5) Czech Republic - Prague - Old Town

I read a guide book to Prague which said that Prague is a great walking city - true - and that walking through Prague for a couple of hours is like walking through a 3-D architectural history book. Once you've crossed the Charles Bridge from the Castle side, then you're pretty much in the Old Town. Narrow streets and a dazzling array of architectural styles make this one of my favourite areas of any city that I've visited.

Building in Prague Old Town

This building, for example, really isn't anything special, but it's typical of what you can find around any corner in the old town. I liked it, which is why I sketched it.

Prague Old Town

 Here's another one. Again, this building has no special purpose, but just look at it. It's a star. I liked framing it within the whole street scene too, which for me makes this a slightly better sketch than the one above.

Prague - Old Town - Astronomical Clock

 This astronomical clock, on the wall of the old Town Hall in the square in the centre of the Old Town is one of the best loved tourist attractions in the whole of Prague. It's pretty much always crowded, which is why the crowd make an essential part of this sketch.

Town Square - Old Town - Prague

If I'm honest I'm not really certain that the slight watercolour tints add anything much to this sketch, but you have to start somewhere, and by the time I got to Berlin in August I was able to produce some more confident line and wash work.

Hello - So what is this blog all about, then?

Have you ever been depressed?

I don't mean have you ever been a bit down, or a bit unhappy, or peed off.

I mean, have you ever been diagnosed with clinical depression? If you have, then you have my complete sympathy. If you haven't, well . . .

In March 2017 I was diagnosed with clinical depression. I feel now, with the benefit of hindsight that it had been brewing for a long time, but had come to a head, probably through a change in work circumstances. By March 2017 I was driving to work everyday in tears, clutching the steering wheel for grim death. I was short tempered, withdrawn, and had lost interest in many things which I had always loved. I hadn't quite gone so far as making plans for suicide, but I went to bed every night hoping that I wouldn't wake up the next day. I think the only thing that stopped me, and made me go to get medical help, was the fact that I couldn't bear the thought of my daughters having to explain to my grandchildren what had happened. It was like there was a wee demon sitting on my shoulder, continually whispering to me the worst things that I'd ever thought about myself. In my own voice.

Don't worry.

That's quite a heavy paragraph to read, isn't it? It is important, though.

I went to see my GP, who immediately signed me off work for a month - which became 2 months - talked with me, and put me on a course of medication. And I have no doubt that my subsequent recovery had more to do with the medication than anything else.

However, a few weeks after my diagnosis, I made a long planned visit to Prague. I was only there for a few days, but while I was there I made over a dozen pen and ink sketches. I don't know if the process helped because essentially it meant I was taking the real world - which seemed a frightening and threatening place to me at that time - and taking control over it, reducing it so that it fit upon a page in my sketchbook. But it did help.

I've always sketched a bit. The first couple of sketches I'm going to show you were made before I was diagnosed. But I found sketching in Prague so therapeutic that I made 2 resolutions when I returned. The first was to make 100 'warts and all' sketches of the town where I've lived for over 30 years - Port Talbot. You can see these in a sister blog called 100 Faces of Port Talbot . The second resolution was to travel to European cities as often as I could, during holidays from work, and make as many sketches as I could in a few days.

So that's what's here. I don't kid myself that I've permanently rid myself of the little demon on my shoulder. I take it one day at a time, and today, I'm good. Please feel free to leave a comment about the sketches, even if it's just to tell me that you don't like them.