The big activity for today was an Andrew and Tina-recommended
trip to Terezin, the Jewish Ghetto and prison 40 miles outside of Prague. Since it was an hour each way by bus, we wanted
to get a relatively early start. We ate a
quick breakfast of beautiful pastries at the little French bakery under our
hotel, and found our way to the bus station.
I was feeling so proud of how we navigated the metro to the bus station
as we were running up to platform 7 to hop on the bus just before the 10 am
departure only to find that we were in the entirely wrong bus station (and to
be informed of this mistake first by the bus driver (“Terezin?” “No, no no!”)
and then by a very unfriendly ticket agent (who practically spat at me)). The next bus left 45 minutes later from a bus
station a couple of stops away on the metro.
We easily made the next bus and got to Terezin in
time for an “English” tour of the Small Fortress – our guide did deliver the
info in English but didn’t have enough command of the language to understand
our questions. We also learned quite a
bit in their wonderfully informative museum. The Fortress, just outside of the
town, was a fort for many years and turned into a Gestapo prison for political
dissidents (of any religion) during the war. The majority of prisoners were not
Jewish but the Jews were treated particularly harshly. It was not a
concentration camp (no gas chamber) itself but more of a weigh station for Jews
on the way to gas chambers in other countries.
Many people lost their lives in Terezin prison but mostly to really poor
conditions, illness, and some executions. It is just hard to picture how
terrifying life must have been for these prisoners and even harder to believe
that anything like this happened in modern history. On the way into the Small Fortress there is a
National Cemetery which is notable for both the huge cross and Star of David towering
over the tombs.
After a few hours in the Fortress, we walked the kilometer
into the town of Terezin, which had been turned into a “model Jewish town”
during the war for propanda purposes but was really just a pitstop for Jews on
the way to death camps. Because it started as a cute town that was
evacuated to make space for Prague Jews on their way to other places, it
appeared to be a lovely place where Jews were being well treated. So, this was the site shown to the Red Cross
to prove that Jews were being treated humanely during the war…but their visit
that took a year to prepare for only lasted 6 hours.
Rather than choosing between the two restaurant options in
Terezin, we opted to grab some delicious yogurts from a corner market and take
the next bus back to Prague, which meant we sadly missed the Museum of the
Ghetto. We wanted to get back to Prague to catch one more sight before
everything closed at 6:00 pm.
We walked from the bus station (never in the best parts of a
town) to the misnamed Veletrzini Palace
to see the Alfons Mucha’s 20-piece masterpiece “Slav Epic”. He attempted to capture the 1500-year history
of the Slavic people in 20 huge canvases that all together are slightly larger
than the size of the Sistine Chapel. One
nice thing about living in a young country is there just isn’t all that much
history to know. It seems impossible to
keep track of everything that has happened in this region.
From there we decided to walk back into the city center to
get dinner. We couldn’t decide between
two restaurants – one Rick Steve’s recommendation for their vegetarian options
and one a pizza place that we had stumbled upon during our walk on our first
day. Because we had an actual address
for the Rick Steve’s option, we went there and sat in the lovely outdoor
courtyard. The Klub Architektu has by
far the best looking menu we’ve seen in Prague; it is not a vegetarian
restaurant, we highly recommend to any and all!
But, the pizza place was also calling our names, so we decided to do a
progressive dinner. We had a delicious
fried goat cheese and arugula appetizer with balsamic glaze and raspberry sauce
and some raspberry lemonades. (Because
we are not partaking of the traditional Czech beer and meat we became focused
on ordering malinovka – a traditional raspberry soda that they call lemonade –
whenever possible.) 
We then went in search of the specific courtyard that we
had stumbled upon on our first day with the pizza restaurant and using a photo
we had taken of a nearby flower shop as a clue, we found it pretty easily. We ordered rigatoni arrabiatta and margherita
pizza. And, then though we were tired and it was out of the way, we went in
search of the perfect local dessert - trdelnik
If I’m honest, it really wasn’t as good as the first one which is
probably a good thing…I got a little concerned trdelnik wouldn’t be limited to
Prague and I don’t know how many of them I should eat!
We returned to our hostel and listened to the karaoke
championship. No one bats an eye when my
teenagers wander into a bar. It is super
clear that Prague is a great place to be if you are twenty-something looking
for some nightlife. Those of us who
aren’t just went to our room for bed.
Another full day – we walked over 10 miles!
No comments:
Post a Comment