Prague: I Could Eat a Lifetime of Trdelnik

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My spring break was organized through school and consisted of 3 days in Prague, Czech Republic and 4 days in Berlin, Germany. I will create two separate entries because of the amount of pictures and for organizational reasons. We left at the end of the last week in March via Birmingham airport to Prague. We left pretty early and most of us were feeling that uncertainty that comes with having just packed all of our possessions in boxes, placing them in storage and being virtually homeless for the next five weeks (of course depending on our individual plans about when to return to university). At the airport we met our tour guide Simon who, let me just say, was an interesting individual. He was very knowledgeable about what he was explaining and our destinations, but he was high strung and seemed to lack either organization or common sense, I couldn’t determine which.
I would also like to say that as horrible as this trip started, it was a blast. Honestly the only reason it started off bad was because I had a cold and was miserable. I actually ended up rupturing an eardrum on the flight because I couldn’t get the pressure in my head equalized. It was incredibly painful; excruciating. But after that the trip was great, you have to anticipate some level of chaos on a group trip with 20 students, so once we got going and used to each other we got along pretty well. Our first day in Prague started with getting picked up from the airport by our hotel staff and then taken into the heart of the city to the Botel—yes botel, it is not a typo. In case you are curious a botel is a hotel on a boat, of which there are two in Prague. It was pretty cool actually. It was an old steamer boat, the kind with the big turn wheel at the back…Angela and my room was on the bottom level where the window was about a foot above the water! We were woken by ducks one morning! After checking in we got on the Prague Underground and headed to the center of the New town and had a tour of the famous Wenceslas square and were given a very informative tour by Simon, our courageous leader. There was a statue commemorating martyrs that died there for political freedoms as well as the balcony of Melantrich Apartments that was used to deliver speeches during the Velvet Revolution, which was during the fall of Communism. We walked all the way to the Old town square where there is a cathedral, The Church of Our Lady Before Tyn, which reminded me of the Disneyland castle and the Astronomical clock that has moveable parts and has worked for hundreds of years! We were lucky to be in town at this time because there was an Easter market in the Old Town Square that was going to be there for the entire time we were there. It was really neat to see because there were rows of stalls that served Czech food and handmade crafts. Eggs were placed as decorations everywhere and there was a stage where dancing companies preformed. My favorite dancers were the Irish Step dancers. Next, Simon took us to Prague’s old Jewish Ghetto, which is still predominately a Jewish quarter. Simon told us about the story of Rabbi Loew and the Golem, or the clay protector of the Jews. We also saw the Old-New Synagogue.
The first night we had a pre-arranged dinner of soup, potato dumplings, and sauerkraut at a restaurant near the Old Town. After dinner most of us went back to the botel because we were so tired! The second day in Prague we had more arranged activities, so we met in the morning to go on a walking tour of the Royal Route, which is the royal procession route the Bohemian Kings used to follow. The route started with crossing through the Powder Gate, which at one time held gun powder hence the name, and was also one of the original entrances to Prague. Simon pointed out different things along the way such as the Black Madonna and various influences of Cubist architecture. We stopped at St. James Basilica where there is an interesting feature that draws in visitors…on the back wall there is an arm, well the bones of an arm, hanging from a chain. The arm is to serve as a warning for all who attempt to steal from the church. The story goes: a man entered St. James’s to steal jewels and gold from the alter, then the statue of Mary grabbed his arm and would not release it…they had to cut off his arm to remove him.
Our next adventure in Prague was to hike up the hill to the Prague Castle. Along the way we crossed the St. Charles Bridge which is solely pedestrian and had different vendors along the way. It is also lined with statues and at one point there is a statue with bronze plates that are supposed to bring good luck to those who touch them. There were also several more churches, street views, and government buildings along the way; I will post the pictures, but no guarantee that I have all the names of the stuff. There were times when we all wondered whether it was worth it or not because it was a long walk over uneven, steep cobbled streets. In the end it was definitely worth it! At the top of the hill there are great views of the city, we took several pictures here. The Prague castle is more of a Castle compound rather than one building. The highlights are the St. Vitus Cathedral with its wonderful stained glass and the History museum. We spent hours looking at the memorabilia that has been collected over the years from weapons to clothes. There was also an exhibit for the crown jewels and place to view the original foundations. Before we left the Castle Complex we went to the Golden Lanes which are small craft and novelty stores that sell Czech goods, The stores are in very tiny buildings which exhibit how small people were when these were built. If anyone knows the author Kafka, he used to live here.
After our visit to the castle Emily, Allison, Angela, and I ventured back across the river to the Old Town to explore the market, eat some supper, see the brand new Hard Rock Café (typical of one of my trips), and to go on a Haunted Prague tour. The market was still in full swing when we arrived and we took our time wandering around looking at all of the crafts and eying the food. Angela bought some hand painted Easter Eggs that the Czech Republic is known for and we all ate sausages and doughnut things called Trdlo. They are made of dough that is wrapped around a wooden spindle and then baked slowly over fire then sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. Yum! There was also a stage where traditional dancers were performing. My favorite was the Irish Step dancers. Around 8 the Prague Ghost Trail tour started. We were all really excited about it because Prague is known for its long history of haunting activity, but let me tell you, do not spend your money. Some of the stories were interesting, but I think I would have been more entertained reading it from a book. It was naturally difficult to understand our Czech guide, but we were willing to let that slide, considering we are in the Czech Republic, but it turned out to be really corny. Along the tour route there were certain points where someone was dressed up for the sole purpose of scaring us…this would have been more effective if we had not seen this happen to a group the night before. Oh well, we got some laughs out of it and it is definitely one of the moments none of us will forget. After that random escapade we took the underground back to the botel to get geared up for our last day in Prague.
A group of us decided to go with Simon to see the observation tower on Petrin Hill, which looks like a miniature Eiffel Tower. We should have taken the sign of the tram being closed as an omen, but instead we decided to climb the very steep incline to the top. There are several buildings at the top besides the tower, namely a hall of mirrors that Simon wanted to show us. But once we reached the top it was only to find out that EVERYTHING was closed: the buildings, the tower, everything. Simon felt so awful he promised to take us all on a river boat tour instead, so we made the long climb back down and went in search of a river boat. I had a chance to see the graffiti wall dedicated to John Lennon on the way there, and there were writings by people from Leicester on it! How ironic! The boat tour was nice. There was an open deck and even though it was chilly and a bit windy we braved it and sat with our drinks as we watched the city go by. Around lunch time we split up into different groups depending on what we wanted to do for the rest of the day. I joined the group that was headed back to the Jewish quarter to see the Jewish museums and tour the synagogues.
The Jewish museum was contained in several buildings and old synagogues and separated by the type of collection it housed. The first thing we saw was an old Jewish graveyard where Rabbi Loew is buried. The stones are stacked next to one another and in layers because their community was restricted to a small space within the city. The rest of the museum held prayer books, tapestries, and religious ritual artifacts. After the museum we went to a restaurant called the Golem, based on the clay creature from the legends, before we had to go meet up with the rest of the group; that night we were going to the black light theater. Sorry I do not have any pictures from this because photography was not allowed, but it was definitely an interesting experience. For the most part it was similar to any other theater performance, but there were different times during the performance that the story would stop and dancers would come out and perform optical illusions under black light. The main plot was a movie set where they were filming a horror movie, but in the end the real people ended up being vampires who sucked blood through straws.  It was an interesting experience to say the least, especially because Black Light Theater is specific to Prague.
The next morning we departed early for the train station because we were taking the train to Berlin to round out our group trip. Enjoy the pictures and stay tuned for the Berlin blog!

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Photos

National Museum
was once a train station--outside is riddled with bullet holes

St. Wenceslas Statue
in St. Wenceslas Square, which is really more of a long road with a large pedestrian divide in the middle.

St. Wenceslas Square
see? long road with divide in middle

Martyrs memorial
they set themselves on fire

Wenceslas Square Shrubbery
there were also little gardens in the divide

Wenceslas Square looking at Museum
this is a photo looking the other direction down Wenceslas square--the National Museum is at the top of the hill

Melantrich Balcony
speeches were given here during the fall of Communism; the Velvet Revolution

Streets Near Opera
I thought the older portions of this building were neat, they are obviously older than the rest of the building, sadly don't know what is was used for.

Ghoul Statue
...i saw one of these in Salzburg as well...

Astronomical Clock
this clock is hundreds of years old and still has working movable parts!