Noha’s Prague Journal Part 3 ( Old town square & the Jewish Quarter)

We continue to check the tourist attractions in Prague (mainly to get it out of the way and spend the remainder of the month more relaxed). My favorite so far was the Jewish Quarter.

Day 6, 7 & 8: Old Town Square & the Jewish Quarter

We started the day intending to go to the Jewish Quarters. However, since we had a late start (because of me ofcourse) which left us with only three hours to check out the museums,  we decided to postpone it to the next day. Ironically, it only took us an hour and half the next day.

Like every big and small city in Europe, there is a big town square. In Prague, it is called “Old Town square” and is filled with people and performers day and night.

Performers playing Bohemian music (like music you hear in medieval times movies) are all around the tourist areas of Prague.

WIthout meaning to stereotype anyone, we tend to see many elegantly dressed asian tourists preoccupied with photographing themselves in front of the monuments and leaving without looking at them.

Also in old town square, is the medieval astronomical clock.

At the strike of each hour, hoards of people gather to see the animation.

We elbowed our way in and waited twenty minutes before the hour strikes to see the magic. Peter kept making fun of it predicting it is going to be figures revolving around themselves. He was wrong! they weren’t that sophisticated.

At the strike of the hour, two of the figures, moved one arm up and down, and some statues rotated in front of the window. We found it cute and it gave us a good laugh.

Close to the old town square, we found an Italian cheese shop, and Peter wanted to buy special cheese to make Cacio y Pepe Pasta. I have to admit that Peter has done all the cooking since we started traveling. Lucky for me, we don’t have an oven in Prague, and the two dishes that I can cook are oven dishes (yes!)

Also, he wanted to check out the bookstore Neo Luxor another time (and many to come)

I bet Kafka is turning in his grave over this. This is a sign that the end of civilization is nearing. Don’t get me wrong,  I don’t have a problem with the subject, but the writing is incredibly bad. Even my blogging is better :-p .

We looked for a cafe for me to do some work, and ended up in one recommended in Rick Steve’s guide called “Bohemian Bagel”. It was empty, with not much atmosphere except for group tour meetups.  Also, they don’t toast their bagels. It is our fault though to go to a place with the word “Bohemia” in it. This word is over-used on the majority of tourist souvenir shops.

The next day, we set out to the Jewish Quarters. I should mention first that even though we were promised a cable TV in our apartment, it is all Czech/German/Polish cable. The only english language channel is BBC World. We have been forced to watch hours of news everyday which is really depressing. I watched accounts of survivors in the Nairobi mall hostage situation with stories about children running for their lives. Following this segment, was a heartbreaking one about Syrian refugee children in lebanon who, instead of going to school have to do hard work in a field.

The tour of the Jewish Quarter was not a mood lifter either. We started with the Pinkas synagogue. In Egypt, we didn’t learn about Europe’s history in school, having to cram 6000 years of Egyptian history didn’t leave much space for anything else. I only learned about the holocaust as an adult, so I still cannot get used to the idea that this actually happened in such a near past. This tour was definitely the most moving museum experience I had about history.

The synagogue starts by a hall where the names of all jews from Bohemia killed during the holocaust , along with dates of  their birth and death written on the wall.

The surname is only written once per family in red, then followed by the first name of each family member with initial in red

Helena was 12 when she died.

The second floor is an exhibition of drawings by children held in the Terezin concentration camp. Under each drawing, the fate of the child who drew it is marked. Alot of them were marked as “survived” which made me think that a big number of them made it out alive, but later I found out that, Of 15,000 children in the camp, less than 150 are known to have survived.

Gustav made this study on Johann Vermeer’s painting when he was 12. He died tow years later.

Helga made these paintings when she was 12. She survived.

Next, we visited the old jewish cemetery next door which was a fascinating view of thousands of graves piled on top of each other (only 12,000 visible) from 15-17th century.

We visited another 4 sites of which I liked the interior of the Spanish Synagogue. For the rest, it was mostly displays of objects from Czech jewish tradition which we didn’t find compelling.  However, I learned about the jewish marriage ceremony tradition, and found it identical to our friends Hanita and BRob’s wedding ceremony. Also, I learned for the first time that “Bar Mitzvah” is for boys, and “Bat Mitzvah” is for girls. I always thought both terms were just different pronunciations of the same thing.

I should mention how much Kafka is being featured in every souvenir shop or tourist attraction in Prague. Although, he did not write in Czech, he is still portrayed as a pride of Czech literature. Despite the fact that he declared himself an atheist, he is still featured in Jewish museums. I noticed from one of the museum entries that he died young, which  I thought in a way was a blessing as it saved him from experiencing the holocaust. I wondered how the rest of his family fared, and as expected, his three sisters all died in the holocaust. I read about his favorite sister Ottla who could have have had protection given that she was married to a catholic. However, she divorced her husband in 1942, and while in a concentration camp, she volunteered to accompany some children who were being moved to another camp. The other camp turned out to be Auschwitz and she was killed on the same day.

After the jewish Quarter, we walked to a residential neighborhood called Vinohrady. It was our first experience of a non-touristy area. I found it beautiful and peaceful. The heart of the neighborhood is a church with a nice park around it.

I felt some remorse for not choosing to stay there instead of where we are, however, we are in a very convenient location. We spent the evening in a cafe “Kaaba” where I read about Kafka.

 
The next day, we went to the Moody’s office in Prague. As we are desperate to meet Czech locals, I decided to arrange a meeting with the only Czech person I know: the Moody’s Prague office manager. I had only worked with Bozena infrequently, but I still summed up the courage and let her know that I am in Prague and whether she would like to meet for coffee. We arranged to meet by her office. However, on the day of the meeting, I got anxious because I felt that she was treating the meeting from a business prospective and mentioned that she is busy with Quarter close. We got there in our extremely casual wear (Peter was wearing a T-Shirt) and found out that we cannot call her to come downstairs. Extremely embarrassed and regretting the whole thing, I went up. We were very warmly greeted by the office administrator (Unfortunately her name was too complicated for me to remember). Then Bozena came and greeted us also very warmly. We sat in a conference room and they brought us coffee. We chatted about Prague but Bozena also talked about work. She offered to show us the office but I was too embarrassed to do that (given that I am not going to be employed by Moody’s any longer). She expressed being busy (mentioned an important meeting coming up), my tea was too hot but I still gobbled it up to allow her to finish the conversation quickly. She gave me a gift (A book about Prague’s past and present) and gave us a rushed warm goodbye without any mention of wanting to see us again in the remaining three weeks. I loved the book, and feel bad that we will have to leave it behind because we won’t have any space for it.

Afterwards, we went to a restaurant called Mozaika in Vinohrady where we had an amazing Burger on an onion bun with homemade Mayonnaise. Then, to a french cafe (cafe 35) which had a nice peaceful atmosphere.

I had to end the day with some stressful work meetings. I realize now that the arrangement to work two days a week was a bad idea. For one, it is always a burden on my mind. Two, we constantly have to look up a place for me to work, my laptop can be heavy to carry around, I have to arrange for calls, we have to rearrange our plans etc.. But what gets to me most, is that I cannot detach myself from being annoyed constantly by certain problems. Even though I am supposed to work only 14 hours, I cannot limit myself to be annoyed for 14 hours only. For all these reasons, and despite a guilty feeling I have about abandoning my beloved team, I decided to quit.

Tags: czech republic, prague, travel

This entry was posted by Noha and Peter.

• Sunday 29.09.2013
• Prague
• 4 Comments