Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Poignant Prague

Sunday, May 19 (Day 13)

This morning we woke up early, grabbed (strange) breakfast, and checked out of our hotel in Prague.  Everyone was moving a little slowly this morning, but we all made it.

Dana took us on a walking tour of the Jewish Quarter in Prague.
*Editor's note: this blog will be more sparse with pictures, because I didn't take pictures of most of the Jewish Quarter tour.  I wanted to preserve the reverence of the places we visited, and respect the history that had necessitated their existence, and chose not to take pictures.*

The first place we got to explore was called the Pinkas Synagogue.  The most interesting thing about this old synagogue is that as a testament to the people who had been killed in a specific transition camp (another version of concentration camps) there were hundreds of thousands of name written on the wall.  They recorded the first and last names of the victims, as well as the birth dates, death dates, and date they entered the camp.  It was very moving to go through several rooms in the synagogue completely filled from floor to ceiling with these names.  Upstairs in the synagogue, they have a collection of drawings and art projects done by the children in the camps. Many of the pieces reflect memories of home, but many of them depict scenes they witnessed at the camps, or things the camps have made them believe or remember. This was a tough section through which to walk - partly because so many tourists were packed in there you couldn't move without basically hugging another tourist, but mostly because the content was so grim.

Connected to the Pinkas Synagogue is a large Jewish cemetery, in which over 20,000 Jewish people were buried. There are close to 12,000 grave markers and tombstones, but thousands more bodies are buried in the yard as well.  People leave small stones on the graves as a sign of respect.  (*This is a Jewish tradition that dates back to the time of Moses; when going through the dessert, it was nearly impossible to find anything other than sand or rocks and stones to use for graves, so instead of leaving flowers, people left small stones.*)

We also got to go through the Spanish Synagogue, which in addition to housing pictures, artifacts, and information about the Jewish history in Prague, is a beautiful building and serves as a performance space for many concerts.

After the Spanish Synagogue, Meredith, Audrey, Allison and I explored the city a little bit more.  We wandered through the Old Town square, where there were street performers, stands, and people to watch.  We stopped for lunch at a pizza place off from the square a little bit, which was delicious.

After lunch, the four of us stopped in the square and listened to a band play in the middle of the sunshine-y square.  It was a beautiful, warm day, and we enjoyed the music very much.  We actually bought a CD, and are looking forward to listening to it.  They were very charismatic and very friendly (and very talented!). 

We shopped in some souvenir stores, had drinks at a cafe, and caught the bus for the 5 hour ride back to Vienna. 

Full, rich day!  

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