July 16
Lauren has been on me about my lackluster attempt to keep up the daily posts about our trip so Jenny’s back to share our first full day in Prague. In the a.m., our group met a little old man up near the palace and the church of St. Giovanni. Although somewhat difficult to understand his version of “English”, we did pick up on the fact that he was absolutely obsessed with Prague. We were introduced to the story of St. Sebastian and saw the most beautiful church dedicated to him. It was built over 3 different architectural periods, so essentially its designed in 3 layers. Pretty cool. The stained glass on the inside is actually somewhat of a phenomenon because it was designed to flood the church with color and the glassmakers never shared their secret of how they got this glass to reflect the way it does. It’s like looking at an inside sunset. The story of St. Giovanni was a curiosity. This guy was a priest back in the day, and he was opposed to something going on (no surprise there…) and they basically threw him over one of the Prague bridges. Well his body washed up a little ways down and as he was dying apparently 5 stars appeared around his head. (Can someone say the witness must have paid a little visit to Amsterdam…). So now he’s the patron saint of the city and I think of sailors too. Everywhere there are statues and paintings of him and there are always 5 stars around his head. After the church we strolled down the cobblestone roads and crossed the famous Charles bridge. We went through the Ignatius college and saw a monument made entirely of keys. When communism finally fell in the Czech Republic, they called for bus drivers to turn in keys and so they have thousands that they made into a monument celebrating freedom. I can’t recall why the bus drivers had to… You’d think that they still want to be able to get around with the new gov and all…? Had a great lunch right off the square where we watched the Astronomical clock perform its 12 o’clock cuckoo show. Lauren tried the cuddle fish pasta, which just so happens to be made out of squid ink. She wasn’t impressed. I had an amazing dessert that was too fancy for words. It was like food network material. And I ate every bite of it.
Later in the afternoon, we chose to go on an optional excursion to the Terezin concentration camp. It was overwhelming. We went through the museum first and were crying when we walked out. The very first room there was dedicated to the children of Terezin who lost their lives there. The walls are covered with the names and ages of each child that died. There are little drawings of what life was like in the camp and poems that were recovered. The last room chronicled the extermination process and had pictures of mothers and children in the left line bound for gas rooms and fathers in another to work to death. Bodies piled in massive heaps. Starved. It was one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen.
After the museum we got to go through the concentration camp and jewish cemetery. They grossly overcrowded the space and ended up burying about 700 dead bodies in a shallow, communal grave. After the war, they tried to separate as many as they could and so they’re buried in a field of roses now.
It was definitely an eye-opening day. –Jenny & Lauren-