Prague - Mrs.Hemming, this is for you.

After spending almost a full week in Germany, Leah and I were now set to travel to Prague in the Czech Republic. Originally, we were planning on training there from Leipzig, but instead, Mila knew someone who was planning on driving through Prague and offered to take the three of us with him to help pay for gas. Mila was planning on going to Prague anyway to meet another set of friends from the US. So, on the 22nd of May Leah, Mila and I set off to Prague. Mila's friend picked us up a
short distance from Leipzig in a German city called Halle and then we took off for Prague on the famous Autobahn! It was amazingly smooth and we were travelling at a speed of about 160-180 km/h for most of the trip. The time to Prague from Leipzig took a mere 3 hours. He dropped us off at a major shopping mall just on the fringes of the city so we took the metro downtown and to our hostel. Our hostel was located right downtown, in the historic section of Prague and a mere
stones throw away from the famous Charles Bridge, which we could see from our window. This was Leah and my first experience in a hostel and it turned out to be a great place. We had a private room with our own little kitchen, the beds were very comfortable and even had fluffy duvets. We arrived in the early afternoon and so Leah and I spent the rest of the evening strolling through the very picturesque cobble stone streets, and had a delicious dinner at a Czech restaurant. The next day we were set to meet Mila and her friends around 10:30 at the Metro station, but only Mila arrived. Her friends had gone out the night before to a few bars and were unfortunately too hung over to go to sightseeing with us, but Leah, Mila and I had an awesome day none the less. We took a trek across the famous Charles Bridge and up the hill to the Prague Castle, which was the seat of the Kings of Bohemia. Prague is easily one of, if not the most, beautiful city that I have ever seen (I have to concede that exclamation to Mrs. Hemming). It is situated on the bend of a river, with beautiful medieval buildings, old churches, cobblestone streets and even a castle on a hill which overlooks the whole area. Prague also escaped being destroyed in the Second World War, and instead of being restored and rebuilt, like in the case of Dresden, Prague retains its original buildings. We then went to the Jewish quarter, which was unfortunately closed (as it was Saturday), but the three of us took another stroll through the historic centre of the city and then to the train station where Leah and I bought our tickets to Krakow, Poland. There is a side story off of these tickets that will be explained in the next blog entry about Krakow. Tired from walking all day, the rest of the afternoon was spent lounging on some grass outside the train station until supper time when we went to one of the massive malls for some cheap food at the food court. The second day, and the last full day we had in Prague we met Mila, and this time her friends, at the metro station again. The first thing we did was go to the Jewish Quarter, where they had a magnificant memorial to those who died during the Holocaust, as well as a number of synogogues and a very beautiful Jewish cemetary. The Jewish Quarter was a part of the Prague Ghetto during the Nazi occupation and many of the exhibits in the buildings were dedicated to this time. I overheard one of the English tour guides who mentioned that Prague, after Israel, has one of the largest collections of Jewish religious items because Hitler had planned to open a museum of extinct people in Prague after he had killed all of the Jewish people. After seeing the Jewish quarter we all had lunch and then split off to see our own sights. We said our good byes to Mila and then Leah and I ventured back into the centre of the historic part of Prague and up the old town hall tower which awarded us a magnificant view of the city. This tower also has a unique feature, an ancient and extremely accurate astronomical clock on the side of it. Leah and I finished a bit of souvenir shopping, got some breakfast for the next day and then had a very nice dinner right on the old town square and watched the sun set before heading back to our hostel for our last night in Prague. We were set to catch a train to Poland the next morning.