Wrong Stop, Right Surprise: Discovering Lumia Gallery by Mistake (Let's travel together #350)

Along with all the memories created in Prague two years ago, there was also this moment when I ended up exploring Lumia Gallery by mistake, yet a situation that obviously turned into something really cool, but also an experience that I am sure I won't ever forget.

For those who are not familiar with my trip to Prague, accompanied by my sister and 3 common friends, this happened 2 years ago when we thought we would keep this yearly city break a thing until life surprised us all and ended up with no plans further in this formula.

Anyway, we were all travelling on a low budget, with low-cost tickets and an Airbnb rented to have lower costs than renting hotel rooms, so the money we had available during our stay wasn't a lot. However, as the plans we made at home don't always match those at the destination, we ended up spending a bit more than planned, and so, the girls I was travelling with didn't want to get a ticket to visit the gallery together.

Wondering what gallery? Well, I was really interested in seeing The Steel Figures Gallery from Prague which made my inner kid make a dance when spotting some of the statues from outside the window. In fact, there were a lot of vehicles made of steel that mainly catch the attention of men and it was understandable that my friends weren't really into it, but as a person who has a lot of passions that are more often met at men, I got really hyped for this gallery, which, by the way, was also written on the name of the building.

That name was actually the one that started the confusion because even though I noticed a darker side on the left once making my way in, I was convinced this was a different side of the Steel Gallery where, perhaps, some of the statues had lighting effects or something like that. Additionally, there was only one ticket office available, also located on the left, so I made my way towards that direction and got the ticket I was looking for.

The guy from the ticket office was very kind and he explained me that I should make my way to the next floor, so I followed all the way there thinking again that there might be some sort of circuit to start from the top and then make it on the ground floor for the rest of the figures, that was making a lot of sense in my head even if I noticed the Lumia Gallery hashtag on the walls.

However, once I reached the indicated floor, I was twice surprised by a completely different thing what I expected, where lots of projections, lighting effects, mirrors and anything that would seem like the perfect world for Matrix fans, popped in front of me.

I would lie by saying that I wasn't still excited for this experience, as I was planning to see something similar in my country too, but I never took the time to actually visit it. However, this was the moment when I started being in doubt if I really got the right ticket.

But being in a dark but still very colorful world with most of the projections being interactive and acting different for anyone passing by, I took the time to enjoy these as much as I could, there being some guys constantly looking after the tourists to make sure they experience all the projections and lighting effects because even if all of them had indications about how to enjoy them, some were a bit hard to understand how they work on your own.

From interactive video projection to a labyrinth made of mirrors, from videomapping to kaleidoscopic cinema and more, my planned experience to walk through figures of steel quickly turned into an adventure of lighting effects where digital art brings all the fun without needing to do much to enjoy every bit of it.

Obviously, each projection had its own story to be shared for the curious ones, but also sound effects and even music synced to all of it for the larger projections. However, all of this might not be so friendly for people suffering from epilepsy, so keep that in mind if you are not feeling comfortable in such environments.

Lumia Gallery was created in 2022 by a local photographer known as Feex who dedicated most of his life to art and who was working hard on building this world that could possibly make the visitiors have a different perspective over their own lives once returning back to reality, where he ended up being accompanied by a few more artists and digital art experts who united their powers to create Lumia.

The gallery is open daily between 10 AM and 9 PM, and a ticket for an adult costs 350 CZK (15 EUR) but can be reduced by 13% if it's purchased online and not at the box office.

I can't really remember how much time I've spent within the gallery as time feels like passing in a different way when being surrounded by all the advanced technology lighting effects, but I knew I was constantly thinking of my friends who were waiting outside and which I tried not to make wait for me for too long, especially that I still had a different side of the gallery to visit... or, did I?!

So once I made it back to the box office, I got my ticket and made it to the opposite direction, wanting to still see the steel figures I "paid" for. However, here came the unpleasant surprise as the ticket was not working, and there was a really not-so-nice person who was yelling at me for trying to enter. Ironically, when I realised I paid for the different gallery although the building only mentioned the one of the steel figures, I noticed the 2nd box office, which was very masked by all the cartoon boards with superheroes, so it made sense not to notice in the first place.

For a moment I thought about getting a ticket for that one also especially that that was the gallery I wanted to visit, but the price was the same with the one paid at Lumia and it would make me exceed my budget way too much which I think I could still deal with, but the attitude of that man instead of explaining nicely that Lumia is not linked with them, made me hit the way outside the building pretty quick.

I am still very confused about what happened back there, as it makes no sense to have one gallery written on the building but have two different ones inside. So my single assumption is that, once, the building was only hosting the Steel Figures Gallery but which, perhaps, from financial struggles decided to rent some of the space to a different gallery which did a job a lot better to have the box office observed first and there might be more tourists like me who did the same mistake which would also sorta explain the ridiculous anger that man had.

However, I am a person who believes in signs, and I am pretty sure all happened for a reason. So, along with the frustration of not seeing what I wanted in the first place, the story that was written from this experience will always stay in my head, with a possibility to still make it to the Steel Figures Gallery on my next Prague trip.

The Lumia Gallery can be found at the following address: Celetná 596/15, 110 00 Staré Město, Cehia, and it can be reached pretty quickly if you make it to the historical center of the city only by walking around as it's on one of the main alleys that lead to the center.

Other places I've seen during my stay in Prague:

• The "John Lennon" Wall
• The Nustle Bridge also known as "The Suicide Bridge" of Prague
• Street Art in Prague
• The Dancing House
• Idiom Installation - the book tower of the Prague library
• Vyton Naplavka and Palackého Most
• Grotta, Havlíček Gardens
• Vyšehradské Sady (Vyšehrad Gardens)
• National Library of Technology
• Prague's Astronomical Clock (Pražský Orloj)
• The Narrowest Street of Prague
• The Brick Gate (Cihelná Brána)
• Letná Park (Letenské sady)
• Vyšehrad Cemetery (Famous Czechs of the Past)
• Saints Peter and Paul Basilica
• First Ladies’ Fashion Exhibition (at Prague’s National Museum)
• The South Gardens (Prague, Czech Republic)
• Accidentally Witnessing Prague’s Changing of the Guard
• Eyes of Prague
• Prague’s Culinary Traditions
• Catching the sunrise at The Charles Bridge
• Lumia Gallery

more coming soon...

^{Gabriela Travels is the FOUNDER of "Festival Mania" who started this community from the passion of attending various festivals and with the purpose of encouraging more people to explore festivals all around the world and share their experiences.
At the same time, Gabriela is an independent Graphic Design Freelancer since 2019 completing over 600+ orders in this time and collaborating with various businesses and people from all over the globe.
Additionally, Gabriela has her own corner on the internet since 2017 where she writes various articles for her blog, the most popular being the travel ones (300+ articles written on this field), but also approaching other topics as well, like game and book reviews, lets plays, movie and series reviews, photography posts, cooking recipes and more, boosting the total number of articles written to 750+ blog posts.
Gabriela is also a gamer since she was 11 years old and gaming remains one of her biggest passions along with traveling, owning a YouTube channel for each of the two.}

[//]:# ([//]:# (!worldmappin 50.08723 lat 14.42428 long Meeting light no matter how dark it is outside d3scr))