Prague Blog

When I was in Cesky Krumlov, one of the other guests told me about a bus company called Student Agency Bus. Anyone can use it, not just students. It was a great find because I was able to travel from this place to Prague for just €8. The bus was a decent one too, offered free tea and coffee and showed a movie on the way. Anything to save a few dollars. Prague was really overrun with tourists as it was Easter holidays but it's a beautiful city. There are about 1.5 million people who live here so it's not too huge in the big scheme of things. The only negative was the extreme cold! For the first two days, the temperature didn't get above 5 degrees but for a lot of it, it was zero and snowing. I was forced to go and buy some extremely attractive woollen tights in an effort to keep my legs warm. There'll be no photos of that particular sight! I did a 4 hour walking tour on my first full day, just to get my bearings, along with a bit of the history. And then, for the remaining days, I returned to the various areas and covered them in more detail. The whole Jewish Town was really interesting. This was the ghetto area before and during the war. There's one of the oldest surviving synagogues in Europe here, built in the 13th century. It's called the Old-New Synagogue which is rather a strange name. When it was first built, it was called the New and Great Shul but, when more synagogues were built in the 16th century, it became known as Old-New. I also found the cemetery fascinating. It's not known how many people are buried here because there are layers of tombs but an estimate is 100,000. According to a Jewish custom, you're not allowed to destroy graves or remove the tombstone. Because there was only a limited amount of land available, layers of soil were placed on the existing graves, the new person was then buried and the original tombstone put back in place. There are 12 layers of burials here and the tombstones are really close together and kind of all over the place. If you have a look at my photos, you'll see what I mean. I spent a whole day exploring the castle area. It's dominated by a huge cathedral and there are a whole collection of other buildings that have been added over a period of 1,000 years so the styles of architecture are very different. I learnt a new word - defenestration, the act of throwing someone out of a window. This happened to some statesmen back in 1618, which resulted in the thirty year war starting.  I loved an area called Golden Lane, near the end of the castle complex. There is a long row of tiny little houses (apparently the average height back then was only 5 ft) that were originally built for the castle guards. About 1,000 years later, goldsmiths moved in and that's how it got it's name. A whole lot of them were demolished in the 19th century because they were completely unfit for living. Poor people and criminals moved into the remaining ones but they were all evicted after the second world war when the powers that be saw that tourists were fascinated so they might as well make some money out of it! They were all spruced up with a coat of paint and some of them were equipped with the furnishings of the time.  5 days was about the right length of time to stay here, I got to see pretty well everything I wanted to, without being too manic about it. There's a good tram system that you can use but, if you're not in a rush, it's easy to walk everywhere. I left Prague yesterday and, for the first time on this trip, I missed my bus! I hadn't looked at the ticket properly and just assumed that I'd be catching the bus from the same station where I arrived. But no, that wasn't the case. By the time I figured out that I was in the wrong place, it was too late to get to the right station so I made my way to the main train station and caught a train instead. The ticket was only €8 so not the end of the world. And it got me to the next place 2 hours before the bus would have arrived anyway so all was good. I'm now in a town called Olomouc which is to the east of Prague. I've found that I need the calm of a small town or village after being in a large city, just to unwind and relax. A couple of days is enough and then you're ready to go again. Tomorrow I head south to Slovakia, to the capital city of Bratislava. I'm hoping that it'll be warmer!