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Published: November 1st 2009
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This past week during my October break at ISB, myself and three other teachers, Mona, Rana, and Lucia, decided to go to Prague!
We started our first day in Prague with a free tour of the Old Town. Our tour guide was quite eccentric and opinionated, but she managed to bring us to quite a few places and point out some great places to eat. She first brought us to Wenceslas Square, where there was a statue of St. Wenceslas (same as Good King Wenceslas from the Christmas Carol) and the National Museum of Prague. This square is quite a busy shopping destination and is also a popular place for political riots and national celebrations. We then went to the Church of Our Lady of the Snows, the Estates Theatre, the Church of Mary Before Tyn, Havelska Market, which is a huge outdoor market, and the Astronomical Clock mounted on the side of the Old Town City Hall in the Old Town Square. The Astronomical Clock is composed of three main components: the astronomical dial, representing the position of the Sun and Moon in the sky and displaying various astronomical details; "The Walk of the Apostles", a clockwork hourly show
of figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures (which we were able to see); and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months.
After our tour we went up the clock tower and had a great view of the entire city. We visited St. Nicholas Church in the Old Town (there is another St. Nicholas' Church across the river) and went to the Jewish Quarter of the city. The history of the Jewish Quarter dates back to the 13th century, when the Jewish community in Prague were ordered to vacate their disparate homes and settle in one area. There we saw and went into the Pinkas Synagogue (which housed over 4000 original drawings by Jewish children who were Teresín prisoners), the Old Jewish Cemetery, the Ceremonial Hall, the Klaus Synagogue, and the Spanish Synagogue.
We spent the night wandering around the Old Town and saw the Powder Tower, Smetana Hall, and the Paledium Shopping Mall. Outside of the mall we bought a taditional Czech treat called 'trdelník', which were bread spirals rolled in sugar and smoked in charcoal.
The next day we decided to go across the river and visit Prague Castle. Prague Castle is the largest coherent
castle complex in the world, with an area of almost 70,000 m². Inside the castle walls we went to St. Vitus Cathedral, the Story of Prague Castle exhibit, St. George's Bascilica, Golden Lane, and Daliborka Tower. Although the castle itself was beautiful and great to see, we found the exhibit really disappointing and overall the castle wasn't as great as it sounded. After having some lunch at Lobkowicz Palace, Mona and I decided to go to The Princely Collections at the palace because I read on the internet that this was the best museum in Prague - and they were right! This was a great museum and it housed many paintings, artifacts and, best of all, some of Beethoven's and Mozart's original musical scores because Joseph Frantisek Maximilian, the seventh Prince Lobkowicz, was a musician and was friends with Beethoven. Beethoven actually dedicated his 3rd (Eroica) Symphony to Maimilian. On our way back from the castle we went across the Charles Bridge at night and saw some beautiful night views of Prague.
We started our third day in Prague nice and early and headed over to the National Theatre to buy tickets to the opera. We were lucky and
they had some good seats still available, so Mona and I bought tickets for that same night to go and see Libúse, which is a Czech opera by B. Smetana. After buying our tickets, we went across the Charles Bridge again and crossed over to the other side of the river to the Lesser Town. We went to the St. Nicholas Church, which is the most important High Baroque building in Prague. The impressive cupola is more than 70 metres high and the nave of the church has a ceiling with one of the largest frescoes in Europe, painted on an area of 1500 square metres. AND, most importantly, Mozart played the organ here!
After the church we went to the Wallenstein Gardens and the Czech Senate and went to the Kafta Museum to see the famous statue by David Cerný of the two men peeing on the Czech Republic. We then did some shopping in Old Town Square and the Havelska Market.
In the evening, Mona and I went to the National Theatre to enjoy the opera. It was AMAZING! The opera that we saw, Libúse, was the mythical story of the fabled Czech princess who prophesies glory for
the Czech nation. It was linked with Czech history and the history of the National Theatre. This opera was the same opera that was performed for the opening of the National Theatre in 1881.
During our last full day in Prague, we took it easy and had a late morning and then went to The Museum of Czech Cubism. The museum was in The Black Madonna House, which is a cubist house built by Gocár in 1911, and inside the museum we saw works by Gutfreund and Kubista. We then ventured across the river and north of the Old Town to go to the Prague Market, which was this enormous outdoor market consisting of primarily Chinese vendors. We all managed to haggle with the vendors and all bought some sort of bag there! For the rest of the afternoon, we just wandered around the city and did a bit more shopping and we tried a traditional klobása sausage and hot wine.
We had a few hours on Friday morning to do some last minute sight seeing and shopping before having to leave for the airport. We went to St. Ludmila Church and went back to Wenceslas Square. Before
we knew it, it was time to head back to our hotel and head off for the airport. I had such a great time in Prague!
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