4 days in Prague

Going on the tours of each part of the city was so interesting. Each of the four parts had such a different characteristics. I am glad that I read the Metamorphosis, Kafka is fantastic. Very odd and fragmented but very good reading. His melancholy tone matched some of the history we were learning about in Prague, especially all the troubles that the Jewish population had to endure through time. His feeling of not belonging anywhere and being disconnected from a community permeates the short stories I read where there is a very definite obstacle that keeps him from his one happiness or requires him to make a very difficult, but necessary decision. The short story about the torture/murder devise was something I could not get out of my head when I was walking through the torture museum in Wien and Cesky Krumlov.

The clock that we saw in the main square was very telling in how it incorporates so many different calenders and ways of telling time. Prague as a city was diverse and did not disregard its past.

I found the picture signs in Prague that would denote which house was whose to be very clever and showing the importance of a name or craft in shaping a communities view of a family or person. The peacock showed that this particular location was a brothel and it was supposed to bring ideas of beauty and something rare.

As we were walking across the Charles bridge there were many statues with very specific meanings and reasons for being located where they were. One particular one was supposed to give a person better health if they touched it and when looking at it we can see that it has been worn down through years of touching.

Prague was very mixed having a clock with Zoroastrianism references, a Jewish section, and very christian statues sprinkled through the city. Another thing we noticed on the tour that reminded me of our readings and class was this church that is protestant. Instead of an ornate Gothic or baroque exterior it is a simple white. No frills or anything to distract from god and hard work. I was reminded of the religious wars where there was outright fighting in the streets and how protestants would destroy catholic churches by throwing statues to break them and tearing down all the decorations inside. All these extras they felt were distracting from god and tied to anger about indulgences.

One of my coffee breaks was in a tiny underground cafe. My coffee was delightful and i was pleased to see modern art decorating the walls. Figuring out all the different currencies is fun but I feel like no matter how carefully I plan the tip I'm not giving enough.

We went to a very nice place for dinner that was a traditional coffee shop. The chairs and the decorations held very closely to what I can imagine the original place to look like. I enjoyed the most amazing lobster bisque I've ever had and felt like I had been transported back in time and allowed to eat at a very elite location.

Going to the castle was one experience that I would definitely recommend if a person found themselves in Prague. It became very clear that this was a fortification for military purposes at first and then over time when the threat of invasion had disappeared the entrance to the castle had been permanently changed. Seeing the giant walls that were insurmountable and walking in through the moat really gave me the feeling of the castle from the bottom up. It was a fairly easy walk from there on out but still rather steep. All the vegetation was nice and I realized in this moment that I had been spending all my time in cities and had not seen the countryside at all. I wish this program had offered another week and we had gone to the Austrian countryside.

When we reached the castle there were gates with the signs of the zodiac on it. This surprised me when I realized what they were. I was expecting on the gates of the church to see mini pictures of the saints or the passion of the cross.

One of my favorite things about castles is that they are always located on a high point and give a great view of the city. This was no different and the view showed the very particular roofs that Prague has. The tiles stand out very clearly in my mind as I think of the city. I am still surprised to see so many places that grow wine nicely snuggled within the cities. In Wien we had to travel a bit to get to the hurtigruten but just from looking at this view and the professors comments we could see they existed here in Prague as well.

We went to several Jewish museums and memorials. I was particularly touched by the presence of children's drawings from the concentration camps. Its an interesting perspective to view history through and to think of any time period and what it would be like to be a child at that time. What would you understand? What would those surrounding you tell you was going on? In one picture in particular there stood out a man in a uniform (I'm assuming that this man was part of the SS) and he was pointing with a very pronounced arm at a Jewish man and a child. I know they were Jewish because the yellow star was drawn on their coats and the man had the traditional hair/beard. The child had drawn this picture making the man pointing very large and above them with an angry face and the two people below huddled and almost not even fitting on the paper. This picture to me showed the shame and confusion that this child felt being thrown out of her/his home. The book Still Alive touches on this and how a person felt losing the place of their youth. While Ruth remembers Wien with anger as the place she learned language I wonder what this child if they were still alive would remember of Prague.

I had not realized that there were such elaborate ritual objects in Judaism. The shield for the Tor rah and the crown were two objects that particularly stood out and upon further museum investigations I made note of their presence. The synagogue's decoration with use of pattern reminded me of the mosques I visited in the south of Spain.

Comparing the Jewish cemetery to the one we saw in Wien was very different. While there was a Jewish section in the Wien one this was totally different. Besides seeming older, this cemetery in Prague was very uneven and the tombstones were tilted and on top of each other. The one in Wien, while in disrepair in certain parts all were very carefully lined up and organized. Here in Prague it seems like they ran out of space and just kept putting people in.

One of the most memorable dinners we had in Prague was at a very nice (and pricey) Indian restaurant. The food was fantastic and I couldn't help but wonder why we don't have such good food in the states.