cities go, it is relatively small meaning that the nearby countryside can be easily reached. Yet because it is the capital of the Czech Republic, (10.3 million population), it has all the assets and facilities of a capital city.

There are many more things that I could list as to why I like living here in Prague, but this post is probably long enough already. And yes – there are also a small number of things that I don’t like. But they are minor irritants compared to the joy of living in this delightful city.

Winter comes early to Prague

Riverside Primary School in the snow © Ricky Yates

This winter will be the third one we have spent in Prague. In both 2008 and 2009, we had a dusting of snow before Christmas which soon rapidly melted. In both years, the really serious snow which settled and remained unmelted on the ground, didn’t arrive until January. However, this year, the snow has come early and hasn’t gone away since!

This winter, the first snow started falling during the night Sunday 28th – Monday 29th November. On the morning of Monday 29th November, I was booked to conduct assembly for Riverside Primary School which fortunately is located not far from the Chaplaincy flat. Normally, I hop in the car and drive there. Seeing the snow, I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and took the bus instead. Unlike in Britain, public transport in Prague doesn’t grind to a halt as soon as snow falls!

As it was the day after Advent Sunday, I spoke to the children about the Advent season and how we can use it to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ. I also explained why Advent had begun the previous day and not on Wednesday 1st December when every commercial Advent calendar producer thinks it does! Here are the school children enjoying their break time out in the snowy playground immediately following my assembly. I’m sorry that the picture is a bit grey and grainy – it was still snowing when I took it!

My Renault Scenic in the snow © Ricky Yates

The snow continued to fall leaving large accumulations. The photo above shows the front of my car twenty-four hours later.

Overhanging snow & loose downpipe © Ricky Yates

Last week, we did have a couple of days when the temperature rose above 0 degrees and some of the snow began to melt. Besides causing some lying snow to turn to slush underfoot, a far more serious problem was accumulations of snow suddenly sliding off roofs and landing on unsuspecting individuals below.

I took this photo from our office in the Chaplaincy flat, looking across to the neighbouring block of flats which has recently been completed as part of the fourth and final stage of the Podbaba development. As you can see, a serious amount of snow is about to come off the roof! The sheer amount of snow also dislodged a piece of downpipe which has since crashed to the ground, along with the snow.

Then, just as I thought that all of the snow would melt, the temperature dropped below freezing again and earlier this week, yet more snow fell. The accumulation of snow hasn’t quite reached the proportions experienced in January this year, but it is rapidly heading in that direction.

In the midst of all this snow, life continues quite normally. Up the hill, behind the Podbaba flats complex, is a sports stadium. It is the home of Dukla Praha football team who currently are top of the Czech second division. Sensibly in view of the weather, they are currently on an extended mid-winter break and, having last played on Sunday 7th November, they are not due to play again until early in March 2011.

The football pitch is surrounded by a running track together with a variety of all-weather pitches and facilities. The stadium is also used for other events. Quite what event was being staged there last Tuesday evening I do not know? But what ever it was, it ended with a spectacular firework display. The Czechs seem to need little excuse for having a firework display and clearly, a serious amount of lying snow wasn’t going to stop them!

Firework display at the Dukla Praha Stadium © Ricky Yates