May 30th- Prague, Czech Republic

We arrived this morning around 7:40 am. It was pretty simple getting to the hostel but it was way out of the way. I guess I stupidly assumed that when you look at the location rating on the hostelworld site, it meant that the hostel was centrally located. Don't get me wrong, the hostel was in a nice area and it was very close to a tram stop, but it was not anywhere near walking distance to the Old Square or any square for that matter. So we get there and I booked the Sandeman's free walking tour at 11. If I haven't said this already, I highly recommend looking into these tours when you travel to big cities around the world. The guides are so knowledgable and often really passionate. This time, our tour guide was Michael from Germany, who grew up in England, and finally escaped to Prague. Little did we know that Michael had a reputation for going over on tours.... Its already a three hour tour and Mikey boo made it 4. The issues with this were: we hadn't eated all day; we booked a second tour in the afternoon through Sandeman for the Prague Castle- scheduled to start at 2:15. You can do simple math. We did not have time to get food. I have developed a little reputation on this trip- Jillian Michael's, maybe you have heard of her? Well anyway I am ike the anti-food Nazi. Too weird to make a Nazi reference on this essentially World War II European Tour? Nahhh. Anyway, I have a tendency to skip meals and walk the girls to death. In my defense, everyone said on the first day that themselves or their mothers would really like to see them lose 5-10 lbs on this trip. I am just trying to see that to fruition. SUE ME. 

So what did we learn on this incredibly long and history-packed tour? Well first, in many places, the streets are raised higher than where they first began. Flooding has a lot to do with this. I think I remember this correctly, but they would demolish building and pack the rubble and then just build on top of that. The older buildings you notice are like a few steps down to the main entrance. Around town you can see a castle with 3 towers on manhole covers and lamp posts etc. This is the symbol of Prague and represents the Prague Castle. Go figure! 

Prague was a major trade route. It was heavily fortified for protection. People first settled here in 4000 BC. It was a Celtic tribe known as "the boys," and they inhabited it until the Germanic tribe came. They called Prague "the boys home" which sounded like something German obviously, and eventually it evolved to be known as Bohemia. In 1355 Prague became the capital because of King Charles IV, who was the most powerful man in Europe outside of the Pope at this time.

Moving on, Charles IV is the father of this country. He built prague from the ground up and is responsible for much of its prosperity. Starting with the St. Charles Cathedral where building began in 1365 and finished in 1511 with two towers unofficially known as Adam and Eve. The towers being built 100 years apart are different widths and heights due to technological advancements in tools.  

More that Charles did:

Founded Charles University in 1348.

Home to the Estates Theater where Motzart wrote and premiered Dom Giovanni. The story of that piece is that a Suitor killed his girl's dad because the Dad wasn't wild about him. Dad haunted Dom Giovanni for the rest of his life. The Czech National anthem was premiered here too. "Where is my home" it was accurately named because the Czech people have lived in 9 countries but never moved. 

Built the St. Charles Bridge. He had tried twice before to build this bridge and once it burned and the other time I think it sank. Regardless, he decided that it wasn't the weather that mattered in choosing a day to build, but astronomy. So he went to the astrologer and got a date. The wise man told him to lay the first stone of the foundation on the 9th day of the 7th month of 1357 (maybe) at 5:31 am. Shockingly the numbers read 135797531 when you put them together. Sage man. Or maybe he really is since the bridge is still standing. 

The average Czech citizen (including babies) drinks152 liters of beer per person per year. So obviously this statistic isn't correct since they include individuals or cannot or do not drink. I can understand why though because their beer is so cheap and very delicious. 

The Czech Republic is also the 2nd most atheist country in the world and at one point had churches converted into clubs, hostels, housing, etc. 

Walking down the streets of the historic areas of Prague you may wonder if this is a real place or some sort of remake like Disney World. Well, Walt Disney did a Euro tour and modeled Cinderella's Castle after the famous Bavarian castle and got a lot of inspiration for the park from the beautiful, romantic European towns like Prague. There was some World War II damage but not much because Hitler loved Prague and wanted to perserve the beautiful city. They bombed everything else around it, however. 

The Astronomical clock is easily the single most important thing to see in Prague. It is the oldest still functioning clock of it's type in the world. There are multiple aspects of measurment included in the (year built) clock. One hand on the top clock point to sundown. This is also known as "city time" because it marked when the city would be alive and in business. The other hand points to the moon. The moon is black now with a little silver because we are almost in new moon. This is possible the coolest thing I have ever seen- like so awesome that someone was able to create this and that it remains accurate today after all that time. So those were two different ways the clock tells time. The third way of telling time is the sun in the background of the hands. It tells us the unequal hours of day- in summer the piece makes big circles, and in the winter, small circles because the days' sun hours change. I know this is a tad confusing but honestly it was over my head and told in the span of 45 seconds so it was the best I could do. The clock was created by Jan Ondrejuv and Zvany Sindel. To ensure that Jan could never make a clock like this again they cut out his eyes and tongue. He could still hear however, and he got his apprentice to take him up the tower and he listened and at the right time, he put his hands in and tinkered with something and the clock stopped working for 100 years. Legend says that when the clock stopped, so did the clockmaker's heart.  

There was a shit ton of history in between and it was all very interesting if you are interested in looking it up. Unfortunately my fingers could not type fast enough and pay attention and walk all at once so this is what you get. 

Franshicka (not the correct spelling but without wifi that is the phonics version) led the peasants through the 15 year crusades caused by anti-Hussite laws. He had one eye from a previous war injury. He actually lost the other eye in one of the numerous battles and on his death bed, to told his soldiers to take the skin from his back and make drum to beat going into battle. Sort of badass, sort of disgusting. 

At some point in the late 20th century there was the Velvet divorce between Slovaks and Czechs. Nicknamed this because of the ease of the separation.  

Wenceslas square is a place that people come to protest or share their emotions about things - Nigerians are here now voicing this distress about kidnapped girls in their home country. Another example of this public display of emotion is Yam Pulack (again God knows if the spelling is even close), a university student, who ran lit on fired through the square. He survived for 3 days after tram driver put his fire out. Another student soon mimicked him. They both wanted a reaction; to get the people to riot communism.  

The Czech Republic is Democratic now. The current president is a former communist and an open alcoholic and chain smoker. The people here have sooooo many "nice" things to say about him.  It's not over yet for them really (communism) since 30% of local councils are run by communist party. 

Frans Kafka is an obsurd writer who was born and raised here. We saw the house where he grew up and a statue based off of one of his works.  

 

In the Jewish Quarter, there was the Pynkas Synagague, the Old New Synagogue and one other that I don't recall the name of. There is a legend that Golum, a clay man with the strength of 10 men is locked in attic of the Old New Synagogue. They locked him here because there was like some curse that made the priest like write his prayers down and give them to him. It was convoluted and over my head. Apparently he is still there and now this synagogue is the only place they say the sabbath twice a day because they were in the middle of the sabbath when the curse was broken. I honestly don't remember. So complicated. 

Also for your entertainment, Cybil cannot understand the currency in any country. In Poland, under the Zloty, Cybil called it the Scholtzky. Well here in Poland on the Krowne, Cybil calls them Coronas. Like really Cybil? Get with it, you crazy American.   

So amazingly that was only half of our day. I dont want to bore you with the second half so I am going to give you the super condensed version. We went to Prague Palace. The President lives there. Every ruler who has inhabited this fortress on the hill has added their mark in some way, either with a new addition or renovations. This is easily the most hodgepodge castle on the planet and isn't really something I would even call a castle. The best part is the St. Vitus Cathedral. ORRRR the Strahov Monestary where monks make beer. What what?! Obviously I had to get some- do you sense a theme? The beer was called Sv. Norbert and came in three types: IPA, Amber, and Dark. Ya gurl obviously got the dark. Yum. Katelyn would also like you to know that the Amber was delicious. You can't buy it anywhere but the Monastery so get the lead out and get to Praha.