I don't anticipate much of anything else of interest happening today, so I might as well summarize today's events.
Had breakfast at the hostel (inconsistently spelled as "Chili Hostel" or "Chilli Hostel") -- very simple, but adequate. Then hiked off to Josefov, the old Prague Jewish quarter -- still in remarkably good condition, which can (perversely) be attributed to the Nazis' desire to maintain a "Jewish Museum." It still is a Jewish Museum, of a different sort, split among several old synagogues. A lot of interesting artifacts; some of the displays, particularly in regard to Jewish holidays, are clearly aimed at those with absolutely no familiarity with the religion.
Mom, you may or may not be pleased to know that there's a decent amount of Golem-themed tourist kitsch (I took a photo of a Golem Restaurant, miniature ceramic Golems are pretty ubiquitous, and I saw an ad for a very tacky-looking musical based on the story.)
This is stream-of-consciousness, so I think I may be getting ahead of myself, for those of you unfamiliar with family history. My great-great-great-great... (et cetera, et cetera -- no clue what the correct number of "greats" is) grandfather was Rabbi Judah Loew, a somewhat famous rabbi known as the Maharal of Prague. Legend (admittedly, I don't really believe it, but it's an interesting story nonetheless) has it that he once created a Golem (a living creature made out of clay) in order to defend Josefov from anti-Jewish attacks, but was forced to destroy it when it became too violent. (I may not want to cite Wikipedia for papers, but their entry on this has a lot of interesting context. Take a look, people.)
Anyway, I managed to visit Rabbi Loew's former synagogue, the "Old-New Synagogue" (aka Altneushul, aka Staronová) which is still in use -- quite impressive, given that it dates back to the 13th century -- and the Old Jewish Cemetary next door, which has Rabbi Loew's tombstone. It's quite a sight -- the Jews were forbidden to expand it, which forced them to stack graves vertically, and also resulted in a rather dense collection of tombstones.)
The most moving exhibit was a Holocaust memorial at the Pinkas synagogue, with thousands of names of victims surrounding its walls, and a collection of lovely (and, given the context, disturbing) children's art from Terezín (Theresienstadt). More on that tomorrow, since I'm planning on visiting the site then (it's less than an hour from Prague by bus), based on a parental suggestion. (No, Dad, I don't feel like you pressured me into it; it seems interesting, and I didn't really have enough planned to fill three full days, anyway.)
As you may have gathered, there's not so much wacky fun stuff I'm doing... this trip is, I guess, mostly educational. What can I say?
1 comment:
Hello Aaron
I have been in Prague for 2 weeks, I absolutely loved. I was there with my friends. During the day we went to visit what the guide told us to: ) I loved to visit the Jewish quarter because I never has a great connetion to the Jewish culture. The 1st synagogue is very touching, all those names written on the walls as well as the children drowings.
But the evening we spent them in bars. I will leave you here a list of some nice Prague music clubs you can go or if any of your fiends want to go there.
I found the city beautiful, like a fairytale land, the towers, the castles, the cathedrals….
I also found the city safe as you can see in this article from the government pages. We could always be out till late that we never had problems or ever saw any incident.
In the end it was too sad to leave Prague, all that ritual…airport, check in, boarding.
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