Prague…Czech it out!!

This past weekend I went to Prague with my friends Katie and Tana. I’ve heard that the city was really nice and thought it would be a good idea to get over to Eastern Europe at some point while I’m over here. We took an over night bus and got there early on Friday morning, then checked into our hostel and began to explore the city. In the Czech they use the Koruna for their currency and it’s really different from anything I’ve ever used before. It was 25 Korunas to 1 Euro, so something with the price of 500 was 20 euros. Everything had such high number prices on it that it was strange to do all of the conversions in my head. It was easier to convert to Euros because 25 is an easy number to work with, while $17 would have made me do a lot of thinking. After we went to Deutsche Bank we headed towards the center of the old part of the city. All of the buildings were so beautiful and very old. Everything was so historical and the architecture has remained intact for many many years. One of the most famous things to see in Prague is the Charles Bridge, and after seeing it I can understand why. The bridge had a beautiful view of the city and the Prague Castle. The bridge itself is very old and has really nice statues on it. There were a lot of performers and entertainers on the bridge too, which were fun to watch. Then we walked into the Lesser Town area and went up to the top of a tower. The view was beautiful, once again. We went to see the Lennon Wall, which is all covered in graffiti and inspired by John Lennon. There are song lyrics and pieces of Beatles songs all over this wall, which represents love and peace. Right near the wall there is a little bridge which is covered with locks all over the bars. The tradition is that once a couple gets married, they go to this bridge and ‘lock their love’. It was really cute and maybe I’ll go back one day and do it. The main city square in the center of the city was full of people and life. There was a band playing in the center and we were surrounded by tall, old and beautiful architecture. The cathedrals were beautiful and really nice since they were so old. Around the main city square there were a lot of little pubs and restaurants. Dinner was so good and then we found a little pub to get a drink.
The next day we went up to the Prague castle and it’s very different from the other castles I’ve seen. The castle in Mannheim for example is in general, one building, but the Prague Castle is composed of many different buildings. The Cathedral is by far the tallest and centralized building. There was a really long wait to get into the church, but it was well worth it. Looking at the Cathedral from the outside, it reminded me of Beauty and the Beast, with the statues on the building and the design of the architecture. Inside the Cathedral was beautiful and it seemed even larger from the inside. We were able to walk behind the alter and it was really nice. Then we walked around the castle’s grounds and had a really beautiful view of the city.
After that we went on an adventure and just walked around the city. We found the US embassy and interesting dough snacks covered in sugar and cinnamon called Trdelnik and they were super yummy. For dinner that night we had Czech street food and then we found another really cute pub to hang out in for the night.
The next day we went for bagels at place called Bohemia Bagels and it’s really popular. The bagels were almost up to the quality level of US bagels so it was nice to feel at home a little. Then we went to the Jewish Quarter of the city and ended up joining on the end of a tour that was going around. The tour guide was very informative and told us all about the history of how there used to be a wall around this part of the city so that the Jewish people were excluded from the rest of the city. There were old synagogues, new synagogues, memorials, a cemetary and museums.
It was really moving to hear about all of the people who had to suffer during German occupation during the Holocaust. There were thousands of names written on the walls from floor to cealing in about 4 rooms and then there was a room of children’s artwork done during the Holocaust that was actually not destroyed by the Nazis. It was emotional and really had an impact on me and my friends. Then there was the cemetary that was very disheveled and there were tomb stones falling ontop of oneanother. Our tour guide explained that when the walls were still up around this part of the city, the Jewish people ran out of room to burry their dead, but the government would not give them any more room so they were forced to burry people ontop of each other and at some points the bodies go up to 12 people high. The ground was very uneven and it was unnerving to actually think about what I was looking at. Apparently there is a memorial in Berlin that was designed to be open to interpretation but it is very uneven and many people believe that it was modeled after this cemetary. I will have to keep that in mind when I go to Berlin. Then when I was walking around the city I spotted someone that I knew from Fairfield! I couldn’t believe it at first, but it was my friend Andrew who goes to Fairfield with me and he is studying abroad in Prague for the semester! I was so excited to see him and I cannot believe how small the world is. It was a really great weekend and I’m really glad that I was able to experience Prague because of it’s history, beauty and culture.

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