Back in Copenhagen after a 9 day excursion to Prague. I could have stayed longer - much longer. I felt instantly at home in that city and at the same time, like I could be there 10 years and never see it all. I wanted to check out everything, but it was overwhelming. How could I decide where to start? I planned a few destinations, but the small roads weave a web that can be quite difficult to navigate. The great thing was, when I couldn't find what I was looking for, I found something else just as interesting. It didn't take long for me to realize that the best way to investigate was to just pick a starting point and see where it lead.
I didn't go to a single museum or take a tour of any historical building, or pay for any of the countless attractions that I'm certain are worth seeing, yet I still witnessed more every afternoon than I could have hoped. The streets are cobblestone. I skipped running entirely but walked for hours each day - in Chucks - I do not know how the women of Praha wear heals in those streets! For the most part, pedestrians obey the traffic laws and cars stop for people in cross walks. For someone who drives down 2nd Street through Liberties Walk 5 times a week, THAT was an incredible site in itself! Another huge difference from Philly - those streets were clean. It wasn't until I saw one piece of trash in the road that I realized it was the ONLY trash I saw. How refreshing! Mainly tho, it was the amount of detail spent in the creation of Prague's architecture that got me. Various styles are represented, each more ornate than the last. Of course you expect it from the Baroque churches and Gothic castle, but the post office and the pizza shop, and the apartments down the street - the sheer abundance of beauty amazed me. And where there was a break in the buildings, there was a park, with even more sculpture.
Besides eating at a different vegetarian, often vegan, restaurant every day, a big highlight was getting a tour of Prague. My host works as a tour guide and was generous enough to spend 5 hours showing me the highlights - free of charge! By that point I had seen most of the city, but hearing the history enriched my experience of each place we stopped. Prague was occupied by the Nazis in WWII and I again found myself holding back tears as I was told about events that took place not all that long ago. To be honest, I never fully understood the connection that Jewish people today feel with those who lived during the time of the Holocaust. Of course the violence was horrendous. I am disgusted by bigotry and the level of mistreatment was astronomical. I cannot wrap my head around how something so wrong, gained so much power and destroyed so many people. But I had never felt it. I felt it in Warsaw and I felt it in Prague. I felt connected with a history that wasn't even my own, and I thought to myself if I was in a place where thousands of vegans were rounded up and persecuted for their beliefs I would be balling my eyes out. That feeling, along with a personal connection, would be more than I could take.
During this tour I did learn that the Christians thought to work with finances was to work with the devil, and therefor forced Jews to be the ones who handled the money. Of course it didn't take long for people to realize that those who handled finances ended up with money, which threw everyone off their game. This gave me a good chuckle :)
I will wrap up my ramblings about Prague by praising the people that I met there. Funny enough, most were not Czech. Tourism is huge there and I met a lot of couchsurfers from various European countries. Travel, as opposed to going to a vacation destination, seems much more prevalent in Europe than the US and I feel more akin to that mentality. Not that I am opposed to sitting my ass on a beach and sipping piña coladas for a week, but I always have the urge to get to know the inter workings of a new place. I will also say that I am a big fan of traveling alone. Again, with another person would be great, but when you are walking by yourself, your company is your surroundings. For me, it makes for a stronger connection with the area and the people in it. Thank you Prague for being so good to me!
