Europe Trip: Prague

We reached our final destination, Prague on the night of the 13th day of our trip. We were picked up from the train station by our host, Pavel. We had met Pavel briefly 9 months before when he was visiting our church in Flagstaff. He said to tell them when we were coming, and in turn, invited us to be guests in his home. He and his wife, Klara, made us feel right at home, and even let us call our kids for free! We were missing them a lot, but it was good to hear that they were doing great.



On Friday, we set out to explore a neighboring town, Kutna Hora, that was close to an interesting church we wanted to visit. The church is known as The Bone Church, or more respectfully, an ossuary. All the "sculptures" were constructed by monks (with too much time on their hands, it seems). The bones were provided by the victims of the plague and a series of wars. Enjoy a tour:

This candlobra contains a one of each of the bones in the human body

Skulls with evidence of violent deaths. Yes, Jeremy liked this display.

Really weird picture

More normal picture, but we're still surrounded by dead people

I will never understand why people feel compelled to throw money into...anything (fountains, wishing wells, Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disneyland, human skulls)

Sweet little cherub atop a tower of death

The spire of the church, complete with skull and crossbones, of course

The view of Kutna Hora--which was charming, but we were anxious to get see Prague!

We came back to the Stiegers and had lunch and then commenced our tour of Prague. It was clear and beautiful. Pretty much everything is beautiful, so I will let you tour with us through the following pictures:

Welcome to the castle...now die!!!

This couple will have pretty much the best wedding pictures ever. The photographer will have quite a job photoshopping the tourists taking pictures out of the background. Yes, including me.

The king is in.

This was funny--a Segway tour approaches the castle only to be turned away by a guard. They looked so dorky, like, "uh, what do we do now? Uh, let's turn in circles with our butts sticking out."

There were photographers everywhere (including Klara). I kind of tried to limit my photo-taking because it seemed so cliche.

Entrance to the Charles Bridge...the bridge is just a bridge with statues but there is definitely something special about it.

Here is where a priest had his tongue cut out and was thrown over the side for not revealing what was told to him in confession. People come from far and wide to touch the statue (further down the bridge) and this memorial to where he was actually thrown over. It is supposed to have some magical power. It has been rubbed shiny by all the pilgrims and excitable Asian tourists.

Musicians of all styles and colors perform for crowds on the bridge, day and night.

Couple making out while resting on this crucifix, which has "Holy is the Lord of Hosts" in Hebrew, which is seen as offensive to Jews, so a plaque was placed there in 2000 to explain that it might be found offensive. Good solution.

Who would have guessed that we would travel all the way to Prague and still be surrounded by beer-drinking, bagpipe playing Scots in kilts (who like to make jokes about kilts and what's under them A LOT!)? Turns out there was an important "football" match between Scotland and Czech Republic that night so they came in mass. Thankfully, they lost, so they were more subdued as the night went on.

We ate here--I had goulash, Jeremy had wild boar meat and potato dumplings.

The busiest place in town is the Old Town Square with this statue of reformer Jan Hus in the center. Bad picture, cool statue.

Museum of Communism...favorite thing that we paid to get into

Anti-American propaganda posters

Municipal House--art by Alfons Mucha...I liked his art, but not enough to pay $10 to see his museum.

They celebrate Christmas early in Prague...just kidding, they were filming a movie. We heard that Mission Impossible 3 was being filmed there.

Weird rave that started in the Old Town Square. All the crazies came out of the woodwork and blasted...noise...(couldn't really call it music) from speakers in the backs of vans. It was like nothing I've ever seen before.

Just while you are saying, "Aw, how romantic," you need to know that there was a violin player behind us the whole time. On a side note, Jeremy had brought currency from Canada and Dubai to try to exchange, and after getting turned down countless times, he started giving it to the street musicians. I wonder if they were mad when they got home and realized it.

Our hosts, Pavel and Klara

So, we thought Prague was beautiful and historic and interesting, but we had a hard time really getting into it. Everything was sooo expensive, and I think we were expecting it to be the cheapest part of our trip. We were kind of done seeing museums or old buildings, and didn't really have the cash or energy to explore or do something out of the ordinary. Things felt tourist-y...Jeremy said he felt like he was in an amusement park. I think we were anxious to get home.

Our favorite part, though, was spending time with Pavel and Klara. They work for an organization that produces Christian programming on many radio stations in the region. They actually translate our pastor's sermons every week for broadcast on one of the stations. They are Czech by ethnicity and heritage, but are also American citizens. The first night, I was eager to hear the story of their life in Czechoslovakia through the decades, but they dismissed my questions without much info. We had many other topics we discussed over Klara's delicious meals.

After we went to the Museum of Communism, they began to answer our questions and tell their story. They talked about what life was like under communism and sad things that happened to their parents--like being shipped off to hard labor in the mines. They remembered when the Soviets invaded; they were in Prague for a family event (and had left their two babies at home an hour or so away). They heard airplanes overhead all evening and thought nothing of it, then received a phone call at 4 am and went out in the streets to see Soviet tanks all over the place. It took them 4 or 5 days to get home to their kids, and they managed to get out of Czechoslovakia some months later, thinking that they would never see their families or possessions again (they left under the pretense of going on vacation to Austria, so they couldn't take any possessions with them). They actually were sentenced to time in prison for leaving illegally, but their sentences were forgiven upon the fall of communism. They ended up in America with nothing, and told about how neighbors showed up at their door with furniture and clothing, food, and strange contraptions like a waffle iron. Pavel said with great seriousness, "At that time, America didn't help us. Americans helped us." Their family members who were brainwashed by communism refused to visit them in America for many years, and when they did come, expressed dismay over the lies they had been told by the communists. I had noticed that Pavel was very opinionated about American politics, and after hearing their stories, I could understand why.

We went to church on our last morning with Pavel and Klara--it was really nice and encouraging to be with believers and see God working so far away from our lives in Flagstaff.

Klara informed me that this was the gypsy worship team.

We spent our last afternoon revisting our favorite spots--the Charles Bridge, Old Town Square, and Starbucks. We paid a lot of money to go to the Jewish Quarter, but didn't finish the tour due to stress, tension, disinterest. I don't know...I feel like a bad person for not finishing or being more interested, but we were DONE. Done being away from our kids, not having normal life to keep us busy, done spending money, done taking in information and pushing ourselves to care and reflect on what we were learning, done trying to figure out what Prague was really like under all the tourist veneer. We ended up taking a long cold walk to another section of town that seemed more authentic and spent our last few hours enjoying Prague without all the gimmicks. We happily returned home and packed our bags to get ready for our early flight the next morning.

Jewish Cemetary in the Jewish Quarter. Something we learned on our trip was how badly the Jews were treated even before the Holocaust. In Prague, the Jews were only allowed to live in one low-lying area, and they were not allowed to bury their dead anywhere except one cemetery. The cemetery became a mound as earth was added and bodies were buried on top of existing graves.

Pavel and Klara's warm, homey, nice, interesting apartment...we loved being there.

Next Stop: The End