Transmitted from the City of a Thousand Golden Spires

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“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.” ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Though completely and totally out of context, this opening line to the famed classic is incredibly applicable to my decision to travel abroad. My father told me, in the summer before going away to school, that one of his biggest regrets from college was not studying abroad. I told him not to worry, that I was certainly planning on it. Coming to Prague, however, was a relatively unplanned event. I wanted to study abroad this specific semester. I wanted somewhere beautiful, culturally engaging, and not too stuffy to have fun. I wanted somewhere cheaper than Western Europe. I got everything I wanted in coming to Prague thus far.

My pretense, of course, you know in those little essays we had to write in our applications to come abroad, was that I was coming because my concentration materials were experiencing a dearth of Eastern European influences, and I wanted to learn about Slavic mythology and folklore by coming here. My concentration is myths and morals in modern performative media, basically looking at how the American moral consciousness is developed through the tales that we tell via the mediums of film, television and radio.

And, though admittedly I’ve learned more about drinking and dancing all night than about the history and culture of Czech people, I’ve already picked up a few great tales about Prague and her people. On top of Vysehrad, one of the oldest sites of castle and church in the city, next to the proud gothic towers of the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul, there stands a statue of Premysl and Lebuse.

Premysl and Lebuse are the supposed founders of Prague. Lebuse was the third daughter of Krok, son of Ur-father Czech, after whom these lands are named. Krok had no male heirs and, seeing as her sisters were a witch and a crazy, Lebuse was elected to lead the Czech people after her father’s death. When it became apparent that her womanly ways and prophetic powers were making the people uncomfortable, she decided to get herself a husband who would rule beside her as king. She sent out a horse and determined to marry the man who returned on it. It turned out to be a peasant ploughman named Premysl, who ruled with her thereafter and gained greatness for the Czech people. One night soon after they were married, the prophetic spirit seized Lebuse and, rushing to the top of the hill upon which Prague Castle now stands, she proclaimed to the heavens, “I see a great city whose fame will touch the stars!” (Demetz 4-5)

So that’s what I’m about. I’m spending the next few months soaking up interesting stories, ancient and new, real and possibly real in some sort of way, hopefully one of which will be my own.

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