Prague

     Prague, the crowning jewel of the Czech Republic. A bustling city with crowds of visitors and far too many tourists to count. It is a beautiful city full of history. When I heard at the beginning of the semester that our group would be headed to Prague for a class trip, I was ecstatic. I had wanted to visit the city since I learned about it on my last trip to Europe (which unfortunately never visited the city). I was not disappointed. The city was far more beautiful than I could have ever thought, and the architecture was amazing. I know I've said that a lot throughout my blogs, but at one point in my past I wanted to be an architect so please forgive me for geeking out over beautiful buildings.

     At one point, we visited a large church (the name of which escapes me at the moment). From the outside, it didn't look that impressive, especially when compared with other religious monuments like the Vatican. However, looks can be deceiving and inside the church opened up into one of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen. I am not the religious type, but let me just say if my church were held here, I'd go every Sunday. Not only were the ceiling beautifully arched and tall as a mountain, there were also some of the most ornate and beautiful mosaic window panes I think I have ever had the pleasure of viewing. They were beautiful, and my only regret is that we went to the church on a partially cloudy day so the full effect of the artists handiwork was not in its full splendor. Even without light streaming in, which would have been amazing, the works still took my breath away, and I think I took a picture of almost every one of the murals. I have been to many art museums while abroad, seen everything from VanGoh to DaVinci , and yet the art that probably impressed me the most was little bits of colored glass pasted together in a beautiful church in the heart of Prague.

     While in Prague, we also visited a centuries old graveyard for Jewish families which doubled as a memorial for those Czech Jews who were taken during the Holocaust, never to return. The memorial was a large building, an old Mosque that had been taken over during the Nazi invasion. the walls of the building were covered in names, the names of those victims of the Holocaust taken from Czech lands. The building, mind you, was not small. It was a multi level affair. And on all of the walls, so thick it looked like paint when viewed from more than a few feet away, were the names of thousands upon thousands of Jewish people, Jewish families, entire Jewish communities, that were wiped out during the Holocaust. Out back was the graveyard, used for centuries before the Holocaust ever took place. The gravestones stood crooked and at awkward angles, giving it the appearance of a typical haunted graveyard you might see in a horror movie. Doug told us that people were buried here one on top of the other, with entire generations of families being buried in the same spot. It was a solemn occasion as we trundled through the looping path of the graveyard, which never seemed to end. It just kept winding behind buildings, revealing more and more graves as we walked. It was eerie, but also incredibly interesting taking a step back into a time before smartphones, before airplanes and cars, sometimes even before electricity.

      Prague's Jewish quarter houses one of the worlds oldest Mosques still in use. It was a tiny, dimly lit building that housed the relics that Jewish people use for worship in a cellar like basement. It was quite cramped, as the entire building wasn't much more than one room with chairs and a podium for the rabbi and those worshiping. It was an interesting place to be, especially knowing that it was still used fairly regularly by those Jewish people living in Prague today. Our final stop was another mosque, this time with a much darker back story. This was one of the few surviving mosques that Hitler left standing in Prague. In a show of triumph over his heinous deeds, Hitler was in favor of turning the Mosque into a museum for the people he wiped off the face of the earth. There were many different artifacts from all over Europe that German soldiers had stolen from Jewish houses and placed in the museum to commemorate the race that would be no more. Thankfully, Hitler did not fully enact his plan, but it still was a solemn place to be, seeing just how truly disgusting the Nazi regime was.
     With all the museums and mosques visited, it was time to wish Prague adieu. It was an interesting trip, to say the least, and one of the last we would take as a class this semester. It marked not only the start of the countdown to the end, but also the last major trip we would take in the Czech. From here, it was only Vienna waiting for us, not counting the impromptu trip to Bratislava the following weekend, but that's a story for a different time.