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I arrived in Prague in the late afternoon, and czeched my stuff into the hostel before going to take a walk around the city. The hostel turned out to be a bit far from the city center, so I walked a mile or so looking around the neighborhood shops (not realizing I was a short tram ride away from the city center) before settling on a Chinese restaurant for dinner. I went back to the hostel, which costs $8 per night, and used the sauna and swimming pool! The pool is rather cold (70* Fahrenheit), but I worked up a sweat in the sauna first, then warmed up by swimming laps in the pool, then dried back off in the sauna, all while doing my laundry right in the next room.
I went back to my room, which was an 8 bed girls' dormitory painted the hot pink that nightmares are made of. The room was super clean though, the bed was comfortable, the pillows were fluffy, and when you book a girls dorm you receive a welcome packet including a towel, soap, shampoo, a sewing kit, a nail file, and more. I introduced myself to my two roommates who seemed not to speak a word of English. They continued to play heavy metal music and converse so loudly over it that they were practically shouting until nearly 2 am. I considered saying something, but they wouldn't have understood me anyway, and I was concerned about retaliation while I slept.
The next day I went on a free city tour, which I find is the best way to orient myself in any new city. The tour guide was informative and hilarious ("In our history books they say he was the best King, but, well, oh I don't know- let's just say he killed a lot of Jews"). As we walked through the streets we heard music by Brittany Spears, Bloodhound Gang, and MC Hammer, which our tour guide assured us was not the norm, but couldn't seem to resist dancing along. Some highlights of the tour included:
*the old town square
*astronomical clock
*house of the black Madonna/museum of cubism
*Rudolfinum (where the Czech philharmonic plays)
*powder tower
*Wenceslas Square
*the Jewish quarter (where our guide told us the story of the original Czech golem)
After the tour I went out to meet Ivana, who was an au pair for my family 18 years ago when I was 8 and she was 20. I was concerned I wouldn't be able to find her, but I felt a tug on my hair and when I turned around, there she was. She looked only vaguely familiar to me, but told me I look exactly the same. She told me that the restaurant she had chosen for dinner was a bit of a walk and asked if I mind walking. I told her I love taking long walks and she replied, "good, I know a lot of Americans hate to walk." We discussed what we had been up to for the past couple of decades. We talked about work, family, and travel. It was interesting to catch up, to hear from her perspective what it was like to stay with my family, and how it was to be living in the San Fernando Valley at 20 years of age without a proper mode of transportation. After a while we seemed to run out of things to talk about, so we finished our meal and headed out.
The next day I decided to explore the Jewish quarter of Prague. It was already the third night of Hanukkah, and besides chatting with some Israelis and a couple of British Jews on the free city tour, I hadn't had any feeling of it. I'm used to celebrating the holiday with my family and/or friends and with my students, but I never considered celebrating the holiday as a big deal for me. I didn't think I would care about not celebrating it this year, but I felt like I was missing something.
I went to the Jewish quarter and bought a ticket to the "Jewish Museum," which turns out to be not a museum but all the separate Jewish historical sites. The ticket was good for a week, so I went to just a few of the sites that day. The Maisel synagogue was built in the 14th century and these days operates only as a museum. The exhibits revolved largely around the multiple expulsions and executions of Jews from Bohemia from as early as the 12th century all the way up to 1945. It was sad to read, and difficult to understand why the Jewish people have been so hated for so long.
Next I went to the Pinkas synagogue, which now serves as a memorial. The walls of the ground floor in the synagogue are covered in small writing that lists the names of the Jews in Bohemia who were killed in the Second World War. The huge number of names all packed together in this once holy space brought tears to my eyes, but they didn't spill over until I got upstairs. Upstairs there is an exhibit of children's drawings from Terezin, a ghetto and transfer point to the concentration camps which lies right outside of Prague. Apparently an art instructor lived at Terezin and taught the children, which resulted in 4,000 child-illustrated pictures left behind when they went to their deaths. The names, year of birth, year and location of death, and sometimes a picture of the child accompanied each art work. This absolutely devastated me. I thought about my children, my little students back in San Francisco, and felt a hole in my heart that anyone could be so brutally heartless toward children. Even living in horrific conditions, the children's artwork shines with hope as the children drew things like butterflies flying past the camp, or the family members that the children hoped to see again.
By the time I left, it was nearly 4:30 and all the other Jewish sites were closing. I needed a sense of comfort, so I chose to head over to Chabad center. I underwent interrogation by a huge bodyguard before I was allowed in, and I was surprised that it was more like a restaurant and business center than a family Chabad house like I'm used to back home. I had a cup of tea and looked around. There wasn't much to see, but all the Hanukkiahs were lit and it was the first time I saw them this Hanukkah.
I headed to the Christmas market for dinner, where I enjoyed goulash (a traditional beef stew) and corn on the cob, along with hot honey mead which was the first taste I've had of it. I watched children perform in a Christmas dance there at the Old Town Square, and when the clock struck the hour I watched the little mechanical show at the astronomical clock. When I got back to my hostel that night I met my new roommate, Eleri from Wales. We had a very long conversation about what life is like in America versus the UK. When our other roommates got back, Eleri was as surprised as I had been about how loudly they talked late into the night, but at least they weren't playing their heavy metal music.
We chatted a bit in the morning, and decided to spend the day together. We began by visiting an art exhibit that she had come across at Rudolfinum called Flæsh, which consists of five rooms featuring the artwork of five female artists. The gallery was absolutely incredible and spoke to me more deeply than any gallery I've seen in years. The mediums of the artwork were extremely varied, from embroidery to parchment to bronze to a horse carcass. The exhibit was largely existential and dealt with themes such as sexuality, self image, motherhood, love, and loss. I would have never known about this exhibit if Eleri hadn't run across it, and I was grateful to her for that.
Next we went on a free tour that led us across the Charles Bridge, past John Lennon Wall, and to the Prague castle. I was glad I saw it on a tour instead of on my own so I could hear the stories that belonged to each location. On the bridge we passed Jesus on the cross, where apparently centuries ago, anyone that crossed was obligated to stop and pay homage. Our guide told us how this place was often used for punishment, as Jews and bad bakers were thrown over the bridge into the icy water in a cage to drown before being pulled back up. At John Lennon Wall, our guide pulled out a pack of markers and gave us a few minutes to draw or write, which is where she won my admiration.
The castle turned out not to be so much of a castle as a palace courtyard, which was rather unimpressive in comparison. We checked out St George Basilica in the area, and then had a bite to eat at the Chrismas Market in the courtyard. I had a traditional dish of potato gnocchi mixed with cabbage and "bacon", which was very tasty, and hot lemonade. After the tour we went to a retro vintage shop to browse, at which point it was dark and becoming late. We went back to the hostel, had some dinner, and slept before long.
The next day, after sleeping in delightfully late, Eleri and I decided to go to the "Invisible Exhibit." I had noticed one in nearly every city that comes with rave reviews. The basic idea is that you are in a completely dark space for an hour, where you are led around by a blind tour guide. We were surprised to pay an extra "foreign language fee" that wasn't noted on any of the signs or literature. We met our guide, Michelle, inside of the dark room, and she guided us to find the wall to follow. First we were led into a kitchen, which was apparently designed in the communist era. We were asked to touch objects and identify them. Some of them we figured out (like the sink and the stove), but there were other things that we didn't recognize not because we were blinded, but because we had never seen the object in our lives (such as a water sparkler). Our guide laughed when we were unable to recognize such objects, and we were relatively unimpressed.
Next we were taken to what was apparently a hunting cabin, but my guess of "log cabin" was laughed off. We were taken to an area that sounded like a street, and the sound of having cars whizzing past us while we couldn't see was unnerving. Even in this scenario, I can't imagine how frightening it might feel to be able to hear such an environment without seeing it. We walked by a fruit stand, where we were asked to identify the fruits. We did pretty well, but the couple of objects we couldn't identify, Michelle didn't know the name for in English.
We were taken to a statue gallery, where we felt the statues and had to guess what they were. The first one was Michelangelo's David, and I guessed so quickly. "No!" Our guide said laughing. "Are you sure?" I asked, "I really think it's David." "No no," she replied, "this is David by Michelangelo." At this point Eleri and I began to giggle. We felt up another statue, which I said was a dog. "No it's not," said our guide, "keep guessing." We guessed a million other things before our guide said in an obvious tone, "it's a dog!" "Maybe she can't understand me," I whispered to Eleri, who was overcome by giggles. "What's so funny," asked Michelle, "I like to laugh too." We couldn't think of a polite way to say it, and weren't sure she'd understand us even if we did. The third statue had pointy ears, a long snout, and a fluffy tail. After guessing "fox" at least twice, Michelle gave us the clue "there's a Disney movie about it, something and the hound." "It's a fox," I said. "No," Michelle replied, "it's a lion." Okay, this was starting to get old.
We were taken to a bar in the dark and led to stools. We were asked what we wanted to drink. Neither of us felt like a drink but they were pretty insistent, so we ordered. We had been told to bring in some coins, so we had, and after we ordered they told us how much to pay. I didn't have much, and I handed them what I had. Apparently it wasn't enough, and they told me I could pay the remainder after the tour at the front desk. At this point, Eleri was fed up and refused her drink. They acted offended that she didn't want it (an unopened bottle of Coke) and asked "So you don't even want this drink you ordered?"
After the tour, we went to speak to the person at the desk about the foreign language fee being inappropriate given the circumstances. She was very rude to us, and verbally belittled our guide as not being able to do anything else because she was blind. Upon trying this lowhanded tactic, Eleri's had enough and she asked to be refunded the extra fee. The lady at the desk tried to lay the guilt on thick and waved the money in front of our faces. Eleri took it, and we left. We had some dinner, spent some time at the hostel, and then went out to a local club which was a very cool location but we didn't love the crowd, so we didn't stay long. Back at the hostel we decompressed and talked through the day before going to sleep.
Eleri left the next morning and I went to finish my tour of Jewish Prague. I walked through the old Jewish cemetery, which has 12 layers of graves spanning from the 15th to 18th century. Next I went to the Old-New Synagogue, which has been there since the 13th century and is the second oldest synagogue in Europe. Frankly it wasn't much to look at, but I found out that I could come back later for Shabbat services! It was Hanukkah and Shabbat, and so far I hadn't gotten to celebrate the holiday at all. I was really missing my family and my community, so I decided to come back to attend the service. It's funny for all that I resented my parents for making me attend religious school as a kid, now I can understand why they did it. It feels important to me to participate in cultural traditions even though I don't believe in the fundamental religion behind it.
I walked over to the Spanish synagogue, the last stop on my Jewish tour. This was built in the 19th century, and is famous for the ornate artwork that covers nearly every surface. It looks and feels like a church to me, but apparently it's the city's one reform synagogue. The exhibit inside was about the Jewish ghetto and transport to the concentration camps. They do Shabbat services at this synagogue too, but it was a couple of hours later than the old-new synagogue, so I decided to stick with my original plan.
After finishing my Jewish tour, I went to kill time at the restaurant "Kafka Snob," which is right under the apartment where Kafka grew up. I slowly sipped on a coffee and enjoyed the decor right up until it was time for Shabbat. I hoped they'd let me in wearing my casual travelers clothes, and headed over.
In front of the synagogue I was interrogated by a security guard who asked me some of the same questions I was asked by customs before I was allowed in Israel years ago. After a 5 minute interrogation I was allowed in to the women's section, which interestingly was closed when I came in earlier as a tourist. The women's section is a corridor behind the main synagogue, in which women can peer through a very small slat separated by a wall over two feet thick from the main synagogue. I've been to quite a few services where women are kept separate from men during prayer, but never before in a women's section that felt like a prison cell!
I sang along to the few songs I knew and watched through the slat as the men sang, danced, and celebrated. I met three orthodox women who were peering through the same slat. One was from New York, one from England, and one from Australia. They had all made Aliyah to Israel several years ago, and were visiting Prague together. They invited me to join them for dinner at Chabad afterward, and I explained that the $25 meal was far out of my budget. They urged me to come anyway as their guest, so I thanked them and went along.
We arrived at Chabad just in time to join their Hanukkah Shabbat service as well. Here the women had just a slightly smaller section by the men, and we were separated only by a thin standing room divider. It was a lot more comfortable for me, and I was able to follow along with more of the prayers. I was concerned that they wouldn't let me into dinner because I hadn't reserved a spot, but the women I arrived with pleaded my case. When the staff-person was reluctant to let me in, the ladies turned to the rabbi and said, "but it's Shabbat, and she has nowhere to go!" The rabbi recognized me from when I visited Chabad a few days prior, and he welcomed me.
Our table consisted all of orthodox travelers from the states, a few of whom made Aliyah, and we had the most wonderful meal together. As we ate the five courses and drank the wine (I politely declined the shots of vodka offered), we had a great conversation and sang songs that everyone in the room seemed to know despite coming from locations all over the world. It filled me up with that warm, sweet, delicious Shabbat feeling that I was missing.
The next day I went on a tour of Kutna Hora, a bone church which contains the bones of 40,000 people!!! It was spooky and spectacular. I met some cool people on the tour, had an amazing (and inexpensive) traditional Czech meal, and also saw St Barbara's church which is in the silver mining tradition.
All in all I had an absolutely amazing time in Prague! The city is gorgeous and I so much enjoyed the company I made. The next day, I would head back to Germany to spend a week in Munich!
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