Coming to Prague this second time around, I was attempting to be a little more optimistic. The first time we were there, we decided Prague was not our city. After having lost 1 phone, 1 passport, and having our Uber run out of gas, the driver speaking zero English, and trying to use Google translate, to tell us that we would just have to get out and walk the rest of the way...needless to say, the beautiful city had not treated us too well so far.
But like I said, I did my best to be optimistic this time around, for the soul purpose of the fact that we would be traveling to see more of the city so hopefully this time around, Prague would be a little kinder to us.
I was pleasantly surprised! Prague showed a completely new side of itself that I didn't even know existed! Before leaving for the trip, our class watched a movie called "Anthropoid." This movie dealt with a part of WWII that I honestly didn't know that much about. It was based on the assassination of a Nazi governor, Heydrich. During the time of the war, Heydrich was the governor of Prague and he was the highest ranking official for assassination. Throughout the movie, we watched 2 men as they plan to kill Heydrich because of all the bad things he has done. Once their plan is executed, they created an outrage with the Nazi's. They men went into hiding below a church in the city of Prague. After being sold out by a friend to the Nazi's on where they were hiding they created almost like a suicide pack with some other men hiding there too. The 7 men refused to die under the Nazi's. When the army came to the church to find them, the men held down their positions in the church for 6 hours!!! 7 men with only pistols and a whole army of Nazi's couldn't get through them for 6 hours!!!!! That's so crazy to me! Our first day in Prague, we got to go and see the church! We got to go inside and to the bottom of church, the crypt, where the 7 men hid for days, waiting for the Nazi's to find them. It was very moving to see something with that great of importance in person. I never truly knew the involvement of the Czech Republic in WWII. In history classes, the Czech is not a country you typically hear about. Which I don't really understand because it is so central to everything that was going on at the time!
The next day we walked as a group all over the city and found many other cool historical things. I think that is my favorite thing about this country. Everywhere you turn there is more history and another story about some building or monument or bridge, and I love it!! We got to walk over the Charles bridge which was absolutely beautiful! Even though the weather was a little cold and rainy, the city still found a way to amaze me. We made a pit stop at the John Lennon wall. I don't really know what I expected but I think that I thought it would be bigger! But it was still amazing to be in the presence of it all. We also traveled to the Prague Palace, which was of course, beautiful :).
We also took a day trip to Dresden, Germany...
I loved this city! Germany was exactly what I had always pictured it would be hahaha. Dresden has so much history but is still a brand new city at the same time. Dresden was bombed by the Americans to help end the war. The bombing completely destroyed the entire city, leaving them with nothing. After the war was finally over, they decided to rebuild the city to scale. With so much history, being destroyed, and now rebuilt, you can feel the impact of city as you walk down the streets. One thing I found very interesting was the church in the center of the city. This church was the biggest church in central Europe but was, of course, destroyed during the bombing. So when they decided to rebuild the city from the ground up, they completely rebuilt the church as well. When you look at the church, there are some darker stones mixed in with the lighter, white stones. This is because they used pieces of the old church to create the new one. The darker pieces are from the original church and white pieces are all new. I love that they put the old with the new to create something so huge and beautiful.
During out short trip to Dresden, we also got to encounter a Neo-Nazi protest in the town square. This was something very surreal and scary to witness. The protest was peaceful but the group came marching into the square singing the German anthems but in the Nazi versions. This left an unsettling feeling in everyone at the end of the trip I think. It surprised me at the amount of young people that were involved of the protest. It scares me to know that there are still people out there in the world that are my age and believe in the ideals of something so horrible and something that was so devastating to our human race as a whole.
Our last day in Prague was very sad as well but again, very impactful. We got to visit the Jewish quarters and the synagogue. After waiting for a long while outside to be able to enter, walking into the synagogue was a flood of different emotions. On the walls, written, were the names of everyone that had died during the holocaust that were from the Czech Republic. I believe it was somewhere around 85 thousand people. This just blows my mind. We also got to see the cemetery outside the synagogue. Headstones were piled on top of each other and they were all from the 13th century. We also got to go inside the oldest synagogue in central Europe that had survived the war!
Along with all the history and serious things we did on this trip, we also got to have some fun! My friends and I found this amazing, delicious chocolate museum where we got to eat chocolate covered strawberries!!! (We went there twice...whoops!) In the town square, the city was having their annual easter festival and it was the cutest thing I have ever seen! There was so much to do whether it be a petting zoo area, shopping, watching the street performers, or eating, it was all fun and a great atmosphere!
All and all, I think Prague finally gave me a good experience this time around. I have so much more knowledge of city and its history and that made my time there better :). I can't wait to go back to Prague someday soon and see what other adventures it has to offer me! But for now, time to experience new places...
