Prague Without The Trains or the Cameraphone

Here's another shot of the parkland around the Vysehrad Metro station.

The Corinthia Towers hotel is so close to the Metro that it's almost integrated with it. I saw the opportunity to compose this shot with the flagpoles, but now that I have the image in my computer I'm noticing that the fog was really, really thick. It's so dominant in this photo, in fact, that it takes a few seconds to tell if it's color or black and white.

Therefore.....given that my other shot is hard to distinguish from a black and white photo, I made this version black and white. I think that in the end it's the better photo, although I could be mistaken.

If these aren't maple leaves, please correct me. :-) I don't know a whole lot about trees. :-) Anyway, while I was walking around Vysehrad, I saw the opportunity to get this closeup, as well as a few others that I haven't posted. I think this is the best of them.

This is a park adjacent to the Ustredni Vojenske Archiv, or Military Archives, in Ceskomoravska, Prague. Remembering this park from other occassions when I've been in the neighborhood, I decided to take some Fall foliage shots here.

I don't know who this statue is of, but it faces the Ustredni Vojenske Archiv in Ceskemoravska, if that's any help.

This is the large, Baroque (I think), and tragically rundown Ustredni Vojenske Archiv, or Central Military Archives, building in Ceskomoravska, Prague. I've never done any of my historical research here, and I don't even know if it's still in use, but it's still occupied, so I assume that it is.

Here's another shot of the archives.

Pod Okrajem has streetsigns, but it's so narrow and peaceful that it more closely resembles a bike path. As far as I know, it is in fact closed to non-service auto traffic.

Here's a shot of how green, or in this case, multicolored, Pod Okrajem can be from all the trees and leaves.

In spite of the popularity of Czech pub names starting with "U," meaning "at," "near," or "by" in Czech, U Novaku is actually a clothing store, and the building houses many other stores as well.

Palac Koruna is a very elaborate art deco (basically) building at the Mustek end of Vaclavske Namesti. I'm not sure if an architecture historian would agree with the term "art deco," though, as the building is a bit older than is generally associated with the term, and is even a bit too ornate to fit the mold. It even has these statues hidden behind the tower, meaning that they're only visible from the air, or from the other side on the top floor, as there's a glassed-in courtyard that you can shoot across. This was another test shot for the Contina, though, as the ideal camera for this shot would be an SLR with a zoom lens.

Actually, it wasn't quite Christmas when I shot this, but the festivities were well underway. The thing that most amazed me when I got these shots back was how good they were, in spite of being taken with a camera that doesn't have a functioning light meter (it had one originally, but there's something wrong with the Contina's light meter now).

Smazeny Syr, or fried cheese, may be the ultimate Czech junk food, and it's also one of the easiest things to get late at night. This is both because the pubs sell it, and because these kiosks stay open late into the night, at least in Prague. This was another shot that I never though my Contina could get, especially without having 400 ISO film in it, but somehow it took a nice picture, I think.

This will probably go into Green Idea Factory, if they'll let me post it. They're very much into stuff like this over there. It isn't true that the Prague police do nothing, actually, as this seems to be how they spend their time, taking cars like these and loading them onto flatbeds, but it never seems to be enough. Smichov and the Kampa end of the Mala Strana (near Ujezd) seem to be two of the worst areas. Don't even get me started about the inconvenience this causes people, plus the danger of accidents, obstructed ambulances, etc.

Or at least...I think this is technically Smichov. It's not too far from the Palackeho Most. The main reason I took this is that I like the building a lot. Smichov and the Mala Strana are full of these, of course, but you can also find a lot of them in Karlin.

Here's a panoramic view of sorts, even if it wasn't taken with a panoramic camera. You can see the River Vltava, the Jiraskuv Most over it, and then some of the more famouse buildings of the Nove Mesto, most notably the Zofin tower and Manes on the left, and the Tancici Dum (Dancing House), on the center-right.

Again I'm not sure if this is technically Smichov, or just Prague 5, but I took this from the Jiraskuv Most, with a clear view of the Tancici Dum (Dancing House) on the left.