Prague - Saying Goodbye to Czech and Slovakian

The Three Misters

One of the Jewish Synagogues

The Charles Street Bridge

Prague Architecture

The Old City Gate

The Oldest Synagogue in Europe

Statue of Kafka

Statue of Jan Hus - religious reformer burned at the stake

Prague Castle

Tyre Cathedral

St. Nicholas Church

Prague City Hall

View from the Charles Street Bridge

View from the Charles Street Bridge

Astrological Clock

Three Misters and Prague in the background

Our Hippy-hostel

St. Victus Cathedral

View of the snow covered city from the Castle

Sky on the flight home

The fourth and final leg of our trip through Europa Centraal (Dutch) was to a city that has been hailed as one of the most beautiful in all of Europe – Praha (Czech) – and it certainly lived up to its reputation. We arrived late on the Saturday night and headed immediately from the bus station to our hostel: Hostel Elf. Now we knew we had picked a hostel on the edge of the city, so we weren’t expecting much, luckily that’s just what the Elf ordered. The night we arrived we walked into a smoke filled room (the reception area) at about midnight, a man, about our own age, rose from a couch full of chatting, intoxicated people, and with two beer bottles – on in each hand – asked for our information and checked us into the spray paint decorated hippy-hostel.

After a crappy night of sleep, due in large part to the noise both outside the window and inside the hostel, and in part to the missing plank in the bottom of my bed which caused a crink in my back, we headed out to see the wonders of Praha. We first ran into the group of Loyola-ites who had already toured Prague and were leaving at about noon – we caught them with just enough time to release them. After catching up with them, and finding out a few sights to see in the city, we headed out to experience the capital of the Czech Republic.

We wanted to catch a free walking tour (pay by tips) in the middle of the afternoon, but with time to spare, we did a little exploring of our own. Guided by a trusty map from the tourism center, we walked through the heart of the city and decided to try and climb toward the castle – our first of several trips up. After wandering significantly around the other side of the river we headed back over the river to the Old Town Square to meet our tour.

Our spunky tour guide was a half American/ half Czech girl named Katka, who was very excited to show us the city. We wandered through the old town square which dates back to the 10th century. We admired the sites of the main square including the Astrological Clock dating back to 1410, when it was built by Mikulas of Kadran. The rumor is that Kadran built such a beautiful clock that the Nobles of Prague had his eyes gouged out and tongue cut out because they didn’t want him to be able to build or tell anyone how to build a clock that beautiful in another city. As a result, Kadran came (stumbling I imagine) and put a curse on the clock, which stopped it from working for 100 years. We also saw the two churches that dominate the square: The Tyne Cathedral and St. Nicholas Church. The Tyne Cathedral is a distinct part of the Prague skyline because one of its spires is larger than the other.

From there we headed to the New Town square which was the center of the political turmoil in Prague during the Soviet regime – the center of the famous 1968 Prague Spring. In this famous act of non-violent protest, the Czech people, knowing that the Soviet army was headed in to end some political turmoil, removed all the signs from all the roads around Prague except the ones pointing back to Moscow, which caused a 3 day delay in what should have been an 8 hour trip to the Capital and largest city Czechoslovakia. The reason the Czech people were informed of the Soviet advance was because the Soviets had planned to move at midnight – after the radios were shut off – and arrive in Prague before the sun rose. However, they didn’t take into account day lights savings time, which meant that the army began to move at 11 – giving the people plenty of time to plan their mischief.

Following our free tour we headed through the Jewish section of Prague. The Jewish section of Prague has some of the best preserved synagogues in Central and Eastern Europe. The reason being that during his occupation of the Czech Republic, Hitler chose to preserve Prague’s Jewish section to make it a walk through museum dedicated to the extinguished race – a hollow thought.

After finishing our tour near the Charles Bridge, the Misters headed to a traditional Czech Pub recommended by one of Martin’s friends. After a delicious beef stew dish, we were headed back out to tour the city in the cold night. We wandered up near the castle on the opposite side of the river and then headed back to a local pub that was playing the Superbowl. Though Matt and I managed to stay up to watch the rest of the game, the Mister had had a long day and decided to head back to the hostel.

The next morning we were up early, and searched for an ATM, because our hostel would only take Czech Kroning and we didn’t have enough to pay the whole tab on our own. Our plan was to try and get a tour of the Prague Castle, however, our delay finding money meant that we were only able to wander about the other side of the river for a bit before needing to depart for the airport. Bidding farewell to our favorite Mister, and hoping to see him again, Matt and I headed to tour the Castle and the St. Vitus Cathedral while the Mister headed to his home in Slovakia.

By the end of our trip we had spend 8 days, in 7 cities, in 4 countries, with 2 Americans and 1 great Slovak hero.