I'd had a restful last few days in Germany: I visited with family in Butzbach and Rechtenbach, and done a lot of running and hiking, even a bit of shopping.
I took advantage of the fact that there was no one in the seat next to me, and put my feet up, luxuriating in the extra space and delighting in the free Wi-Fi on board.
After my little catnap, I got off the bus at 3:30 PM, surrounded by signs written in words with far too few vowels. I dug out my map and got oriented, making a beeline for my hostel, eager to dump my stuff so I could start getting familiar with the city that would be my home for the next four nights.
I managed to find my way from the bus station to the hostel in 20 minutes, taking only two wrong turns in the process. Weary from the walk and glad that I'd finally arrived, and was I walked up to the reception desk, where I was told that my room was currently flooded, and I would be relocated to their sister hostel "not far" from there.
As you can imagine, it was not what I had been hoping to hear, but I didn't want to get off on the wrong foot with Prague, so I took a deep breath, heaved my pack back onto my back, and stomped out (I felt entitled to a little pettiness).
My new hostel was about a 7-minute walk away, and helpfully labeled with yellow flags. I punched the buzzer several times--it was rather stiff and I wasn't sure it had buzzed--and was greeted with an irritated male voice: "I heard you the first time!" Oops. Once I got up to reception and gave my name, the guy (who had clearly been warned I was coming) started falling all over himself to apologize for the inconvenience, and to tell me everything that I needed to know about my sleeping arrangements for the next four nights. My feathers slightly less ruffled, I went to my room with fairly good grace.
I had some trouble with the lock, but finally managed to get the door open. The one guy in the room, seated on an upper bunk, told me he'd been about to get down and help me with the door. We went through the standard travelers' introduction (where are you from, where are you going, where have you been, etc.) while I stuffed my things into my locker and claimed a bunk.
My new friend introduced me to a couple of the people he'd been hanging out with for the last few days, then asked if I wanted to grab dinner. I was glad that I wouldn't have to try to find my way around a new city in the fading light, so we wandered around, settling for pasta (and beer, of course) at a hotel restaurant not far from the Old Town Square. We meandered back, he pointing out the landmarks to find the way back to the hostel, and me secretly thinking about how badly I needed to pee.
The hostel common room was more crowded now, both with people just checking in and others arriving back after a day in the city. I had been scheming to curl up in my bunk and go to sleep, but was convinced to postpone my Granny bedtime and check out the nightlife with a couple of people.
Bet you didn't know that the largest nightclub in Central Europe is located in Prague. I didn't, either. It's 5 stories tall, located right next to Prague's famous Charles Bridge. So my first nightclub was one of the largest and most famous on the entire continent. No big deal.
Day 2 in Prague was spent on a tour of the city. In the morning, my guide led us around the Old Town, the New Town (which isn't really that new...it's been around since the 1700s), and the Jewish Quarter, and then we crossed the river to check out Prague castle in the afternoon.
Highlights of the tour include:
--Many movies with scenes set in Europe are filmed here in Prague, including Casino Royale.
--Every building in Prague has 2 numbers. The red one is the old one, when houses were numbered in a spiral pattern within their district. The blue numbers are more conventional, going in order down the street, and make it a lot easier to find what you're looking for.
--The astronomical clock is apparently the 2nd most disappointing tourist attraction in Europe. (But if you have a tour guide with you to explain it and give it some historical context, it's actually pretty cool.)
--The lights that shine on Prague castle were commissioned and paid for by the Rolling Stones.
--The metronome on the top of the hill replaced what had been the largest stone statue of Stalin. The metronome represents the time that was lost during the years of communism.
--Czechs are very proud of the fact that beer was invented right here in the Czech Republic. (Pilsner is named for the town in which it was invented: Pilsen.) What the Czech people will only grudgingly admit, however, is that it was a Bavarian (a.k.a., a German) who actually did the inventing.
--Prague castle is frequently described as "architectural lasagna," because there are so many different styles within the palace.
I had planned to visit the Petřín lookout tower on Friday, but since I'd had such a great view of the city from the castle the day before, I spontaneously decided to visit the Jewish Museum instead.
It was incredibly moving. Part of the museum was a synagogue, in which every wall was inscribed with the names of Jews in Czechoslovakia who were killed during the Holocaust. There were millions of names.
In the attic of the synagogue was an exhibit comprised of art created by children in Terezín concentration camp. They used art to express what was happening to them now, what life had been like before, and their hopes and dreams for the future. The artwork, collected and hidden by Friedl Dicker-Brandeis (who was later killed in Auschwitz), is the only record that many of these children even existed.
Exhibits like these make it possible to really comprehend what happened. When you read in a textbook that more than 5 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust, it doesn't really mean anything. You can't really picture 5 million people. All the names on the wall helped me visualize just how many, and the children's artwork made those names into real people.
I think it is extremely important when traveling to make an effort to see the darker side of some of these beautiful places, and to remember what happened there. Part of experiencing a place is recognizing it for what it was, not just what it is now.
As you can probably imagine, I felt pretty drained after my visit to the Jewish Museum, so I just wandered through town to give myself time to process what I had seen. I made my way up to the metronome, and then decided that the John Lennon wall was just what I needed right now. Though I was tempted to break out my phone for directions, I relied on a paper map and my own sense of direction, and got there in one try.
As I traipsed back in the general direction of my hostel, I got some dinner (traditional goulash and beer), as well as some ice cream. I then stopped in a secondhand shop and bought a skirt for 80 crowns (about $3.35 USD). I debuted my new skirt that night at the opera.
That's right, I went to an opera. I paid about $10.50 for a seat at that night's show at the National Theater. It was only after I was in my seat, reading the playbill (helpfully printed in English as well as in Czech), that I realized I was seeing La Bohème, the opera upon which Rent was based. It was a pretty great show in a gorgeous venue.
I spent my last full day in Prague at the National Gallery in Veletržní palác, where (among others) I saw works by Pablo Picasso, Gustav Klimt, Andy Warhol, and my new favorite Czech artist, František Kupka. And, I saw my first Van Gogh in person! Green Corn. I didn't even know the gallery had a Van Gogh until I turned the corner and there it was. So, of course, I had to sneakily take a selfie with it.
So, in summary: today, I went to some museums, saw a lot of pretty stuff, and managed not to learn a single thing. Not bad for my last day in Prague.
P.S. If you're looking for some laughs, go on YouTube and search "Czech president drunk," or "Czech president steals pen."
P.P.S. Typing this on a Czech keyboard was extremely challenging.
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