Eighty-Minute Trip / Osmdesátiminutový výlet

Most people go to the doctor from a smaller town to a bigger one. But I don't... I go to my specialist from Prague to Ricany. But today I'm not going to write about myself or about Ricany.

I'll write about Uhříněvs. Today it's part of Prague. Since 1992. Before that it was an independent town, before that a township, before that a village... I admit it. Since Wikipedia exists, there is no point in writing about the history of each place, because if you are interested, you can look everything up there yourself.

When photography appeared, painters also stopped depicting reality as it is, but as they saw it through their perception. And so I will write my subjective travelogue here and now. Of course, I have to start from reality.

I must have travelled through Uhříněves by train at least five hundred times. And I've never seen anything of it. Because of the noise barriers. How many times have I said to myself that I'll definitely get off here sometime... And now I finally did. My decision wasn't entirely impulsive. I looked at the map beforehand to see what could be seen or experienced here.

I decided to make the trip. Exactly 80 minutes passed between my getting off the train and getting back on. Is it possible to get an article for Hive out of 80 minutes? Several articles for the Hive? Do you remember that I once spent two days in Bechynia and then wrote 20 articles about it? Let's see.

On the way from the station I had to hit Friendship Street. I thought it was a good name. When you name a street after a person, there is a danger that the next historical epoch will change its mind about that individual's contribution to history. Emperor Franz Josef Square will become President Masaryk's square, then later Adolf Hitler's, then TGM, J.V. Stalin, Václav Havel ... And so on. The golden name of Friendship Street! Hardly anyone will rename it to Enmity Street.

I knew I had to come across the former synagogue on the way. History hasn't avoided Uhříněvsa either. The Holocaust - the Shoah. Our planet is old enough. Something has happened everywhere. I'm sure some dinosaur killed and ate another dinosaur in this place. Some human killed another one. And American fighters shot up a column of German civilians, refugees from the east, on April 25, 1945. Wikipedia ... There were Jews living here, and the German Nazis gradually defined them, labeled them, excluded them from ordinary life, stripped them of all rights, concentrated them, and then murdered them. Like most of Europe.

Why do I only think of negative things? Surely someone was born here. Someone also did a good deed here, fell in love, experienced joy. Dinosaurs and humans. And I missed the synagogue at first. It didn't look like what I expected. So I'm leaving the timeline.

When I came back a little while later, I saw the typical silhouette of a Jewish temple. How could I not have noticed it before?

... ... ... I don't usually use vulgar language. Not even verbally. And certainly not in writing. But now I've come up with a lot of vulgarities. I'm a devout Christian. Jews are my older brothers. This is supposed to be a dignified use of God's house?

I expected that after the war Temple was taken over by some other church, probably the Czechoslovak Hussite Church. Or at least there will be some kind of cultural center that will commemorate the memory of our fellow Jews murdered during the war. A bolt shop. Well, it could be worse. They could also sell pork delicacies.

But someone could fix the building, not just use it.

Those who want to can look at the plaque on the building. At least something.
Life goes on. I looked around. Yes, the Jewish quarter. Typical small houses where every inch of space is used. Insensitively renovated. I'll go somewhere quiet. And I'm leaving the timeline again.

Life goes on. I looked around. Yes, the Jewish quarter. Typical small houses where every inch of space is used. Insensitively renovated. I'll go somewhere quiet. And I'm leaving the timeline again.

Everything in the world is subject to fashion. Investments, for example. For a while stocks are popular, then currency pairs, futures, cryptocurrencies, gold ... Or pub entertainment. Billiards, skittles, darts. And from the pub, I get to the beer. We're facing a craft beer epidemic. Uhříněves has about 10,000 inhabitants and two microbreweries.

Saint Francis, intercede for us! An attempt at an artistic photograph of the brewery. Okay. I can't take pictures.

I'm not an enemy of microbreweries. It just seems to me that sometimes trying to be too original is bad for beer. In the late 18th century, brewing beer stopped being an art and became a science. Now some of the ancient rules are being broken. A brewer is brewing a beer and sees an apple peel under the table. He thinks of brewing an apple-flavored beer... I'm not saying all brewers do that.

I also admit to being conservative. I like to try new things, too. But in the end, I'll always wash it down with a bitter lager... Ugh. I've written enough today. I'll continue next time. Actually, I haven't written about Uhříněves at all. Just a handful of my ideas and thoughts. Does anyone mind?

Translated with DeepL.com