The Narodni Divadlo and Laterna Magika

The Narodni Divadlo and Laterna Magika

When I was on my hiking trip the other week with my work, I was caught up in a discussion with one of my co-workers. Evidently he was a dancer, and enjoying the finer arts as I do, I asked if I could catch one of his shows. Naturally, I thought it would just be at some local theatre.

So when he invited me to his performance at the Narodni Divadlo, I was understandably surprised.

The Narodni Divadlo is one of the top performance halls in Prague. This was no small burrito. This was a massive Chipotle-sized bean-filled monster of dance and theatre.

the People's Theatre or National Theatre: an eternal struggle for translators

The Narodni Divadlo is divided into two parts. The original part and the “new stage”. They’re quite easy to tell apart, as one is perhaps one of the finest examples of neo-Renaissance architecture and art in all of Europe. It was built in the late 1800s as a national theatre, that is to say, as one that was dedicated to the Czech nation, where the Czech language would be the primary language of performance.

Nation and state weren’t the same things back then, as this was all under the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Nation was more of a concept regarding a people that were united by language, religion, and culture, but not necessarily state. In the nineteenth century, this became a very important idea, as many nations were beginning to feel under-represented by their imperial overlords and were pushing for independence. This was especially true of the Czechs.

Narodni Divadlo, looking down the street along the river

Having a theatre dedicated to performances in the Czech language was a rather huge thing back then, as for the thousand years under much of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Holy Roman Empire, Czech language had been for the most part suppressed, in large favor of the German language. In the 1800s, the Czech language had been having something of a renaissance, with a series of phenomenal Czech artists and writers coming to the forefront of the European art scene.

the roof of the divadlo

The idea of the Narodni Divadlo wasn’t always kosher for the rulers of Prague and Bohemia though, as the expression of Czech nationalism oftentimes pushed them towards two very dangerous movements in regards to the Empire: independence and pan-Slavism. If you take a stroll around the Narodni Divadlo, you can see those pan-Slavic sentiments, as many of the Slavic tales are told through the paintings that decorate the palatial complex, many reminiscent of Alphonse Mucha’s own Slavic Epic. Which makes sense, as Mucha was very much part of this movement.

Narodni Divadlo next to its companion "New Stage"

My friend wasn’t playing in that epically beautiful building. His troupe was operating out of the New Stage. The troupe, called the Laterna Magika, had its beginnings in the 50s as the world’s first multimedia theatrical performance, using computers, projections, and so on to interact with the stage and the audience. The founder, Joseph Svoboda, brought the troupe to Brussels, wowed the world at a theatrical exposition, and soon became a staple of the Czech theatrical diet. His Laterna Magika was the first to experiment with various lighting effects, like black light, which has become a regular effect on the tourist theater scene, but it was originally done by Svoboda’s group.

the entry to the New Stage

In the 80s, Laterna Magika was able to push for its own building. They built the New Stage--a horrendously and profoundly ugly building--attached to the beautiful Narodni Divadlo. The New Stage is part of the National Theatre and operates under its auspices. It’s just incredibly curious how such an incredibly ugly building came into being. With such buildings, I’m always left to wonder if the architect ever stood back and was proud of his creation, or did he turn up his trench coat collar and try to sneak out the back of a room filled with angry and confused people.

O beauty! Thine form knowest many faces! Or not.

Today, Laterna Magika runs a mix of new modern and bizarre visual works, as well as one or two staples from Svoboda’s original repertoire. My friend invited us to watch him dance in the production of Wonderful Circus, which falls under the latter category.

Beautiful buildings everywhere! Except here.

He met us at Café Nona, which is a café/bar that serves as a regular event place for live music and exhibitions itself and is literally directly underneath the stage. Our friend brought us into the middle stairwell though, and then showed us throughout the backstage. We got to see the corridors, green rooms, and make up rooms, and then up the stairs that led to the backstage itself. Then we got to hang out on the stage, soaking in the view that the actors and dancers regularly took, sans the blinding light.

the player's view

We then left him so he could get ready. We had a quick beer in the bar and then made our way to our seats, the show was about to begin.

The Wonderful Circus involves four main characters, with a small stew of backups. The story follows a sad clown and happy clown as they look upon a nude Venus who seems to be under a weird control of a guy who’s kind of like a director, but is also a lion tamer and photographer. The clowns fall in love with Venus, but for the most part she’s under control of the possibly evil photographer guy. The clowns at times save her, but then the photographer guy saves her. It’s also possible that the photographer guy is the protagonist, and perhaps it’s the clowns that are evil, but its impossible to tell since Venus seems to like them all. I suppose she’s kind of a metaphor for the stereotypical Czech girl… woah!

the stage is set for the Wonderful Circus

The stage is bare, except for a white curtain that surrounds it. A projector is used with various images and motion pictures to set the scene, making way for a hot air balloon ride, swimming, running down roads, and first-person puppeteering. All around it’s an entirely novel and neat part of the production. It also allows for the clowns and lion taming photographer to be at once real, and then at another time going behind the curtain and “appearing” on the projector, where they can swim, or do any other number of things in pre-acted scenes.

the props wait backstage

The play is for kids, but does feature a bunch of nude paintings, so I’m guessing Americans might not appreciate the show in entirety for their children, as we come from a land where a past Secretary of Justice once covered up the boob of a statue of the Lady of Justice.

the curtain's up, get ready!

So if you’re in Prague, definitely check out the Wonderful Circus or one of the Laterna Magika productions. It’s really a unique event and are quite affordable. And if you’re not a prude, quite family friendly as well. Tickets and times, along with the other Laterna Magika shows, can be found at this site.

#Prague #touristicsites #theatre

The City of Rocks

As the season winds down, I thought it fitting to put one last episode of trekking up. It’s not quite too cold to go for some walks outside, and the leaves are still hanging on, all gold, yellow, and red. That means for the shorter and lighter day walks around Prague, it’s all still perfect, especially on any day like today, full of sunshine and blue skies.

Granted, when we went out, it wasn’t sunshine and blue skies, but bear with me. It was cloudy, gloomy, and on-and-off rain, weather a bit more typical for the Czech Republic. But it still made for a wonderful hike, with many a great vista and view. Which is not hard to do in Cesky Raj, or "Bohemian Paradise."

it's clear why this is a paradise

Cesky Raj is one of the best places to go for walks near Prague. It’s full of weird rock formations—what they call “Rock Town”, or Hruba Skala—great views, a massive underground lake at Bozkov, most excellent rock climbing, and half a dozen castles. You can literally hike from castle to castle, and with a full day’s hike, maybe get three castles, possibly even four, in.

leaves and rocks, what's not to like?

For our walk, again we based everything off of the (free) app, mapy.cz, which is an open source map where thousands of Czechs have kindly enough put up their favorite walks, hikes, and bikes, which means just about every bit of trail has a place on the GPS-powered app. I can’t stress it enough how useful it is (not just in the Czech Republic, but also in all of Europe).

Since we were hiking in the fall, our target was mainly to find vistas for admiring the foliage changes. This meant the park Hruboskalsko would be our destination. We drove to Hruba Skala Castle first and parked our car there. There’s some street food places around there as well, if you’re hungry for a quick bite or need a pre-hike beer.

Hruba Skala Castle

Hruba Skala Castle is also a hotel. So yes, you can stay in a castle for the night if you’re so inclined. There’s also a hostel next door, for the more budget conscience, but it’s not in an historic part of the complex.

Hruba Skala Castle

The original castle was built sometime in the 14th century, though most of the Gothic style construction dates to about the 17th century. The heavily fortified complex is perched high up on the rocks, with cliffs on three sides, and entry limited to two moats and bridges. I’m assuming at least one of those bridges was a draw bridge back in the day, making the castle nearly impenetrable.

The castle saw heavy action during the 30-Year War. When the resident duke was assassinated in another town, it was left under a lack of leadership. First the imperial Austrian troops sacked it, then the Swedes stationed their army there, and then it was taken back by the Austrians.

the inner courtyard of Hruba Skala

After the war and the collapse of the noble family that owned it, the Wallansteins, it was sold to the Aerenthals, who had a penchant for converting castles into beautiful chateaus, which is where the present style comes in. The chateau was one of the Aerenthal’s main residences, and was even the birthplace of the most famous member of their family, Alois Lexa, who was the mastermind behind the Austrian annexation of Bosnia and Herzogovina. So well done for legacy, Hruba Skala, your beautiful and romantic setting is almost responsible for starting World War I.

easy to conceive with a view like that

After World War II, the Aerenthal’s, being Austrian, which is to say, German, were kicked out of Czechoslovakia as revenge for being German, and the Communist government took over the estate. These days, the castle is now a hotel, hostel, spa, restaurant, ropes course, and parking lot. You read that right, there’s a ropes course around the outer moat. Cool place to swing around in the trees.

The City of Rocks

The walk begins there. From there, we descended down these steep rock steps that went down a narrow passage between two massive stone columns, and at times this passage was more of a cave or tunnel.

into the City of Rocks

Down, down, down we went, and we emerged into what was like a forest of stone, giant sandstone pillars piercing into the sky all around us, as though they themselves served as the battlements of an even grander castle than Hruba Skala.

the giant rock houses of the city

The hike continued winding its way around and through the rock formations, and then finally emerged to a countryside walk alongside one or two remote pensions.

one of the rock tunnels in "the city"

Then finally for the views. The rock formations that we walked through, and others like it, were now visible, providing majestic autumnal views from nearly 360-degree vistas, themselves mounted on more of the weird and alien formations.

the view everyone comes for

Because of those rocks, the area is quite famous for rock climbing, and I imagine in the summer there must be swarms of climbers going up one pillar or another. As it was, the only evidence of this was one or two informational plaques about one famous climber or another.

views everywhere

The trail can continue on to Castle Valdstejn, which is another massive fortress overlooking the town of Turnov. But as we got a late start hiking, and the weather was looking to turn, we decided to take the bend rather than go on to the castle. If you’ve time, definitely go for the visit, as it’s a full on 14th century ruin, with part of it restored as a museum. We’ve had our share of castle museums though, so we weren't too dismayed about missing it. It does look pretty impressive, and it’s super close to Prague, so we might update you guys with a visit in the Spring.

looking back up

On the way back, we took a lower route, where we were looking up at the rock towers for the most part, rather than looking down from them. The route finally climbed up the rocks again, now with a view of the valley and the more distant Trosky Castle, which is a complete ruin and is mounted on a high hill in the distance. If you start early, and from either Trosky or Valdstejn, it is entirely manageable to do all three castles in one day. But we started quite late and the weather was bad, so that was that.

Trosky Castle

For more trekking ideas around Prague, check out my last blog and take in a few tips.

#Prague #hiking #nature #castles #traveltips #touristicsites #hotels

Trekking in Czechia

It was certainly a terrible time to go hiking in the mountains.

Though I guess they’re not really mountains, just the best that Czechia has to offer. It’s still a sight, but not the mind-numbing craggy peaks of the Alps or the Caucasus. It makes for a great day trek out of Prague though, for those here longer term and needing a breath of air outside the city. The area where I’m referring to is Krkonossky national park, but there are loads of beautiful nature walks all through the Czech Republic.

Perfect hiking weather

Tools of the Trade

Before I get into my own journey, here’s a few good tools to have if you want to make your trekking easy and painless.

The best thing I can think of, perhaps even better than driving, is to take the mass transit out of Prague. Take a train or a bus to your preferred hiking location. For that, it’s best to have Google Maps and an Internet connection. Google Maps for the most part, will refer to you what bus or train agency you’ll need. The two most common are Student Agency for the buses and Cesky Drahy for the trains, both of which have apps with booking and schedules.

The second part is to figure out where exactly you’ll be hiking.

typical scene in a northern Czech village

Czechia, and by extension, most of Europe, has loads of well paved hiking and biking paths, wrapped in a web across the Continent. Many of these paths can be found on Google Maps, but for the most part, they exist only in a shadow realm, reserved for the locals who know where they are and go. But there are some apps that have worked to reveal these spidery networks, and Mapy.cz, an easy-to-use open source map based off OpenStreetMaps, is one of them. The app is available in English, and works basically like Google Maps, but doesn't only focus on roads and mass transit, but also on biking and walking routes. It works with your GPS too, so you can follow along and see the easiest way to make your route.

the Bohemian countryside is full of streams and forests

Thus, armed with the transit maps and schedules and the trail maps, you’re ready for your countryside adventuring. Find a trail, find the nearest train station for the start and finish and go. Also, lucky for you, if you go by train stations, you don’t even have to make reservations. Just show up for the trains.

Where are the best places to hike in Czechia?

Of course, you’ll get different answers for that question. But if you’re in Prague, then here’s a short list. I’ve linked each of them to Google Maps:

• Ceske Svycarsko – also known as Czech Switzerland, famous for its rock formations

• Krkonossky Mountains – this range is on the border of Poland and hosts Czech’s highest peak, Snezka

• Cesky Raj – “Czech Paradise”, offers some beautiful valley hiking and forests

• Kokorinsky Dul – Where Houska Castle, the Pit to Hell, sits

• Krivoklatsko – Hiking with some great medieval castle views

• Sumava – Sort of mountains for those who can’t quite make it to Austria, plus Lipno Lake!

This is by no means and exhaustive list, just the best ones I know about and are easy enough to get to from Prague.

Hiking Up Snezka

We went as a work retreat. I work with Lipa Learning, a Czech children’s education company, making kids’ education games for the global market, and this was our yearly teambuilding event. I have half a mind thinking that perhaps the CEO just wanted to test us and see who really wanted to stick around, and that was the primary intention of the “teambuilding”. It wasn’t easy. But hardship binds people together, right?

real hikers use cable cars

We arrived at Pec pod Snezkou, which is a resort town snuggled away in the hills of the Krkonossky. If you’re wanting to hike the highest peak in Czechia, Snezka, this is probably the best place to start. There’s a cable car that can take you halfway or all the way up, depending on the weather, or you can do it yourself. It’s a steep jaunt, but it’s really not that high. At 1,602 meters, it barely hits the base altitude of the Rockies.

the view from the halfway point

The cable car is cheap enough, and if you’re in for the jaunt we did, it’s probably best to take it halfway. We got off there and decided that the weather was so terrible that, why not, let’s continue going! So then we finished the second leg of the journey, caught in the cold clouds and whipping winds. At the top there’s some heating huts, with cafes and bars, serving hot wine and liquors to warm up your bones again.

I was hoping we’d go back the same way. Short and easy. But our benevolent organizers instead decided to take us down the other side of the mountain, to a small café in Poland. Then we hiked across what seemed endless miles of tundra, and back down to Spindleruv Mlyn.

the weather doesn't get better than this!

The nature in the area was actually really interesting. Despite being so low in altitude, the ridges are completely devoid of trees, making an area quite like the Arctic tundra. The land is spongy and marshy, with long wood paths built over the high mountain marshes. There are pubs and guesthouses along the way, so it’s even possible to easily overnight on the trail, with a full belly and drinking experience at night. Now that’s what I call trekking!

the tastefully named "Pair of Deer" beer from a mountain microbrewery

Old Man of the Mountains

When you hiked around the area, or just visit it, you'll notice a small statue just about everywhere. There's a story behind this guy.

In the local folklore, there’s an old mountain spirit that roams the parts, named Krkonos in Czech or Rubezahl in German. Long ago, Rubezahl kidnapped a German princess. Living there in the mountains, the princess would get quite lonely and Rubezahl wanted to please her. So he’d take turnips and turn them into people. But the turnips would wilt, as would the people, so the princess would be left alone again. The princess asked Rubezahl to instead count the turnips, and while he was counting, she made a run for it. Rubezahl thus comes from the German words meaning “turnip counter”. He himself doesn’t like the name though, and prefers “Lord of the Mountains”, naturally.

Krkonos, or Rubezahl

These days though, you don’t have to worry about being kidnapped by the old goblin, though you do see him everywhere. The locals love to carve his likeness into trees and statues and he serves as a replacement garden gnome of the area.

How to Get There

To Pec pod Snezkou, you’d just take a train to Trutnov and catch the local bus to Pec. The direct train leaves at 8:07. There are also Student Agency buses to Trutnov.

To or from Spindleruv Mlyn is quite a bit easier. There’s a Student Agency bus from Prague. Or you can take a local KAD bus to Vrchlabi and pick up the train home. The last city bus is at 5:00 pm and the last Student Agency bus is at 5:45 pm, so plan accordingly. It might even be best to stay at a bed and breakfast and head out in the morning. If you enjoyed this blog, make sure to check out my book, A Facetious Guide to Prague, available now on Amazon:

#nature #hiking #traveltips #parks