Kde Je Mladek
The title of this post is the name of a Bohemian drinking song, entitled "Where is the Young Brewer?" We learned it today in Czech class, which is turning out to be difficult but helpful. Today I was able to order a pastry and understand the price entirely without the use of English. I seem to be picking up the language fairly quickly- being surrounded by it day and night certainly helps hammer it all in.
This week, we had a lot of free time to explore the city. I have discovered good new restaurants and interesting side streets to wander. I also discovered the humongous park two blocks from my apartment that runs along the river for probably two miles and eventually leads to the Prague Castle. The other night, iPod shuffle in hand, I strolled down the lower path (closer to the river, with the view of most of the city) and walked the entire length of the park. On the way, I passed the Beer Gardens, which is basically an outdoor pub with a view, a neat old building that houses a restaurant, and a plaza with a large metronome that stands in place of a statue of Stalin that had occupied the site during the reign of Communism in this country. This monument is visible from as far away as the Old Town Square and, though I wasn't aware the night I walked by, probably holds much significance for the people of Prague.
I ended up at the Castle after the park ended, and I wandered into a side entrance guarded by a very lax security guard who paid no attention to me whatsoever, even though it was past 11 pm and the Castle was clearly closed to the public. I went it further and saw a line of uniformed soldiers marching through a gate, and they each individually turned to look at me. I decided at that point that it was time for me to leave, and I took the trams and metro home.
On Thursday, we had a tour of the Jewish Quarter led by the history teacher whose class will begin next week. We toured most of the synagogues and the old Jewish cemetary, which was used between 1450 and the late 18th century. The Spanish Synagogue was by far the most beautiful, having been built by Reform Jews in the 1870s and decorated in a lavish Spanish style, with gold leaf and arabesque designs covering every surface, including the organ. (Yes, an old synagogue with an organ built in. That was odd to me.) The oldest was the Old-New, which until recently had the longest continuing regular minyan (700+ years!) and was built in the 1270s in a very Gothic style. The most humbling shul, of course, was the Pinkas, which was converted after the war into a memorial to Czech Holocaust victims. Names of victims from every town in the entire country of the Czech Republic line the walls from floor to ceiling. I got the chills walking in and yet somehow couldn't tear myself away when we left.
Tonight, we will be attending a Shabbat service at the Spanish synagogue. I will write about this at a later time.
This week, we had a lot of free time to explore the city. I have discovered good new restaurants and interesting side streets to wander. I also discovered the humongous park two blocks from my apartment that runs along the river for probably two miles and eventually leads to the Prague Castle. The other night, iPod shuffle in hand, I strolled down the lower path (closer to the river, with the view of most of the city) and walked the entire length of the park. On the way, I passed the Beer Gardens, which is basically an outdoor pub with a view, a neat old building that houses a restaurant, and a plaza with a large metronome that stands in place of a statue of Stalin that had occupied the site during the reign of Communism in this country. This monument is visible from as far away as the Old Town Square and, though I wasn't aware the night I walked by, probably holds much significance for the people of Prague.
I ended up at the Castle after the park ended, and I wandered into a side entrance guarded by a very lax security guard who paid no attention to me whatsoever, even though it was past 11 pm and the Castle was clearly closed to the public. I went it further and saw a line of uniformed soldiers marching through a gate, and they each individually turned to look at me. I decided at that point that it was time for me to leave, and I took the trams and metro home.
On Thursday, we had a tour of the Jewish Quarter led by the history teacher whose class will begin next week. We toured most of the synagogues and the old Jewish cemetary, which was used between 1450 and the late 18th century. The Spanish Synagogue was by far the most beautiful, having been built by Reform Jews in the 1870s and decorated in a lavish Spanish style, with gold leaf and arabesque designs covering every surface, including the organ. (Yes, an old synagogue with an organ built in. That was odd to me.) The oldest was the Old-New, which until recently had the longest continuing regular minyan (700+ years!) and was built in the 1270s in a very Gothic style. The most humbling shul, of course, was the Pinkas, which was converted after the war into a memorial to Czech Holocaust victims. Names of victims from every town in the entire country of the Czech Republic line the walls from floor to ceiling. I got the chills walking in and yet somehow couldn't tear myself away when we left.
Tonight, we will be attending a Shabbat service at the Spanish synagogue. I will write about this at a later time.
posted by Unknown at 3:35 PM
1 Comments:
Very much enjoying your blog...makes me homesick for Croatia though. Czech sounds very much like Croatian (though spelled differently). The experience with the night trams was very familar to me:) Enjoy!
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