It was so nice to have a good breakfast again. Fresh tomatoes and yellow bell peppers, kiwis
and watermelon, café au lait and real juices.
They even had a waffle maker (which I skipped but some of the students
tried). I wish we could have something
half as good in Berlin.
We had much less trouble boarding the train to Prague and
our seats were a little nicer. The ride
was smooth and we had some free entertainment towards the end from a group of
four increasingly drunk Berliner men, on their way for a weekend of drinking
and partying in Prague. They started
singing a variety of British pop songs and German drinking songs. It was pretty amusing.
Arrival in Prague hlavi nazdrizi station is always
rough. It’s not the most inviting place
and I have to find a bank to get money and buy our metro passes. The bank I’ve used in the past, however, is
no longer in the station and I feel that the one I used gave me a poor exchange
rate when I withdrew the currency. I don’t
think I got the market rate. Still, it
was better than the currency changers and their 20% fee.
Buying the metro passes wasn’t any easier as the normal
window was closed for renovations. They
sent me to the tobacco shop where I bought all eleven passes. I don’t speak Czech so I just use Polish and
hope they understand.
A short while later we were on the metro to the hotel. I’m back at the I. P. Pavlova metro stop
(named after the guy who rang the bells for dogs), but this time we’re quite
distance from it: four long blocks on
foot. The weather was one of the better
days I’ve had in Prague: warm, but not muggy (at least not at first), but it is
a long walk with luggage. We checked in
and our rooms were ready. All keys were
distributed and we dropped off our stuff.
By the time we got to Wenceslas Square it was nearly 2 pm. I took them to a bank to exchange currency
and then I gave them 45 minutes for lunch.
From there we walked past the astronomical clock to the
Jewish quarter. I think the students
were amazed with the intense, varied, and colorful architecture. After standing 15 minutes in full sun, I
managed to buy 11 tickets to the Jewish museum.
We started with the Pinkas Synagogue, where they recorded the names of
all the Czech Jews murdered by the Nazis.
Upstairs is a wonderful collection of art created by children in
Theresienstadt, with the help of Fridl Dicker-Brandeis. When she was deported from Germany, she chose
to take her most valuable objects: her
art supplies. She worked with the children in the ghetto doing art
therapy. While most of the children were
murdered, their art survives.
We then walked through the old Jewish cemetery as I
explained why there were Vulcan hand gestures on certain stones (the priestly
blessing), and I made sure we went through the Burial Society house.
In the Klausen Synagogue next door I went
over some of the basics of Jewish religious practice, while in the Alt-Neu
Shul, we spent a lot of time talking about women and their role in the
synagogue (the women’s gallery is behind 2 foot thick stone walls with narrow
slat opening). Our last stop was the
Spanish Synagogue, as I could see the energy of the students was definitely
waning.
After an hour they were rested and sated and ready to tackle the last sight: the walk to Charles Bridge. It was starting to get muggy, though, and the lighting was more hazy than striking. Still the views are very beautiful.
Once the students were back safely in the hotel, my work was
far from done. I headed back to the
central station to buy our train tickets to Vienna and then find a nice place
for dinner that takes credit cards. I chose an upscale vegetarian restaurant near the hotel:
I’m
spending so much cash, I need to make sure I can pay for the bus tickets to and
from Terezin (Theresienstadt) tomorrow.
Very tired, so off to bed soon.
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