Thursday, April 30, 2009
Auschwitz
Don't think I can describe the experience in words, but it certainly blew away anything I had imagined. I guess I never really sat down and thought about the scale of what happened in any specific place. I think someone said the second camp we went to Auschwitz-Birkenau was something like 500 acres. Just houses and barbed wire as far as you can see. They had even begun building another one that was gonna be the same size. There is a Polish suburb there now. The tour was just riveting, even having read books, been to other museums, taken classes etc. I am more humbled now than I have ever been. And to think the largest group killed there were Hungarian Jews(as was my grandfather), some 430,000! Fortunately I will be taking the train back to Hungary and not the other way. I feel blessed for having been able to pay my respects, in a sense not just to those who passed, but to those who could have been.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Prague
Busy day, started with a filling breakfast at the hotel. Spent the next hour reading about Prague history on the internet and guidebooks to prep for the long day ahead. Began the day with a walk to the Old City Square. Took loads of pictures, checked out the clock, Kafkas old house, took the very interesting elevator up to the top of the tower and got some panoramic shots. The City Square is a fantastic plethora of history, and architecture. Originating in the 1200's when the Burghers got permission to trade in the town, the town hall and cathedral were originally adjacent to one another. Much of the town hall has been destroyed through the years but the tower still stands. There are gothic and baroque buildings surrounding the square, as well as a memorial to Jan Huss, a protestant martyr whose teachings begat the eventual thirty years war between the protestant bohemians and the catholic hapsburgs.
After the city square I walked to the jewish quarter. There was MUCH more here than I could have imagined. The Jewish museum which only really seems to have come to it's own in the mid 90's has really done an amazing job preserving buildings and artifacts. The history was too rich to go into detail here, but the main highlight is a gothic synagogue, the oldest active synagogue in the world, dating from the 12th? century, with original vaulted ceilings in tact. Also very cool was the jewish cemetery. After further exploring the Jewish quarter I stopped for lunch at a lovely traditional czech restaurant u vlavu and had some Staropramen beer, goulash, and mushroom boiled potatoes...
For many this would've been a full day, but I plowed ahead with blistered feet, and aching achilles, to cross the great Charles Bridge, over towards the Prague Castle. The castle sits atop a giant hill, and has been the seat of Bohemian authority for 1,000 years. The cathedral on top was a major highlight, as it is free to enter. You can only imagine what a medieval person would think walking into such a building, when it still inspires such awe in this day and age. Following my stroll around the castle area, I proceeded down towards the Spanish synagogue for an amazing 6 piece classical music concert, performed by the Czech collegium, which is all members of the czech symphony orchestra. There were 3 violins, a bass, an oboe, and at times a trumpet and opera singer. They performed a range of works, starting with the more classical Bach and Mozart, and then moving to their treasures, and utterly beautiful czech ballads done by Dvorak and Smetana. They also included a Tchaicofsky a nice nod to the Ruskys, a couple of Italian opera pieces, a French romantic piece by Bizet, and beautifully finished with a piece from West Side Story, which was a very nice touch to an amazing show.
Finally exhausted I began my trek(hotel was not exactly in center of town, but was very nice) back to the Hotel Galilee. On the way I walked down the Wenceslas Square, which is like the main boulevard of Prague(New not Old city), and happened upon a little rock concert which was kind of cool. That is what the picture is from...
Prague
Set in the fairytale landscape of Bohemia, Prague oozes with Gothic charm. As Frans Kafka once said of the city, "this little mother has claws
Monday, April 27, 2009
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