(Tiny section of Prague as seen from the castle)

On the bus tour today the bus brought us up to the castle area of Prague and left. This was a three-hour walking tour with a gift of a lift up the hill. Our guide was Lann and he is from Florida and Georgia (and he has some Irish roots.) He knew a lot about Czech history, in fact he knew a lot more than us about Irish history too. I can’t go into detail about the history… (copyright…don’t ya know…) but there was one story I really liked.

(Guards guarding the castle)

There’s a wall at the side of a property owned by the Knights of Malta, called the John Lennon wall. As a protest against communism during the 1980’s students came here at night to write – on the wall. The Knights of Malta did not complain. The students wrote the words of Beatles songs, particularly those about love and peace. The authorities whitewashed over the words but the students came back to write again and again.

(Charles Bridge as seen from the castle)

How could they ever hope to gain anything by writing a few words which were erased the following morning? And yet they continued. The wall is still standing and people are still writing on it. It makes me think about persistence and tenacity; about returning again and again to do my thing. The thing I feel compelled to do.

(Lann, our history-buff guide with some historic building in the background…)

(And of course, a picture of the wall. Btw LÁSKA means love in Czech… and also, there’s a strong smell of spray paint when you stand close to the wall)

Write on, Mairead.