Going Dutch: Generic "Czech" Pun Here

Since my last post (which seems like ages ago), I was busy with studying for exams and finishing up the academic year. But that in no way means that my adventures in the Netherlands and Europe in general are over. Oh no, they are still in full swing. Early last week I headed off to Prague for a few days. What started off appearing to be a near disastrous trip turned out to be a fantastic time in a great city.

About two days before I left, I found out that the country was in a national state of emergency and that there were floods in Prague and that many tourist destinations were closed. This of course caused me to panic, and over the course of the next couple of days, I was searching the internet, trying to find information about how severe the flooding was. Luckily a few hours before I left, the tourism website was saying that the city was visitable and that most sites would be open to tourists. With this huge rush of relief, we were off to Prague!

We got in to the city pretty late, so we decided to check-in at our hostel and call it a night. The first full day started with a FREE tour! The tour company we went with works off of tips, and then overpricing on all other tours they offer. It was definitely a good introduction to the city. We got our barrings and some history about the Czech Republic and the city itself. The tour lead us around to most of the main sites, and ended close to the Jewish Quarter. For the rest of the afternoon we visited synagogues and Jewish graveyards. I was very impressed with all the decoration inside the Spanish Synagogue and shocked by all the names of Jews that died during World War II on the walls in the Pinkas Synagogue. We ended the day with buying a sausage from a street vendor in Wenceslas Square.

Day 2 was a day full of walking. We walked along the Vltava River to see the Charles Bridge (which was closed), the National Theatre, and the Dancing House. It was a nice walk and shocking to see how high the water level in the river was. We did manage to cross the river a bit further down and began our trek up the hill to see a bird's eye view of Prague. Unfortunately the tram that usually runs up and down the hill was closed due to the threat of falling trees, so we hiked up unlike the lazy college students that we are. The view was stunning, so that made the climbing worth it. From there we went to see the castle. In the whole complex, my favorite part was St. Vitus Cathedral. It had incredible decorations and stained-glass windows. Golden Lane was also pretty neat, because they had recreated houses from the past and had a huge display of medieval armor.

The next day we traveled to the town of Kutna Hora- aka the place with the church with all the bones. The ossuary was amazing and creepy at the same time. I couldn't believe that they had 40,000 human remains placed in such a decorative fashion. I was a lot less creeped out than I thought I would be. After we finished staring at dead people, we headed into the town itself and wandered around for a few hours. It was a nice change from the bustle of Prague.

For the last day, we had a last ditch effort to walk across the Charles Bridge, which was still closed. I guess this just gives me a reason to go back. We finished off our trip with wandering through the city and chilling in a park tourist-watching for a while. Then it was back to Leiden, waiting for the next adventure to begin!