Notes on the trip to Aojie
- Impressions of Prague
Author: Cheng Zheng
This visit to Prague lasts about a day and a half, in addition to some scenic spots, it is to walk on the streets paved with small ashlar stones with potholes, shuttle through the new city, the old town, the small town, and the castle district, and feel the history, culture, architectural style and atmosphere of Prague.
The people live on food. On the first day, we enjoyed homemade beer and pork knuckle in a private tavern. The taste of yellow beer and dark beer is pure, but unfortunately I dare not drink it when I blush after a few sips. A roast pork knuckle for two people is too real, making people eat crookedly. The roast chicken at noon the next day tasted delicious; Dinner was in the unique shape of the "dancing house", in the white wine and cod, listening to the group talk about the experience of traveling around the world. Walking through the streets, there are restaurants and bars everywhere on the roadside, and we notice that there are almost no dishes on the table, and we can chat with friends with a beer. The sense of slowing down here also contributes to the local food culture.
In the limited time, we visited St. Vitus Cathedral, listened to the guide talk about the religious and dynastic changes here, and watched the sun shine through the window of the artist Mucha, and the sacred colors poured into the church and reflected on the walls, as if time had frozen there, as if it had been centuries ago.
Cross the bridgehead and walk up to the Charles Bridge, where the oldest sculpture is famous. There are many tourists on the bridge, plus hawkers, so it is not lively. Together with the statues and passers-by, we overlooked the Vltava River flowing silently below.
Prague is dotted with Gothic, Romanesque and Charlotte churches. The beautiful houses and towers with red roofs and white walls have made Prague known as the "City of a Hundred Spires", which makes me feel the warmth and tranquility of the Prague style even if I don't know about architecture.
My favorite place is Prague's Old Town Square. Because the hotel is not far from the square, so the square is also the place where we turned left and right in the past two days, and we have been unable to get around, and we have almost measured it in all directions.
Every hour on the hour, the square city hall is crowded with people under the astronomical clock. Under the scorching sun, people craned their heads and craned their necks to watch the rotation of the time-signaling mechanism. As the puppeteers of the twelve apostles of Jesus flash one by one and the skeletons pull the brass bells, in the crowing of roosters, we witness the interweaving of the present time and the centuries.
In the evening, a few of us sat on the steps of the pedestal of the statue of Jan Hus in the center of the square, watching the sunset in the west caress the church spire; Look at the people coming and going in the square, or a family walking by, pushing a baby carriage; or citizens strolling leisurely with pet dogs; Or a passer-by who takes a photo like us. In front of a little girl about ten years old, she lightly did a few empty-handed flips in front of her family, threw off a slipper, picked it up, put it on and continued to flip, and threw it out again; A gentleman sat directly on the steps below us. I thought he was sitting idly like us, but it turned out that my friend below was taking pictures of him and the statue, and we naturally couldn't avoid it, so it became the background of his photo...... It was almost nine o'clock, and it was still not very dark, and the lights were not yet on. The days here are long, and it feels like you've been in Xinjiang.
The tour operator was not very well booked and gave us a lot of free time to wander around. I like this way of walking slowly in a place where the rhythm is slow, blending in with the city, being a quiet passerby, and watching the daily life of the locals.
About author:CHENG Zheng, female, former executive principal of Beijing Shangdi Experimental School.