Gunga- The bud is unfolding on my 2nd. visit to Prague Oct. 1995

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This was another month long marathon trip( Sept./ Oct. 1995) with my now ex-husband. We began in Hamburg with a visit to our friends Horst and Waltraud Jungclaus. Next, took a train to Berlin where we stayed with our former exchange student, Sebastian, and his family. Berlin was almost unrecognizable to me. There was no longer any part of the 'wall' anywhere to be seen around the Brandenberg Gate. The Reichstag was being reconstructed waiting for the Bundestag (like our Congress) to come home from Bonn (where they had met when it had been the capital of West Germany). You could now drive all over the city without having to stop at checkpoints to be searched. We were taken to the Pergamon Museum on the famous Museum Isle (formerly in East Berlin so mostly off limits) which houses treasures and artifacts from Greece, Turkey, Persia, and other ancient cultures including the entire Pergamon altar and the Ishtar Gate.

Then it was onto Warsaw, Poland to visit our son, PJ, who was teaching English there. We learned two lessons rather quickly on our cab ride from the train station to our hotel: 1. Always bargain and settle your price with the cab driver BEFORE getting into his cab, and 2. Always have the correct change. Even though PJ could speak Polish it didn't help us to get any change as the driver took the money and drove away as fast as he could. After visiting Warsaw and Gdansk we took a train to the lovely city of Cracow. Tip- if you only have time to see one city in Poland make it Cracow.

We took a night train from Cracow to Prague. This was before Poland was part of the European Union and when Passport Control officers took their jobs very, very, very seriously. We had at least 4 interruptions during the course of the night to have our passports checked and stamped. Two large officers would crowd into our sleeping cabin and shine flashlights into our eyes and around our bunks.
My ex-husband has a Polish surname and that elicited many, many questions about his family: how long have you been in the US? Were your parents born in Poland? When did the leave? Why did they leave?
When he explained that it was his grandparents who left they would repeat the same set of questions- to which he had no answers. This went on for hours. Each stop brought on more passport stampers and questioners. They could be heard knocking on doors up and down our car. I began to wonder if perhaps Carlos the Jackal was hidden in one of the compartments. Now when you go from country to country you don't even have to stop and getting a stamp in a passport is usually only done upon request.

We arrived bleary eyed and sleepy at the train station in Prague. Dusan met us with a huge grin on his face. He was so proud because now he had his own little turquoise blue Skoda (the only car made in Czech Republic). Little did we know that we were about to embark on an almost daily series of 'Mr. Toad's Wild Rides'. Wow! There was actual traffic in Prague, although Dusan still drove like he was the only car on the road. Peter settled uneasily into the front passenger seat which we had previously dubbed 'the widow maker'. This time we were tired and needed sleep. Immediately after lunch we both crashed for several hours. This visit, unlike the first where we ran all around the city and countryside, we were all more relaxed with each other and we had no need to be personally taken around. After showing us how to use the Metro ticket system and explaining the train system Dusan set us off on our own. We were to go from Kladno to the Muzeum stop which is Wenceslas Sq.. We had a map and we were on our own to explore the city. We were to meet up with Dusan at 3pm in front of the good king's statue.

My first glimpse of Prague, when I came out of the station, took my breath away. It was even more beautiful than I remembered it from our last visit in 1991. Buildings had been repaired and repainted. Their gilted spires glistened in the sunlight while some had complete paintings on their facades depicting medieval knights and fair ladies. Oh My! We walked from the square to the Old Town, across the Charles Bridge (many more vendors and jazz/ Dixieland groups), many more tourists, throngs of college students lounging on the statue of Jan Hus and, lo and behold! outdoor cafes, coffeeshops, ice cream stands. Things surely had changed.

The one place I wanted to be sure and revisit was the Jewish Quarter. It had left an indelible impression on me on my previous visit. This time I would not be so shocked by the reality of the situations the Jews had to face in Prague and all over Europe during WWII. I hoped I could concentrate on the actual history of events as they unfolded. First, some history: Prague had a thriving Jewish community in the Old Town named Josefov. It dated back to the 13 century. It is now a fraction of the area it once was. It underwent 'redevelopment' between 1893-1913. Only a few of the most significant buildings were saved:The Staronova Synagoga, built in the 13th century, and is the oldest active synagogue of Central Europe; The Old Jewish Cemetery- beneath lovely elder trees lie the remains of more than 100,000 Jews who died between 1439-1787. The ghetto (and therefore the cemetery) could not be extended, so bodies were buried in layers and more than 12,000 tombstones are crammed into a tiny space; The Pinkasova Synagoga-1535- the longest grave inscription in the world can be read here. It contains the names of 77,297 Bohemian and Moravian Jews who died in German concentrations camps during WWII. There are several other synagogues that have exhibits. You buy one ticket and it admits you to the entire complex. In 1938 there were about 317,000 Jews living in the Czech Republic. At that time the musuem had about 1,000 objects. 7 years later there were 100,000 objects and 270,000 Czech Jews , victims of the German Nazis, were dead. Perhaps the most touching part of this collection is the assortment of children's drawings made by children imprisoned in Terezin and killed in the extermination camps. No one should visit Prague without visiting this complex.

The next few days were spent visiting Hana's family (her mother and father were still on their little farm) and relaxing together. I vowed to return again.....look for the next blog about my last (but hopefully not my final) visit to Prague.

Carolyn/ Gunga

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