Josefov - Prague's Jewish Quarter

The cemetery in Prague's Jewish Quarter.

With winding narrow streets and a wide array of interesting buildings, Europe's most well-preserved Jewish ghetto is by far one of the most interesting things to see in Prague. With six synagogues and arguably the most impressive cemetery of its kind, this collection of historic sites lies in the very heart of Prague and the Czech Republic, both physically and symbolically. The first establishment of Jews in this area of Prague goes back to the 13th century, when they were ordered to leave their homes and settle down in a single, concentrated place. The main landmarks that should be seen in this large complex are the cemetery shown above, the Spanish Synagogue, and the Pinkas Synagogue. Even though I did not have a chance to visit it, I have heard that the Old-New Synagogue is also worth a visit due to its impressive Gothic architecture and its significance as the religious center for Prague's Jewish community.

The cemetery, which is part of the Jewish Museum, has over 12,000 visible tombstones, yet has an estimated 100,000 buried. The ramshackle way in which the graves are arranged adds even more to the intrigue of this site which was even spared by the Nazi occupation in order to keep it as a future museum of an "extinct culture". 

Unfortunately, photography was prohibited inside of the synagogues, so here goes another picture of the cemetery.

The Spanish Synagogue is also a must-see. Some even call it the most beautiful synagogue in all of Europe. With an almost Islamic architectural style, this synagogue truly stands out. But regardless of what others may say, my favorite synagogue to visit has to be the Pinkas Synagogue. It is remarkable in that it is home to about 80,000 inscriptions of the names of the Czech victims of the Holocaust. Sorted first by town, then by last name, and lastly by first name, it is amazing to see how many people within certain families were victim to this terrible event. The way in which all the writings on the walls look like golden paint from a distance really makes you think about the enormous number of people that died. 

A statue of Frank Kafka outside of the Jewish Museum. 

Easter and ... Little Easter

Apparently in Italy, Easter Sunday is not enough. Pasqua as they call it, usually involves a trip to the church in the morning, then a nice meal with family. Up until now, this pretty much resembles our traditions in America. Although they do not have Easter egg hunts (nor the Easter Bunny, for that matter), they do have large chocolate eggs with a toy inside. A kind of hybrid between a Hershey's bar and a piñata, a uovo di Pasqua typically gets shattered to pieces before unwrapped. This way, when it is actually opened, the child can quickly retrieve the sorpresa inside and everybody else can start eating bite-size pieces of chocolate from the shell.

This relatively small uovo di Pasqua was kicked into pieces when it still had its wrapper. From this we learned that smashing on the ground seems to have a better effect.

So even though they get to have loads of fun cracking open giant chocolate eggs, the entertainment does not stop there. Unlike in the United States, where the Monday after Easter is just another normal workday that happens to have a lot of candy left over from Easter egg hunts, in Italy, they celebrate Pasquetta. Literally, this means "Little Easter" and is a nice addition to a holiday that is typically family-oriented. While Easter Sunday is almost always spent at home or at a relative's house, Pasquetta is when young people go and celebrate Easter with their friends. Since this year Easter came late, the weather was nice enough to spend long hours outside, so my friends and I got together up in the hills and had a picnic. Apparently, other people were doing similar picnics or having a grigliata, which is more or less comparable to a barbecue. 

At our picnic everybody brought a dish from home to make for a nice large meal.

Like any good Italian picnic, this one included salami. And only one person who knew how to slice it the right way. 

After about two hours of sitting down on blankets eating our various delicacies, we played calcio (soccer) for a while, and then I showed them how to play kickball. For us Americans, it is quite a simple concept - it's just baseball except that you roll and kick the ball instead of pitch and hit. But for Italians who do not have this common baseball background, I had to start from scratch, explaining everything from the positions to the bases to strikes and outs and innings. They actually caught on pretty quickly and by the end some were even understanding the difference between tag-outs and force-outs. 


Once the afternoon started to turn into evening, we all went back to our blankets, one friend pulled out his guitar, and the rest of us sang along, played cards, and had a colomba di Pasqua which is a large, sweet bread made specifically and exclusively for Easter.


At around 7 PM we all went our separate ways and cringed at the fact that we had only the next day left of Easter vacation. Then it was back to school on Wednesday (today). 

Picture of the Week: Parco Querini

The center of Parco Querini, my favorite park in Vicenza. Recently, I have spent many of my afternoons here. 

Dinner at a Traditional Czech Restaurant

A week ago, I went to Prague to meet up with my mom, sister, and brother - who was on a school band trip. For the first day there, my mother and sister and I did the typical tourist itinerary for Prague, but the second day, we tagged along with my brother's band group, which gave us some time in downtown Prague in the morning, then took us to the cultural center outside of Prague where they were going to perform. The concert went well, and afterwards, they took us to a typical Czech restaurant in the Prague suburbs.

This sort of Bohemian bagpipe is made out of a rabbit.

I thought that it was pretty insane to expect a group of 50 people to fit in just about any European restaurant, but this establishment was ample enough for all of us, plus a large group of about 25 Japanese tourists. Right from the start, I could tell that this probably was not the way Czech people ate on a daily basis, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Inside there were many large, long tables and on one cleared end of the room, there was a musical trio playing traditional Bohemian music and a lady dressed in traditional garb singing in pitches higher than I knew existed.

They came around serving everybody some dumplings with cabbage and onions, while the singing lady entertained us for a good amount of time. The second plate was skewered meat flavored with lots of paprika and other Central European spices. By now, the singing lady had already stepped off the stage, being substituted by a dancing Gypsy couple. They were a very lively act, and even invited some of the audience to go up on stage with them. The victims included many students, the band director, some elderly Japanese women, and other miscellaneous guests. This is when the singing lady came back and got everybody moving.

My brother dancing with the Gypsy.

After finishing off our appetites with dessert and coffee, some of the musicians started going around the room with all sorts of instruments I had never seen, such as the bagpipe above. After about an hour of reveling, we finally went back to the hotel.

Even though this probably did not give us an accurate view of daily life in the Czech Republic, it was definitely a good time and certainly something I would recommend to future visitors.

Picture of the Week: Prague Early in the Morning from the Karlův most

Czech out that sun!

Picture of the Week: Springtime Sunrise

A sunrise in early Spring.