First off, Prague! I know I talked about our first night there with the creepy hostel (which ended up being totally fine, but look at this front door.)
Do you blame me for thinking I was gonna be a little murdered?
The second day in Prague we decided to do this walking tour. We'd gotten a shuttle from the airport that took us to our hostel, and part of the deal was they offered a free tour. It was a really great experience! It was nearly four hours and our guide really knew what he was talking about. He gave us a lot of history info as well as the state of the Czech Republic today. I think the most interesting parts of the tour were the parts that dealt with WWII. We've been learning about it in Italy, but understandably, Italians were sort of preoccupied with Mussolini at the time to deal with much else. But the Czech Republic really got a lot of problems from Hitler. The Czech Republic once was one of the most Jewish-populated countries in the world, but due to a mass exodus and the sheer amount of death brought by the Nazi's, more than two-thirds of the population were gone. Then after the war, the Czech people were so upset that they kicked out all the German citizens, even if they'd been in Czech for centuries.
Then the Czech Republic was occupied by Soviet Russia who forced communism on them through force and violence for years (I don't remember the exact year that communism ended in Czech). So the Czech Republic has sort of had a rough time of it. But they're doing pretty well now.
Another weird thing for me was that after being in Italy which is all about catholicism, going to the Czech Republic where something like 80% of the population is atheist. Basically they were caught between a bloody tug-of-war between Protestantism and Catholicism for years until finally they were like "we're just gonna be over here having no god and not killing anyone, okay? Okay. Bye." I guess after the seventh massacre or so you'd start to get really tired of religion in general. The thing is that in Italy, every big cool building is usually a church. All of them. In Prague, you'd be like "is that a church?" and the Czech people are like "No? Why would you assume it's a church?"
But when the Czech people do have churches, they do them right.
Check that out. It was built by King Wenceslas- like the Christmas song.
Also, as my French friend puts it, "Prague looks like something out of a Disney movie". Fun fact, that castle/church thing was actually the inspiration for the Disney castle at the beginning of the movies.
I also saw the astronomical clock, which tells the time (measured in hours since sundown), the sign that the sun and moon is in, and the astrological signs.
One of the things I loved most was the Lennon wall. After John Lennon died, someone painted his portrait on this wall. Other people started to paint other Beatles lyrics. Then, when the Czech Republic was occupied by the Soviets, students and other youths started to use the wall to criticize the government. It was painted over multiple times but new lyrics and words would appear immediately again. Eventually this wall was a major factor in a clash between soldiers and students on the Charles Bridge.
I even added a little something.
On the Charles Bridge there's a small plaque-thing commemorating a martyr- the story goes that this king was really jealous about his wife possibly cheating, so he went to the priest who heard her confessions and demanded that he tell him what his wife said in confession. The priest refused. The king had him tortured, and still the priest wouldn't tell him. Finally he had him killed and his body thrown off the bridge, right where this plaque is now.
Legend says that if you touch the figure and make a silent wish, it will come true.
And of course there's the food in Prague too. I mentioned earlier that it's a lot of meat and bread? Well, that's exactly what it is. This time out I ordered a "skewer", which is supposed to be another Czech tradition. That's all it said on the menu. Skewer. It was...well, it was a skewer. It was chunks of beef, chicken, bacon, pork, fat, and onions all on top of french fries. It was all good (well, I didn't eat the chunks of fat) but man was it a lot of meat. And of course the beer was excellent. Also as I was eating the french fries I realized that I hadn't had ketchup since America (they're not big on it in Italy).
Then these guys came out every now and again and played music on the bassoon and accordion. They didn't ask for tips or anything, just played and went back into the kitchen. We're pretty sure that they just worked in the kitchen and got bored.
That night we also did a pub crawl, which we thought would be better than it was. I mean, the Czech Republic is famous for beer (they drink more beer per person than any other country- and that figure includes infants) and we'd had a beer at a Irish pub the other night that was really nice, so we thought this would be great. Sample all kinds of Czech beers, go to nice pubs with locals, sit and reflect on things. Fun, right?
It was more of a club crawl than a pub crawl. The only beer included was basically Bud Lite. The clubs were empty except for our tour group and we'd wanted to go where the locals go, not where the tourists go. Plus everything was loud and flashing and people were dancing and we just looked at each other like "this is not what we wanted". So after the second place we skipped out and found a quiet little pub where we could sit outside and nurse an actual Czech beer. So, this is my official recommendation. Don't waste your money on a pub crawl in Prague.
The next day we just walked around and got this traditional Czech dessert, which is dough rolled in cinnamon and sugar and roasted over a fire. It was sweet and crunchy, but not like Italian desserts. Italy is way more into dessert than the Czech Republic is.
And of course, right before we left, we tried some Czech street food. In this case, a bratwurst. It was enormous and a mess and served with hot wine, which is another big thing here in Czech that I think Italians would be horrified at. It was really nice because the day was rainy and cold and it warmed you up just right.
Then there was a plane ride and a train ride and I collapsed onto my bed when we got home. Traveling is fun but exhausting.
