terezin

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we decided a few days ago (because we like to have a set plan) that we were going to visit terezin on saturday, and the jewish quarter on sunday. so last night we made a plan to leave at 9:15, ride on the metro to the bus station and then take the hour bus ride there. we hoped to make a 10:00 bus, and then figured we would just take as long as we wanted there and then come back in the late afternoon. i was really interested to visit this concentration camp, because i had read about how this was the nazis' model "jewish town" and that it was fixed up for propoganda purposes. rick steves said that they even feature films that the nazis played for the red cross to convince them that they jews were being treated well. the best laid plans...

so we did get there a few minutes before 10, but unfortunately you apparently have to buy tickets half an hour in advance. so we bought them for the 11:00 bus ride, and just sat there and waited for about 45 minutes. then we boarded the bus (it was like a coach bus) and after an hour arrived. we walked from our bus stop (noticing no signs for when we could catch a bus returning back to prague) to the small fortress area. there we bought a combination ticket allowing us to visit the small fortress and the ghetto museum. we figured we would go through the small fortress area first, and then head over to the museum. so we asked a woman working there when the last bus to prague was, and she told us...3:00. and it was already 12:30. well- we freaked out a little bit, and decided we would skip the guided tour of the small fortress and walk through it ourselves (we did have a brochure that explained every building to us) and then go to the museum with our small amount of remaining time.

we walked through the fortress, and it was very surreal and strange walking through a concentration camp after seeing pictures of them my entire life. while it wasn't one of the "major" camps, it was still just as eerie and desolate there. i think for me one of the strangest parts was seeing the "beds" (basically the wooden planks that people were forced to be squeezed together on, several to a "bed"). that might sound strange- but it's always been an image that has stuck in my mind when viewing pictures from the holocaust, and to see them for real was weird. we all were really glad we had this experience (all 10 of us actually went together) even though it was hard at times.

as we walked through the grounds, we kind of ended up splitting into a few groups. mine was finished a few minutes before the others, and so we decided to try heading over to the museum. but then we realized it was already 2:00, and it would probably be a 15 minute walk back and forth (we wanted to be at the bus stop at 2:30) so we made the unfortunate decision not to go. it was really sad, but we realized it wasn't anybody's fault-- we even tried looking up the buses online and couldn't figure out the website--- and that we had seen what we really had wanted to. my little group arrived at the bus station right as it started to rain (the other little groups kind of got caught in it...lol) and we waited for the bus and then came back to prague.

tonight we went for dinner at this indian food place-- it was delish, but yeah...we got taken a little bit. i don't even really want to rehash it, but basically we thought were getting rice included with our meals, but it was actually extra to do so. and their drinks were ok, but ridiculously strong! so i didn't drink but a few sips of mine. but i got chicken tikka (of course it wasn't as good as niraj's) but it was pretty amazing.

now we're just hanging out. tomorrow is the jewish quarter! i'm excited. 😊

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Comments

[BlogInPrague]

Holler, it's Dionne commenting and not Maxine under her own name... dinner tonight? Drinks were WAY too strong. Good thing you stopped after three or four sips, and that's the last time I'm having a 'daquiri' for awhile. I think you're trying to sleep now... so that's it!

[Rachie]

it sounds like we had several similar experiences :) yay for chicken tikka!!!

[Grandma]

we went to Terezin on our trip also, so I know what you are talking about. Glad that you are going to the Jewish Quarter . It's really a moving experience because it's so old and everything here is so new. It's amazing that the synagogues survived the Nazis.

[anonymous]

mmmm chicken tikka

[Petra]

...
Sorry, that my comment is not a comment at all but if you do not know what to do tomorrow afternoon(at about 4pm., take a trip to the Prague airport, I am leaving to Finnland for a term, so I would be really glad to see you once again... have a nice day!