So we had our ten day vacation mid-semester so we decided to go to Prague and Vienna. It was so much fun. AND I AM IN LOVE WITH PRAGUE. Gah it was amazing! I loved it so much. I want to move there, dead serious. There is just something special about that place. I'll start off by blogging about Prague and re-cap Vienna later.Hostel: Our hostel was amazing first off! We stayed at a place called Sir Toby's and they had the best breakfast ever. We made Czech pancakes every morning with sweetened condensed milk and nutella. And as if that weren't enough, the place was like
hipster haven. Perfect.
Narnia: I found Prague absolutely wonderful and magical. My fellow teacher, Areil, said it reminded her of Narnia and I agreed so our first day we went crazy and "went to Narnia." It began when we wandered off course and found our way in a park that used to be part of the moat surrounding the castle. Inside the park, there was a giant tunnel, which got us super excited because we decided it was the gateway to Narnia. We went through and it really was like Narnia on the other side. Absolutely gorgeous. We then heard Susan's horn and decided we must find the Narnians. We went up by the castle, which was now no longer the Prague Castle but Cair Paravel, and found some people dressed traditionally playing music, making crafts, and polishing armor. So naturally, these became the Narnians. We even found an epic tree in an awesome outlook spot over the city that looked exactly like the tree at the end of the Prince Caspian film. Super epic.
Franz Kafka: So I love Franz Kafka and since he was from Prague, we pretty much dedicated our time to finding him. We went to the Old Jewish Cemetery, which was not only super pretty but we saw his grave there. We then proceeded to the Franz Kafka museum which was awesome!!! They added a lot of noise, lighting, and effects to the museum because they wanted you to experience how Kafka felt and how he viewed Prague. It actually worked really well. We also found a statue of him in the Jewish Quarters of Old Town. Lastly, we went to this awesome bookstore one night called the Globe Coffeehouse and Bookstore where I bought the completed works of Mr. Kafka. That place was cool because it was a used store and most of the books were in English. Their hot chocolate was also superb.
Churches: We stopped into a few churches. My favorite was St. Vitus up by the Prague Castle with it's amazing stained glass. We didn't go inside the castle but we wandered around that area. We also went into the Church of Our Lady Victorious where there is this 400 year old wax baby Jesus with over 70 outfits. That place was intense. It was like a bad case of Baroque architecture threw up all over it. It gave me a headache looking at it. My running joke for the trip was, "If it's not Baroque, don't fix it." I'm really glad our churches aren't like that. We also went to the Loreto where 2 female saints are buried. You don't get to see them though
Lennon Wall: Giant wall full of graffiti commemorating John Lennon. That place is so cool! What more can I say?! When we were there, this group was laying a fresh big piece of graffiti on it. It was really cool to see.
Dancing/Fred and Ginger House: A modern building modeled after Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. We danced in front of it lol
Clock Tower: Very cool. Very pretty. I had higher expectations for what happened on the hour, but still. I was a really cool looking structure. I need to look up the history behind. And afterwards, we went and bought some of the roasting pig leg lol
Jakub Schikaneder Exhibition: So the National Gallery had an exhibition going for this Czech artist that we went and saw. I have a secret love for art museums. His work was absolutely gorgeous. I would highly recommending looking it up.
Pinkas Synagogue: This place was like a knife to a heart. First of all, there was just room after room of the names of jews from Bohemia who had been killed during the German occupation. Then upstairs, it had paintings and drawings done by children at the concentration camp/ghetto Terezin. At Terezin, the people tried very hard to still give their children an education and a good life and part of how they did this was through art and drawing lessons. It was extremely sad but touching to see. One of my favorite and most moving drawings I saw by the children was called Cain and Abel. I thought it was very fitting given the circumstances.
Charles Bridge: We got early to go see the bridge so it was relatively empty which was awesome! We got some amazing shots! Tourist free photographs=my happiness. We also went again at night to see the sunset and such. So beautiful.
Cello Guy: I made a friend on the castle steps. A young man was there playing his cello with his dog both times I went down the steps. The second time I went and talked with him. I used to play the cello and it's one of my favorite sounds. He was really cool. He was a student and he said he comes to the steps all the time for practice. He played Cello Suite no. 1 in G major by Bach for me, a piece that I love.
Whew, that was a lot. But yes, Prague is definitely the most beautiful city I ever seen and I fully intend on going back. I don't normally get so swept away when I see a city but I was beyond happy there. Heck, you could've just stuck me on the metro and I would've been happy sitting there all day.
