Monday, June 1, 2009

Loving Prague.

A quick update. I'M IN PRAGUE. Everything has been like a dream. We made it through London already, and yes that was awesome, so vibrant with quite a nightlife and so much history. We of course did all the touristy things, Westminster, London bridge, Parliment, Buckingham palace, Hyde park etc. We also had a pretty good time with our Frenchie friends in out hostel. Which fyi, my first hostel experience, they are definitely a good, fun, cheap experience.

So I have like a million pictures already, but as of yet no way to load them as I forgot my cord...so you'll all have to wait for those. Anyway, Prague is just too much. I fall more and more in love with it everyday. It is so interesting, a great juxtapostion of history, arts, youth and old-timey, and night-life. We have experienced much of the city, including my favorite part thus far Josefov, the Old Jewish Quarter. Specifically, I really enjoyed the Pinkasova Synagouga and the Old Jewish Cemetary. The synagouge is hundreds of years old and has been turned into a Holocaust memorial, around 80,000 names of Jews from the Czech area who died in WWII are written on the walls. As I stepped in, I was quite overcome and humbled. The Old Jewish Cemetery is the oldest jewish cemetery surviving in Europe, as all others were destroyed by Nazis. This one was spared as Hitler wanted to turn it into some sick anti-semetic museum. Anyway, the headstones pile everywhere, and there is very little room left. As the grounds filled up, they would bring in more dirt and cover the cemetary and bury more people, but they moved the headstones up. So the graves are 12 deep in some places.

A close second to my favorite, is the John Lennon wall - I got a bit emotional here too. It is a wall covered in beautiful graffiti pictures, messages and love devoted to John Lennon. I heard that as the country was fighting oppression and communism, the youth rebellion (so to speak) took Imagine as an anthem, and Lennon is quite beloved here in the Czech. I randomly had a sharpie with me, so we were able to leave our own message as well. Some of my favorite pictures come from here. I can't wait to get them up.

Europe apparently never sleeps also, people are out at all hours. Already I missed 2 nights of sleep. Also, you can drink and smoke anywhere, so everyone does. People just drink as they stroll down the street. Bummer for me though: I'm feeling a bit sick, like if I was home I'd be in bed sick...which sucks. We have made a few friends here, so tonight the agenda is a 5 story club! The largest in central europe...a good time I'm sure, I hope I'm up for it. Well, I bought a mini tripod, so I'm off to take a few lovely night pictures of the Charles bridge and the castle before the festivities start.

Okay, I'm sorry if there are spelling errors - I really am a terrible speller (mostly I spell pheonetically, which is so often wrong) and all the internet sites are in Czech...so everything comes up mis-spelled. Luckily I know this site and facebook so well so I can navigate them without knowing the language.

FYI we're off to Bratislava next, I'll keep you updated.

Na Shledanou (bye bye).

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