Another image of Prague, almost the opposite in scale and spirit of my panorama of its splendor from the Charles Bridge. In some ways, this intimate view seemed more typical of how the city’s atmosphere felt overall, in that it evokes what authentic, stable civilization looks, and feels, like.

This is not apparently a famous street, but set on a gentle slope with solid, quietly elegant buildings, it utterly charmed me. In most cities, such calm and unpretentious grace might make it extraordinary – even magical. Yet it seemed to be an area of casually dressed locals, and so may be just an ‘ordinary’ street in central Prague.

I have elementary knowledge of the city’s history, geography, etc., but it is not necessary to know much background about a place to sense when one is seeing something quite special there. This vista felt like a sort of mellow mist, yet also crystallized the essence of ‘authentic, stable, civilization.’

The young woman walking towards me here had a slight smile. I have wondered if she was a resident of the area, mildly pleased to see another tourist register her enchanting daily environs. I do not know, as we did not speak (I would not presume she knew English), but that was the impression her smile gave.

This modest street looked like an ambience to be embraced, not just ‘consumed,’ per the cultural reflex of the 21^st Century. Civilization not as dismissal of the old, and frantic pursuit of novelty and progress, but as continuous and cumulative, rather than discrete and episodic. Of recognizing how the past may be imbued with experience that is now, and will remain, worth appreciating. And savoring.