As I arrived by train, I started at the railway station, which is the place I'll limit myself to today.
On the outside of the building, you can see faces of many different nationalities, travellers, presumably, from the countries of the world - I would love to get anyone else's theories on which countries exactly (I'm guessing number two might be Japan?)
Some nationalities seem to have attracted a bit of aggression from passers by:
As well as the various nationalities, other figures are depicted. There is the spirit of the most surly and incorruptible female type of border guard:
There is the miserably homesick traveller:
and there is the person who is not travelling but merely saying a sad goodbye:
Inside the building a magnificent renovation of the old ticket hall is nearing completion. It's still not possible to go in, but you can sneak a look through the security fence. This is what you see:
The final photos remind me how spruced-up Prague looks these days, compared to the peeling paint of the communist era, when the Austro-Hungarian Empire-era buildings were regarded almost as an embarrassment, shamelesly bourgois and opulent.
ReplyDeleteThank God they didn't have a bulldozer-happy Ceausescu running the country.
Shudder, yes. Poor old Budapest is having a hard time keeping up, to be honest - although I'm quite fond of a bit of shabby charm. Prague's almost like Disneyland in its sparkling new coat of paint (that's what I tell myself, anyway)
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