2008

Here's the second of three pan shots of #163019-3...

The the final pan of #163019-3, which I think is the best.

It's also possible to pan arriving passenger trains at Hostivar if you get lucky or know roughly where they'll stop. In general, Hostivar offers a pretty wide and unobstructed view of the tracks, at least for the moment. Subsequent corridor upgrades may change this, but for the moment the station still looks like this.

Here's my second pan of #163088-8.

I've never been able to figure out if this smokestack on display is real or not. It appears to be partly made out of cement or concrete at this point, and the top is plugged. I remember when the tabak behind it was open, I think, but nowadays it's abandoned.

Here's a stationary shot of #163088-8 waiting to depart for Strasnice, Vrsovice, and Hlavni Nadrazi.

I keep forgetting which station this was, but I'm guessing Uhrineves for the moment. It could have also been Ricany, but I'm not sure. Does anybody remember which station has that Relay in it? That might be a clue.

This is my second attempt at a supersaturated version of the recent Haje photo.

Here's my second attempt at supersaturating this photo...

This might have been the most successful of my edits today, as I didn't attempt to go overboard with this one.

This is maybe my first good color shot of this tram, #5002, which is the best-preserved Tatra T1 in Prague. It was also the second T1 produced, after DPP #5001. It's also the one that runs well enough to be used for charters, special occasions, and sometimes historical tram service #91, although that's a rare occurance. Normally, it only works service #91 on November 17th, the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. The Tatra T1 is a Communist-era design, being the first tram design used in Prague with two modern four-wheel bogies, as opposed to having four wheels suspended directly from the frame. Introduced in 1952 and produced until 1958, these trams were based on the famous American PCC cars of the 1930's, although the subsequent T2 class (produced 1955-1958) looks visually more like a PCC.

Here's more of a closeup shot of #5002. The commotion over to the left is in an arcade of sorts which contains the memorial to November 17th and the Velvet Revolution. The Velvet Revolution was a gradual process, of course, and it didn't begin or end on November 17th, 1989, but in Prague November 17th was when students held a demonstration on roughly this spot, which the police broke up with violence. At the time a death was reported, which rumour subsequently escalated, in the public perception, into a "massacre," which resulted in weeks of demonstrations, which may have involved as many as 500,000 people. The irony is that the rumor of the dead student was disseminated by the StB, the Communist secret police. A five-hour general strike on November 27th may have involved more, however, as the population of Czechoslovakia at that time was in excess of 15 million. On the 28th, the Communist government, rather than carrying out a real massacre on the model of Tianamen Square, instead decided to announce their resignation, which took effect on December 10th. The interim government shared power between Communists and non-Communists until an election could be called in June of 1990. An interesting side note was that this interim government included Alexander Dubcek, the former Communist president who provoked the 1968 Soviet invasion with his liberal policies. The 1990 election resulted in Vaclav Havel, a playwright and founding member of Carta 77 (the most prominent organization to oppose the Communist regime), being elected the new president.

During the Christmas season in the Czech Republic, the traditional meat for dinner isn't turkey, like in the United States, but carp, and traditionally these fish can be bought on the street at stands like these. These fish in this tub were alive, but over on the left, off camera, the fishmonger was clubbing the fish to death with a hammer (an ordinary clawhammer like what you would use for nails) and wrapping them for customers, with the whole area consequently being splattered in blood and fish entrails. Note that this was going on in Spalena, an ordinary street with trams, cars, and trucks running through (although the tub and table were set up on the sidewalk), Christmas crowds walking all over the place, and a Tesco's operating across the street. As I was taking this photo, I wondered if I would be splattered with blood, but I wasn't.

Another Christmas tradition in the Czech Republic is that most communities have a Christmas market in the center of town. Even Benesov has at least something that could be described as such, but Prague has many, as it's a city of 1.2 million people. One of them is in Staromestske Namesti, another is in Malostranske Namesti, another is in Namesti Miru, the usual marketplace in Havelske Trziste becomes a Christmas market of sorts, and then there's this one, at the Mustek end of Vaclavske Namesti, which usually has a big Christmas tree, with 2008 being no exception. The building that you can see in the background, on the right, is Palac Koruna, and the street heading back is Na Prikope, which goes to Namesti Republiky, which has yet another Christmas market.

Here's another shot of the Vaclavske Namesti Christmas market.