This weekend (not this past one but the one before) I got to visit Prague, somewhere I have wanted to go since I can't remember. Our flight left in the afternoon from Verona, so we left the apartment around noon. We then took a shuttle to the train station. On our first leg of the journey we flew a local airline "Air Dolomiti" although it was only an hour long it was really nice. First of all, everything was teal, including the flight attendants' suits. We also got a snack, a mousse type thing that was really yummy. The only issue was, the flight left 45 minutes late, making our 1 hour layover a bit tricky. We did not get to see much of the Frankfurt airport. It was all kind of a blur considering we were running, but we miraculously made it. Upon arriving to Prague we took out money (really confusing, about 20 Czech Krowns per U.S. dollar) We then met up with Karissa's friends who are studying there. We found our hostel and then went out to dinner. I quickly learned that Czech food is not just heavy on the meat, but really heavy in general. I tried some delicious beef goulash and potato and bread dumplings. (my stomach was not happy the next morning) We then returned to the hostel.
The next morning we began our full day with breakfast at a local bakery. This is where I discovered that
everyone in Prague speaks english, literally everyone. I also discovered that I can really tell the difference between an Italian cappucinno and a non-italian one, but I lived. Anne and I walked around a bit, saw then Lennon Wall, and then I had my Jewish tour. My tour guide Roman was great, and there were a lot of characters in the group. This one guy looked like Eugene Levy, but yet wasn't Jewish miraculously! I discovered this because his wife was one of those people ( I think they were German) who was having a difficulty understanding the Holocaust. When our guide was talking about Terezin, a concentration camp near Prague, the woman kept interrupting him claiming that the Jews in the camp should have been able to defend themselves. I guess it was good to have this experience, but it was a bit annoying. I met some other really nice people on the tour. There was a nice Jewish couple from the U.K. and an older woman from the U.K. who was studying theology and asked me a bunch of questions about my practice. The Jewish Quarter was really cool. It is called Josefov after Joseph II ( Enlighted rule of Austro-Hungarian empire, son of Maria Theresa, if you want a better history lesson just ask me) It was really refreshing after being in the land of Churches known as Italy to see Hebrew everywhere and hear of familiar stories. Some of my favorite things that I saw were the Jewish cemetery ( really cool, also there is a gravestone that if you rub the lion's stomach, it is supposed to help you get pregnant..don't worried I steered clear of it see below) as well as a clock tower in Hebrew whose clock runs counterclockwise! I also learned at the Old-New Synagogue, you can go for services but they have bouncers at the door making sure you are actually Jewish and actually want to daven. I saw them in action on my way to the Reconstructionist services I attended. By the way, if you were worried that I forgot anything from the tour I took notes (come on it's me!) After the tour I met up with Anne and we took pics by these massive baby statues (with no faces) see the above blog post for a pic, really a bit creepy but worked for my photo diary because of metaphors. We then returned for the hostel for a bit and I got ready for services.
I decided to take a risk and not go to the touristy Spanish Synagogue for Kabbalat Shabbat, but a local Reconstructionist community I found online. This experience was absolutely incredible. The community is small, and are located in the basement of an office building. I arrived and was immediately warmly greeted by the Rabbi who was actually Israeli and had perfect English. Everyone who was at services introduced themselves and said Shabbat Shalom. The rabbi asked if I would light the candles. I was really nervous, but excited to feel a part of everything. Also, at the beginning of the service he introduced me as a special guest "A Reconstructionist representative from the United States" ( I am not sure how the RRC or JRF would feel about this but I went with it) The services were great. The community used their own siddur but it had a lot of the modifications in the prayers that I am used to at JRF. I knew 95% of the tunes, even a little Debbie Friedman was thrown in there! I especially loved her Misheberach (prayer for healing) because it was written with a mixture of Hebrew and English and here it was sung in a mixture of Hebrew and Czech…so cool. There was also a discussion after the service about the Torah portion which was nice to participate in. I decided I had to come back for Saturday morning.
Later that night, Anne and I met up with Karissa and her friends to go out to dinner and the bars. We went with a big group from the Prague program and were all really nice. The first bar we went was completely underground and like a maze. The second one that we took way out of town was more like a disco and was themed with lots of metal gears and stuff (very post-Soviet Union in my opinion). Anne and I had a bit of adventure getting back, it took as an hour when it should have taken 15 minutes, but luckily Prague felt very safe and people were out and about.
everyone in Prague speaks english, literally everyone. I also discovered that I can really tell the difference between an Italian cappucinno and a non-italian one, but I lived. Anne and I walked around a bit, saw then Lennon Wall, and then I had my Jewish tour. My tour guide Roman was great, and there were a lot of characters in the group. This one guy looked like Eugene Levy, but yet wasn't Jewish miraculously! I discovered this because his wife was one of those people ( I think they were German) who was having a difficulty understanding the Holocaust. When our guide was talking about Terezin, a concentration camp near Prague, the woman kept interrupting him claiming that the Jews in the camp should have been able to defend themselves. I guess it was good to have this experience, but it was a bit annoying. I met some other really nice people on the tour. There was a nice Jewish couple from the U.K. and an older woman from the U.K. who was studying theology and asked me a bunch of questions about my practice. The Jewish Quarter was really cool. It is called Josefov after Joseph II ( Enlighted rule of Austro-Hungarian empire, son of Maria Theresa, if you want a better history lesson just ask me) It was really refreshing after being in the land of Churches known as Italy to see Hebrew everywhere and hear of familiar stories. Some of my favorite things that I saw were the Jewish cemetery ( really cool, also there is a gravestone that if you rub the lion's stomach, it is supposed to help you get pregnant..don't worried I steered clear of it see below) as well as a clock tower in Hebrew whose clock runs counterclockwise! I also learned at the Old-New Synagogue, you can go for services but they have bouncers at the door making sure you are actually Jewish and actually want to daven. I saw them in action on my way to the Reconstructionist services I attended. By the way, if you were worried that I forgot anything from the tour I took notes (come on it's me!) After the tour I met up with Anne and we took pics by these massive baby statues (with no faces) see the above blog post for a pic, really a bit creepy but worked for my photo diary because of metaphors. We then returned for the hostel for a bit and I got ready for services.
I decided to take a risk and not go to the touristy Spanish Synagogue for Kabbalat Shabbat, but a local Reconstructionist community I found online. This experience was absolutely incredible. The community is small, and are located in the basement of an office building. I arrived and was immediately warmly greeted by the Rabbi who was actually Israeli and had perfect English. Everyone who was at services introduced themselves and said Shabbat Shalom. The rabbi asked if I would light the candles. I was really nervous, but excited to feel a part of everything. Also, at the beginning of the service he introduced me as a special guest "A Reconstructionist representative from the United States" ( I am not sure how the RRC or JRF would feel about this but I went with it) The services were great. The community used their own siddur but it had a lot of the modifications in the prayers that I am used to at JRF. I knew 95% of the tunes, even a little Debbie Friedman was thrown in there! I especially loved her Misheberach (prayer for healing) because it was written with a mixture of Hebrew and English and here it was sung in a mixture of Hebrew and Czech…so cool. There was also a discussion after the service about the Torah portion which was nice to participate in. I decided I had to come back for Saturday morning.
Later that night, Anne and I met up with Karissa and her friends to go out to dinner and the bars. We went with a big group from the Prague program and were all really nice. The first bar we went was completely underground and like a maze. The second one that we took way out of town was more like a disco and was themed with lots of metal gears and stuff (very post-Soviet Union in my opinion). Anne and I had a bit of adventure getting back, it took as an hour when it should have taken 15 minutes, but luckily Prague felt very safe and people were out and about.
The next day I woke up and went to services. The group was small ,but very nice. I then met up with Anne and went to see the Prague Castle. I did not expect the castle to be such a big complex but it was really cool. I spent a very long time in the art gallery, but also went to an exhibit about the history of the castle. I had no idea that the castle was over 2,000 years old. Exhausted, I decided to return to the hostel but on the way back got this circular doughy thing (see below) that is traditional in Prague (soo good) I then napped for a couple hours and met up with the group to go back out. This time they told us we were going to a Charles University Student Party. The party was just off the Old Town square, in a church, yes a church. The DJ booth even had a glowing cross. Yes this was a typical disco atmosphere with the drinks, techno music and dancing, and we were in a church. This ended up being a ton of fun despite the location being odd, we danced for two hours and then returned back to the hostel.
The next day was pretty relaxed. I saw a cool Mucha and Dali exhibit, visited Wencalas Square, tried a bit more street food and then went home. Overall, weekend trip= success!
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