Thursday- Today we toured the Jewish Quarter of Old Town. It was a view into the life's of the Jewish people that living during WWII. The tour included 3 synagogues and a cemetery. The cemetery (oldest housed over 85,000 bodies. Originally there were about 12,000, but as more died and there was no place to bury them, they buried bodies on top of bodies. The headstones and crooked and close together and the ground is heaped high and uneven. No longer do people even have headstones marking where loved ones were buried. It is said that in some places it is 12 people deep. Jewish people do not believe in moving bodies once they have been put to rest, so this is why it has stayed this way.
Stops along the tour of the Jewish Museum included: Old Jewish Cemetery, Pinkas Synagogue, Maisel Synagogue, Klaus Synagogue and the Spanish Synagogue. These along with the Old New Synagogue are some of the only remnants of the original Jewish Quarter.
The most humbling part of the entire experience was in the Pinkas Synagogue. Someone lovingly and I'm sure painstakingly has written the names of all those Jews that were killed or died during WWII. The names, locations of origin and birthday date and death date or date of exportation are recorded. These names cover the walls. There is also a small exhibition housing the work of Jewish children that were in the concentration camp,
Theresienstadt.
There was a women that taught the children drawing and how to express themselves through art.
After leaving the Jewish Quarter we did a walking tour of Old Town using Rick Steves book. Then we headed to the River to walk along the river back to the hotel. While we were walking we saw some people Zorbing and decided to try it out. Basically you are put in transparent plastic orb and pushed out onto the water. Then you attempt to stand and roll on water. Of course David kept moving the tube and I could not stand up. It was hilarious and we were laughing so hard. We had to exert so much energy to try to keep ourselves up and to maintain balance. By the end of 10 min we were exhausted and sweaty.
Thursday night we joined with many of the individuals from the conference for a dinner at the Zofin Palace. We sat with a internal medicine physician and nurse perfusionist, Hannah, from Poland. We also met Shruthi during this dinner. Shruthi is PICU dr in Gainesville, FL, originally from India. She also happened to be staying at our same hotel, The Corinthia, and David had recognized her from when we checked in. The food was delicious and the entertainment amusing, but way too loud. The entertainment was Havelka's Sisters performing swing music from the 20-40s.
Friday- David spent part of the day at the conference, so I headed out without him. I had not gotten off the train at the Muzeum stop, so I checked it out today. It was the perfect stop. It dropped me off right in the middle of New Town and St. Wensaclas Square. I pulled out my handy Prague book and after reading the temporary exhibit discussing the history of the Czech Republic, I did a walking tour of New Town.
The exhibit about the countries history was enlightening. Within my lifetime these people experienced communism and the oppression from it. Only in the late 1980's/early 1990's were they no longer under communist rule. During less than a hundred year period they felt the effects of war and communism and hate.
Along my walking I came across an international festival with a group of singers and dancers from Poland. I thought about the strong traditions from some of these countries with their music, dance and native dress. The United States doesn't really have this.
I wandered on and headed across the Charles Bridge and dropped down into Little Quarter. There is a park that I walked along before heading back to the hotel.
Friday night we took our last trip to walk around Vysehrad Park. We ran into Shruthi at the Vysehrad Cathedral. It ended up being NOC (Night of the Churches), so all the churches around Prague were open and free to the public.
Saturday- We checked our of the Corinthia hotel, so I headed downtown to check out another hotel and another part of town. We decided to stay in the same area we were in, but move to the Holiday Inn. We are in a quiet part of town and the downtown area is really easy to access by the metro.
David headed to the conference for the last day and ended up winning an I-Pad for having the best pediatric oral presentation. Yeah for David!!!
Saturday night we headed back down town to explore the city and night and to take in the Charles Bridge and lights of Prague Castle. Around 10pm we met up with Shruthi and headed back to the hotel with her. At our stop, we ended up talking for at least an hour or two. We talked with her about the gospel and some of our beliefs. Shruthi is Hindu, but she said she has similar beliefs and we talked about connecting with people. She said meeting us was the best part of her trip. She is such a genuine, good person. You want to be around her because she eminates goodness. We will definitely keep in touch with her.
She spoke about the Mormons she has met in her life and how they are all kind. She works with a PA and a nurse and has a set of senior missionaries that live in her building. Her network of Mormons is expanding and I'm pretty sure it's expanding for a reason. I do not think it was a coincidence that we met. God is in the details.
Sunday- We woke up early and went to church. I love that most every place we have ever traveled, we have been able to find a church to attend. There are a lot of Expat's and English speaking visitors, so they have Sacrament and Elders Quorum/RS translated into English and Sunday School is separated into an English class and a Czech class. The Sunday School teacher was teaching for the first time. He had a very organized/prepared lesson. He looked like a lifelong member, super clean cut, wearing a suit and tie, white hair. But, David and him spoke later and he learned that he is a convert of less than a year. We talked with him and heard his story about joining the church. He was able to be baptized along with his fiance by his father on his father's 75th birthday. His dad had been trying to get him to join the church for years, so it was really sweet to hear how it ended. He's hoping to go through the San Diego temple with his fiance in the fall and hopefully get to attend General Conference.
I also chatted with Andrea for a while. She is living in Prague for 1 1/2 years while she teaches English to business men/women. She is hoping to travel to other locations teaching English while she has a few years before her son gets married and has kids and her mother needs her. She's from Cleveland, OH.
After church we napped at the hotel and the headed back downtown. We took the metro to the bottom of Castle Hill and then took the #22 tram up to the top of Petrin Hill. We walked up to the tower, walked around the park, ate Kielbasa and then then took the walk down to Prague Castle. The views were incredible and it was a great way to end Sunday. We did a final walk across the Charles Bridge and around Old Town before heading back to the hotel.
Monday- Day trip to the countryside in Northern Prague along the Germany border. Hrensko and Pravcicka Brana
