Let the blogs begin - Prague
Hello everyone!
I'm excited to launch my very first travel blog - well, any kind of blog really. As you can see in my bio, I've been travelling for many years now. Not just around the world (even though that's usually my preference) but around the country as well. Every time I return from a big vacation, usually far away, I'm asked if I blog about it and until now, that answer has been "no." But I learn so much on these trips, that I simply couldn't hold it in any longer. I'm hoping to post every 1-2 weeks and take you through current travels, reminisce on past experiences and maybe share a few recommendations and tips along the way. Travel is a true passion of mine (along with dancing, coffee and many other things I get to also enjoy while traveling) so feel free to ask questions, make your own recommendations or just enjoy. Happy reading (and traveling)!
Over the last few years, I've traveled with Overseas Adventure Travel - a tour company that specializes in small group tours that are educational, cultural and truly one-of-a-kind. While they cater to the retired population, I have found their tours and trip leaders to be remarkable. I enjoy travel on my own as well, but there's almost no way to experience everything when you do it on your own. They have timing down to a T.
I recently returned from an incredible 2 weeks with OAT in Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. I have a lot to say about every place I visited so I'll be starting with my time in and around Prague.
PRAGUE
I decided to arrive one day before the rest of my tour so I would have a bit of time to explore on my own and I'm so glad I did. My first full day in the city, I walked....and walked....and walked. I went to Petrin Hill (where that mini Eiffel Tower lives) and walked through the rose gardens. I then walked through Mala Strana - or Lesser Town - with it's beautiful homes and streets. I took a walk over the Charles Bridge and then did the walking tour of the Jewish Museum. This was where things really started to hit me.
THE JEWISH MUSEUM TOUR
The Jewish Museum in Prague is a series of former synagogues in the Jewish Quarter that have now been restored and used as museums, rather than a place of worship. One of the first stops here is Pinkas Synagogue. As you walk in, you see names. Hundreds. Thousands. Well nearly 80,000 to be more precise. These are the names of the Jews from Bohemia and Moravia who perished in the Holocaust. It is a simple and incredibly moving memorial.
Next to the Pinkas Synagogue is the Old Jewish Cemetery dating back to the 15th Century. I was listening to the audio guide and they explain that this cemetery has graves on top of graves. In a fairly small space there are actually upwards of 100,000 people.
The tour continues and there are numerous artifacts and memorabilia from the lives of former residents. In the Spanish Synagogue, there was a box full of Tefillin (small leather boxes used by men during morning prayers) collected from victims of the Holocaust. It was such a strange feeling to see these things not in a museum, but in a place where these victims walked, prayed, and lived. As I usually do when in the midst of an experience like this, I can only think "My being here proves Hitler did not succeed." But then I think about the millions of people - not just Jewish - that did not get this chance.
CZECH HISTORY
We also had a lecture on one of the mornings to help get an introduction into Czech Republic as it is and its history. I was fascinated to better understand the formation of the former Czechoslovakia and it's ultimate break-up into two countries as well as its role in WWII and the Soviet occupations. To think that as one country it was only formed early in the 20th Century, only to be given to Germany (in the hopes of appeasing them) and then to be at the behest of its politicians who decided to break apart into two countries. The idea that one day you were living in one country and the next morning you would wake up in another after an already tortured 50 years in unthinkable - and yet it happened. Having grown up in the US, it's hard to imagine being part of an occupied territory, or even being on the ground of a war. This gave a glimpse into what it was like, but it's still impossible to fully understand.
The next few days in Prague, we explored, toured the local eateries, visited a Farmer's Market, met local people. Walking through the Old Town Square, sitting and listening the dozens of talented musicians performing on the streets, and drinking beer....lots and lots of beer.
TEREZIN
One of our other free afternoons, many of us on the tour made a trip out to Terezin. Terezin is made of of two major areas - the Small Fortress, a prison, and the former ghetto town. We started at the Small Fortress, which was a prison long before the Nazis came. Of course, they had no problem filling and over-filling this small area. We were taken on a tour of the barracks, showers, tunnels and then brought back for a short movie. The movie showed the images captured for Nazi propaganda film side-by-side with drawings of the actual living conditions in the ghetto.
Not everyone know this, but one of the many ways the Nazis were able to do as much as they did without people knowing were the use of these films and, please forgive the weight of this, the fact that few lived to tell. Some of these pieces of propaganda were filmed in the Terezin ghetto - showing people playing games, gardening, living good lives. Obviously, this wasn't actually the case. The ghetto was actually used as a hub where they then transferred people out to the extermination camps. As the film played, they started reciting the trainloads of people that were transitioned out of the ghetto. "10,000 transferred, 10 returned. 12,000 transferred, 42 returned. 11,000 transferred, 0 returned." These aren't the exact numbers, but you can get the idea. I lost it. Tears started streaming down my face. I'd held it together for a long time, but I couldn't keep it in. I had that thought again, "My being here, experiencing this, means they didn't win." But that doesn't really make it easier.
IN THE END...
I'm going to do my best to keep my own political sway out of this, but the more I learned throughout my two weeks, the more worried I became with our current climate and situation. We don't, can't fully understand the hardships of being occupied or being caught in a world war, but we can work to stop it from happening again.
While I've traveled a lot, the emotional aspect of this trip was much greater than most of my previous ones. Even though my family isn't from these specific countries, and they were all in the US by the time WWII began, I can't help but to think of this shared history we have with the Jews and all people that perished in the Holocaust. Prague (and most of Czech Republic and Slovakia) no longer have Jewish populations. Even if people were able to make it home, they found their property occupied by another and they left. To truly be there and think about what life was like before, could have been like. If things were different, I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't have the family I have. It's a lot to take in. A lot to think about. Until next time...