Day 25, Prague, Czech Republic

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Day 25: Monday, December 21st, 2009
Prague, Czech Republic

This is kind of a free day- there is a boat excursion in the middle of the day but other than that, it's all ours. We head out around 9:30 and walk thru Wenceslas Square and check out the Christmas markets. Same stuff that we saw in Munich and Vienna. The group then splits into two's with some wanting to shop, and others wanting to explore. I join the explore group and we go back to Old Town Square where we get to see the Astronomical Clock in action. There are four main figures on the clock, a guy holding a mirror that represents vanity, a Turk, a skeleton, and a man holding a bag of money (who very "un-PCly" represents the Jews). I didn't see what the vain dude nor the Turk did, but the man holding the bag of money shook the bag and the skeleton pulled on a cord that made a bell chime. Then, at the end, a crow cawed- can't remember what that represents. We thought it was over until a man with a bugle started playing from the very top of the tower. He did a couple of "revelry" type bars and then, with us below applauding, waved and then went around to the other side of the tower to repeat his show. Nice gig if you can get it (and if you get it, won't you tell me how?)

We then wander the square and head over to the meeting place for those that are taking the canal cruise and lunch. I didn't sign up for this one because #1: Lunches are wasted on me and #2: I'll be doing the canal cruise with my friend Susan when we come back for New Years. So, I walk with the gang up thru the Jewish Quarter to where they meet their local guide/hop on the boat. I say see ya later and as I'm walking away, another tour member, Michael, joins me since he's not doing the excursion either.

We head over to Pinkas Synagogue where you can buy a ticket that will get you into the main synagogues (all but 2 of which are all museums now) and the Jewish Cemetery. Unfortunately, they don't take Euro's (they're part of the European Union but haven't switched to the money yet- they still rely on their Kronas) so it was a good thing Michael tagged along because the poor sap ended up having to pay for my ticket. We head inside and it is amazing, and shocking to see the inside of this synagogue. They have written the family name, and then all the first names of that family of the Jewish people of Prague who were sent to concentration camps and never came back. It is small print, and it covers two floors of the synagogue. Also on display is artwork of children who were in the concentration camps. Another humbling experience.

From there, we head into the Jewish Cemetery where you are allowed to take pictures only if you buy a permit. There was no one at the permit booth so I chanced taking a couple from my iPhone only. Since Jews weren't allowed to own land, they had only this small plot of land alloted to them for burials. It is said that they are stacked 12 deep in places, and the headstones are so close together it's unbelievable. We weren't making light of the situation at hand at all, but at some point I pointed out to Michael that we probably shouldn't be talking about strip clubs as we walked thru the cemetery (for some reason I relayed my story of going to Jumbo's Clown Room in Los Angeles with some of the "Whose Line" crew.)

We get thru the cemetery and begin looking for the next synagogue, the Spanish Synagogue. We proceed to walk by it two times before realizing it was there- very downplayed on the outside but the inside is amazing. I wasn't allowed pictures inside, so follow the above link to see. We get out of there and we're synagogued out (plus Michael is one of these crazy people that eats during the day, so we looked for a restaurant.) We settle on one that has pig knuckles for him, and chicken broth for me. Michael is truly enjoying his lunch, which came on a spit, and I'm humbly eating my soup and secretly wishing I was having what he was having. That was until he turned the spit and started to eat the other side of the meat when he hit ice. It seems they cooked the meat, froze it, then thawed it out/heated it up and served it. But, they didn't heat it enough and one entire side was an ice cube still. Watching Michael's face turn green just further instilled my fear of eating in a foreign country. My broth tasted damn good after that. Needless to say, they didn't charge Michael for his icicle lunch, so I pay for mine and we head out (I had planned on paying him back for the ticket by buying him lunch, but ended up just giving him the money instead.)

We head back to where we're supposed to meet the gang after the cruise and it's just Luna, Mana and Natasha there, everyone else took off. Luna wants to find a gift for her mother in law so we head in the direction of a recommended store but can't find anything. Michael takes off at this point (I think it was too much estrogen for him) and us gals decide to head up to the castle before it closes for the day. It's 3pm, and the castle closes at 5 but doesn't let anyone else in after 4, so we need to get a move on. Of course, we stop to take pictures along the way so we get to the bottom of the hill and it's 3:45. We decide to take a tram up the hill but we can't buy tickets in Euro's. So, we turn into crazy outlaws and hop on the tram without tickets. So far, no one has checked any of the train/tram/metro tickets that we've bought, so we feel the odds are in our favor. However, we all are trying so hard to look non-chalant that I'm pretty sure we looked guilty as hell. We jump off at the stop and, after we're done laughing at our wicked ways, look around and can't figure out how to get into the castle. We ask a local and she informs us we want to go one more stop up. So, we throw caution to the wind once more, hop on board the next tram without tickets, look guilty as hell, and jump off again. We made it! We're officially bad asses now.

We get to the entrance of the castle and it's a no go, they say we won't have time to tour it all. So, we head back to the overlook that Dave showed us before (after doing some interesting poses with the poor guards out front). We meet up with some of the other tour members (Brett, Deanna, Kara, Tanya and "Mexico"). You're going to find this hard to believe, but Mexico is from Mexico. I really don't know what his name is, because he even calls himself "Mexico". He's... interesting. He can be a funny guy, or he can be annoying- just like the rest of us I guess. So, we're walking back down the Rocky-Balboa-Wishes-He-Could-Climb-These stairs and Mexico starts throwing snowballs. I inform him that I really don't want one thrown at me because of the camera. Of course, that's just asking for it, so shortly thereafter I am hit with a snowball. I whirled around and said the first thing that came to mind. "Mexico, I will invade your fucking country if you throw another snowball at me." I'm not too proud of that insult, it didn't have any punch and I claim my disapointment to the gang. Brett came up with the line I should have said "You should have threatened to fire your gardner if he did it again." Yes, yes, horrible and wrong... but funny.

The group splits up again and it's back to us girls and we wander back to Wenceslas Square where we decided to partake in some regional food. Well, okay, we wanted Chinese. But China is closer to Prague than it is to Rochester so I vote it's regional (hmmm, might have to check out the world map on that one...) We order way too much food so we get the leftovers to go, climb the hill from hell to our hotel and pass off our leftovers to one of the other tour members who promises to give it a good home. We play cards down in the bar for a while but the smoke (everyone smokes inside in Prague) is hurting my throat so I call it a night after a few hands and head to bed. Before going to bed, I swig some of the lovely nighttime cold medicine.

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Comments

[Chris]

You replaced all the figures on the clock with Weebles?
For those of you tired of the mass-produced golems, you can now get hand made ones!!