Day 3 & 4- Castles and Camps

Sorry, about not blogging yesterday. I was tired after my trip to Karlštejn Castle. Karlštejn Castle is located about 40 km from Prague up in the forest. Built in the mid 14th century by King Charles IV, this is nothing but impressive. King Charles IV built it to protect the crown jewels instead of being used to protect a city or area. The castle has three parts; the Imperial Palace, the Deanery, and the Marian Tower. The Imperial Palace is where the knights resided and possibly the queen. The Deanery had King Charles' bedroom, the audience hall, and the hall of royal ancestors. Unfortunately, I couldn't go into the Marian Tower which housed the royal treasury as well as The Chapel of the Holy Cross. Only 16 people can go in at a time and there's all these rules about going in to see it. It sounded awesome though. So instead I just got awesome photos of the view. OH random but brilliant fact; a wooden bridge was built from the Deanery to the Marian Tower so if attackers tried to capture the jewels the bridge could be burned, and no one would have access to it. Also, the castle was never completely conquered. The Swedes came the closest by capturing 2/3 of the castle before retreating.

 

 

Today, Kaja took me to Terezín. Terezín started off as a fortress in the 18th century built as a prison for offenders during the national liberation struggle, before becoming a concentration camp during World War II. The guide explained it more like a transit camp, where people would stay temporarily before being moved onto a different camp. There were no gas chambers here but still, thousands of people died here by disease or execution. The town was hastily built and used by the German Nazis to film propaganda videos. All those museums in America cannot come close to capturing the emotions that go through you when you're actually at a camp. And the irony of it all was that the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and the sky was blue. Yet, only 75ish years ago, people were being work to their deaths in the exact same weather. 

Day 2- 500 Pictures in 5 Hours

Super cool book tower

Today I got to do all the touristy things in Prague. Kaja took me to Old Prague where she had to make a stop at the public library. Their public library is so cool that I had to take a picture inside :). They also have a national library, but you can't check out books. Oh well that's still pretty cool.

Orloj

She then took me to Old Town Square where I indulged in a trdelnik (see instagram photo). She also took me to Orloj, the clock tower. There's an interesting story behind the tower. Back in the 1400s a clockmaker made this clock for the city of Prague. It's an astronomical clock and on the hour the doors open up and you can see different saints. At the end, the rooster crows. It's quite amazing. Anyway, many different European cities wanted the clockmaker to make clocks for them and the mayor of Prague said absolutely not. This is going to be in Prague only, so he blinded the clockmaker. The clockmaker was so upset that he stuck his hands in the mechanics of the clock and died soon after. The clock didn't work for 200 years. Morbid, yes, but fascinating none the less. There is NOTHING in America that was built in 1200, so that fact alone is amazing.

The end of the Charles Bridge that takes you into Lesser Prague

After walking around Jewish Prague, Kaja took me to meet up with Lucy who spoke Italian and Czech fluently with a little bit of English. So I got to practice my Italian (thank goodness my comprehension in foreign languages is better than my speaking abilities.) Lucy took me across the Charles Bridge into Lesser Town. She also took me to a park where there are PEACOCKS!!! How awesome is that??? They just roam--similar to the OC Park--and are just hanging in windows or trees. She also took me to the bridge with locks, which you can apparently get arrested for now.


I saw St. Nicholas Cathedral briefly and then hiked up 100 steps to Prague Castle. After hiking these steps you get the most spectacular view. You can see the US Embassy sitting all by it's lonesome at the top of a hill (in typical American style) with the Germans fairly close by. The one thing I love about these vistas is the face that everything is green or a brick color. Or blue. I've only seen skies this blue after a rain in SoCal. We continued on to St. Victus Cathedral and it is seriously one of the most beautiful cathedrals I've ever seen, not that I've seen many. The stained glass is so detailed it's amazing that it was built in 1060. I feel like the people of that time put more thought and energy into the details of it all. Like seriously, each statue is devoted to a saint or an important person and everything tells a story.We saw the changing of the guards, which I think they do every hour. Lucy also explained to me about the flag on top of the president's house. Similar to the United States, if the flag is up, the president is at home, if not he is away.

St. Victus Cathedral- Simply stunning

Some interesting things I've  noticed while here has been lack of children and doors. Like there are plenty of kids here but they're families of three maybbeee four. I have yet to see more than three kids together that aren't part of a school group. It's a cultural thing here though, it's just something that's super unique to me. Now about the doors. Yes I'm being literal, I guess I could be figurative as well. But there are doors e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e. Almost all of them old and original. These doors are beautiful, just like the ones in our lives. They are locked or unlocked at specific times for specific reasons. Despite the wear or the amount of detail on the door, each door is unique and beautiful, leading to the next part of the adventure.