What an amazing city! Dad, every bridge we walked over my eyes automatically sought out any restaurant-bars that were on a boat and pictured you there. Prague didn´t have the huge grandeur that London or Paris did, but there was something that made me love it right away. Maybe the beer prices. But truly, I don´t know where else you can see huge mountainy greens, rivers and long bridges, and Europe´s largest "castle"...which is not actually a castle, it´s a palace all the people agree, but does not look like a castle in any way. Has breathtaking views of the entire city though. And since Prague was too poor to light the castle up at night they required an investor. Who stepped in, but Mick Jagger! Apparently the large astronomical clock we attempted to read in Old Town Square is one of the biggest tourist disappointments in Europe. Working for hundreds of years, this clock rings 78 times every hour, whilst tourists cluster below waiting...and waiting....and waiting for something great. Anything. Then a little skeleton and some apostles puppets bob their heads. We learnt a lot about their history during the communism takeover, and it was nice to find a country in Europe with a considerably new history and buildings. We went inside the Palace and St. Vuit´s Cathedral - huge and elaborate church, with sharp black and gold contrasts on its statues and architecture. Wallenstein Garden seemed to go on forever, and we climbed right to the top it its green mountainside to view their fake Eiffel Tower (which you could actually see from way across the river).
One of the coolest things we saw, after a long time circling the neighbourhood, was the John Lennon Wall. It´s a long, graffiti covered wall of resistance and activism; but is actually the second one - the first was painted over during the communist reign. The Jewish Quarter was very moving, seeing the ghetto and hearing the stories their living conditions there. It´s cemetary is a small, elevated area for all the Jews in the entire quarter. The cemetary is elevated because it is 10 cemetaries buried on top of each other, every time one filled up! We went inside several synagogue museums there, the most touching of which was Pinkas Synagogue. It has the names of all the 80,000 (known) Jewish victims of genocide in Prague, handwritten; and the top floor has a collection of hundreds of artwork from the Jewish children in Terezin camp. Only 242 of the 8,000 children survived, and this was their emotional expression from the deathcamp.
Prague is a great place for people-watching in its squares, and an even more incredible night life scene. Beer here costs 1euro only. Cheaper than pretty much anything else. We went on the New Europe Club Crawl, which involves a free t-shirt, 2.5hrs of free drinking in an ancient church basement converted into a hole-in-the-wall bar, and two other clubs. It was bright lights, loud music, beer pong, and trying to make our way through the seas of people to get drinks with the wildest young travellers around. Another night we tried Absynth icecream - which is actually delicious- and listened to live music in the square. We became a group of 3 for most of Prague with a girl from London, who besides being a genius, is incredibly kind and surprised us with beer and coffee for Canada Day! Also got a red rose while we sat in the square for being the most beautiful person in the square...though the guy who gave it to me clearly had a beer or two. But he walked straight so I´ll count it.
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