Prague Write-Up

Well, our train for Switzerland doesn't leave for another three hours, so I figure I should do that write-up on Prague now.

Friday, we took a walking tour of the city. Took about three hours, and we went all over the place, from the Town Square, through Old Town and into New Town (which was built in 1300, so "new" is a relative term), through the Jewish Quarter (past a very strange statue of Franz Kafka), and to the river, where we saw the Charles Bridge and the home of the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. Along the way, our guide told us about the history of Prague and Czechoslovakia/The Czech Republic, from the very first Celtic and later Bohemian tribes that settled the area right up through WWII and the Cold War.#

After the tour, we walked back to the Jewish Quarter and toured part of the Jewish Museum. Most moving was a building that used to be a Synagogue, but is now a memorial to the Czechoslovakian Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust. Written on the inside walls are the names of all the people who were murdered. There are over seven hundred thousand of them. The names, which are written in very small letters, cover nearly the entire inside of the synagogue, from floor to ceiling. It is very moving, very saddening. The museum also features pictures that were drawn by children at a concentration camp outside Prague as part of a secret art-therapy program organized and run by one woman. All of the children were later taken to Auschwitz and killed, and since the Nazis were so good at destroying birth certificates and altering records, those pictures are the only proof we have that most of those children ever existed. It's... no, words cannot describe such tragedy.

Anyway, on Saturday we hiked over the Charles Bridge to Prague Castle. It was interesting, I guess; it's not really a castle. but more a collection of buildings on a hill with a wall built around them. The cathedral in the center is absolutely beautiful, though. And we did get to see the Changing of the Guard at noon (sort of; we got stuck behind a really large crowd for most of it), which was very cool.

After the Castle, we hiked over to a bluff that overlooks the city. At the top of the bluff is a giant metronome. Now, after the USSR took over Czechoslovakia in 1949, they built the largest statue of Stalin in the world atop that bluff. The statue was then blown up during the Prague Spring era of liberation in 1968. After the Warsaw Pact invaded and retook Prague, a massive plaza was built atop the bluff for "Mandatory Celebrations." After the fall of Communism and the splitting up of The Czech Republic and Slovakia, the metronome was built on the spot where Stalin's statue once stood. It symbolizes the time lost under Communism, as well as the time of freedom that is still coming towards us.

So, that was basically Prague. I can't upload any more pictures right now because I'm not on my laptop. I will be taking said laptop with me, though, so look for periodic updates throughout the week. We're doing Luzerne and Interlokan, Switzerland, then a few days in Paris (including a day trip to Normandy), the Amsterdam (to see the city, not to get smashed, so don't worry), then back to Salzburg on Friday and then a day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle, outside Munich) on Saturday. We couldn't make Brussels work on our budget.

So, that's Prague in a nutshell. Please pray for us as we travel this week.

Also, I apologize for any glaringly bad typos in this post: I wrote it on a German keyboard. No lie, some of the keys are arranged differently than a US-spec keyboard. Like Y and Z are switched around, for example.
Until next time, peace.

-Raptor.

Pics of Prague at Last

Hey everyone. Sorry it's taken so long to get these up. It's been a crazy week and, to be honest, I am exhausted. I'll try and get a full write-up done when I have the time.

I Am Not Yet Dead

Just a quick update to let y'all know that I made it back from Prague okay and that I am not dead or anything. I've just been busy as heck. I've got a big test tomorrow, and my group has just finished planning next week, which is our first week-long (ten days, actually) free period. Lucerne and Interlaken in Switzerland, followed by a few days in Paris, which will include an all-day trip to the beaches at Normandy, then two days in Amsterdam (to see the city and the architecture and the history, not to party), then home. We wanted to do Brussels, but that's all booked out, so we're going to come home early and then maybe do a day trip to Munich or somewhere near there. We'll see.

Anyway, I'll upload the pics tomorrow afternoon and take care of the Prague entry then. After that, I'm probably going to be off the web for ten days or so, depending on whether or not I take my laptop with me (probably won't, again).

So, until tomorrow, peace.

-Raptor