Wednesday was our day to tour Old Town and the Prague Castle. We headed out in the morning and made a pit stop at one of the street vendors we had seen the day before for potatoe-sausage-sauerkraut dish for what we thought was just 32 korunas ($1.50!). We ordered it and when she said 200 korunas ($10!!!!!), we look flabbergasted and realized it was 32 korunas for 100 g. We awkwardly had her put back some, which she did with a big of slop into the pot and some dirty looks, and then enjoyed our 108 korunas worth for some breakfast. At this point, Elizabeth and I started to get really cold. We hadn't dressed very warmly for the day, because we are still new at this whole cold weather thing and for some reason thought it wasn't too cold out. We kept seeing all these women with big parkas with fur trim and we wanted us two of those. We causally went into a few stores looking for these parkas, but no luck.
We decided we were hungry (our potatoe-sausage-sauerkraut schlop hadn't been enough) and went to this really odd cafeteria type restaurant (recommended by Rick Steve's.) We are really trying to embrace the culture by trying all their food, but this place reminded me of the VA cafeteria, one of the hospitals we sometimes work at. Needless to say, our cabbage and spinach and pork with potato dumplings wasn't anything to write home about, and the service was usual Prague- cold and unfriendly.
We went into the Old Town square and did a Rick Steve's walking tour across the Charles Bridge and up to the Strahov Monastery where we got a beautiful view of Prague. We realized there was not much for us to do here, so we headed over to Prague Castle. Prague Castle is where the Czech leaders have ruled for more than a thousand years. We visited the St. Vitus Cathedral, the basilica of St. George, the old royal place, and the Golden Lane. We met the first friendly Czech person in the cathedral. We couldn't find St. Vitus' tomb, so we asked the tall older guard and he seemed very excited to show us the tomb and even said "bye bye!" We have been a little deprived of human interaction in Prague, so it was a much needed smile. The stained glass windows in the cathedral were beautiful and our favorite part of the day.
After we had our fill of the castle, and couldn't feel our fingers anymore, we headed out for some serious parka shopping. After several fruitless hours, we realized stores were now selling "spring" coats. Elizabeth and I destined ourselves to freezing to death. We decided to cheer ourselves up with some warm wine and then even indulged in our favorite little treat - "a little kitten"...gingerbread cookie sandwich stuffed with raspberry filling (see pic below!) Deliciously cute!
We explored a little more and found our way to dinner and had some of the best gnocchi I've ever had. Mmmmm.
Thursday was my birthday! With just over a thousand korunas to our name, we had to ration our gold. See, everywhere else we are visiting in Europe takes euros but Czech uses korunas and we had only taken out so many and for some reason were on a mission to not get out more. We soon found out we could use euros in Prague, but like I said, we were on a mission. On our way home the previous evening, I had spotted a black parka with fur trim just one street down from our hotel, in a window of a shop, so we started off our day going there. And guess what, it fit and the price (and she took US dollars) was right! For the rest of the day, Elizabeth and I were treated like royalty since we fit in now! Just kidding. But the lady at the store was very sweet and she even gave me a scarf since it was my birthday! Nicest person we had met in Prague!
We enjoyed ourselves a delicious sausage with horseradish and kraut for breakfast (see picture) and then headed to the Jewish Quarter to see the sights. The Old-New Synagogue, built in 1270, is one of the oldest Jewish Synagogues in eastern Europe. The Nazis had not destroyed it, like many other synagogues, because they had plans to turn it into a "museum of the extinct Jewish race." We saw the Old Jewish cemetery, the ceremonial hall (where burials where conducted), and several other Synagogues - the Spanish Synagogue (which was gorgeous inside!), Maisel Synagogue, Klaus Synagogue, and Pinkas Synagogue.
The cemetery was fascinating because it contained upwards of 100,000 Jews in a very small space, many buried on top of each other. From 1439-1787 this was the only cemetery Jews were allowed to be buried in, in all of Prague.
My favorite part of the sites, was the Pinkas Synagogue which was a memorial to the victims of the Nazis. The names of 77,297 Czech Jews who were killed in the camps are written on the walls of this synagogue. Upstairs, there are drawings done by kids from the Terezin Concentration Camp. It's weird to think these innocent children who should be drawing rainbows and flowers are instead drawing pictures of the home they miss in Prague, pictures of cattle cars they were transported in, pictures of giving away all their belongings.
After this uplifting visit of the Jewish Quarter, Elizabeth and I headed to a French restaurant where gorged ourselves on raclette (oh how we miss thee melted cheese) and some delicious white bean pork. Liz insisted we get a birthday cake, but all I wanted was another "little kitten" cookie.
We spent the rest of the afternoon doing self guided walking tours through Old Town, sipping on warm mulled wine and spending the last of our korunas on street food. We might have been searching the floor for an extra 10 korunas to get a 60 koruna sausage, but ended up with a 50 koruna crepe instead.
At 7:15pm, we we arrived at The Image Black light Theatre to see Afrikania. Black Light Theatre is a very Prague-y thing and so we figured it was worth a shot. It started in the 1960s which is apparent in the colorful costumes and cheesy acting! It was actually quite entertaining and it was set in Africa so we got to see all sort of funky animal dances.
We had one more meal in Prague and then headed home for our last evening in our wonderful hotel. I give Prague a C and Elizabeth rates it B-. We both dislike the lack of warmth and friendliness, it makes the city rather depressing. Perhaps it's the dreary weather? The sites were gorgeous and maybe in the summer, some of the Prague-ians might smile?
And on that note, I'll also admit that I could never even remember how to say hello (do-Bree-den) or thank you (di-ku-yee.) This led to many awkward entrances and exits.
Here are some pics:
1. The Jewish cemetery 2. Little kitten with mulled wine 3. Delicious sausage and kraut and horseradish 4. Elizabeth gazing into the raclette. 5. At the black light theatre 6. Eating sausage and kraut in front of the national museum
Did Elizabeth get a jacket with fur too.
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