The Eastern Bloc: Praha Part One

This past week was Reading Week at University College London, a time for students to catch up on the massive amounts of work the professors pile on us. Or, if you are an American, time to go on a European vacation! Which is exactly what three of my awesome London friends and I did, spending our week in Prague and Budapest. I will warn you guys that this is going to be a several part story because we did an absurd amount this week.
We arrived in Prague early Saturday (note on future travels: flights/trains before 9am are simply not feasible). I was really excited for Prague because so many people have told me about it and because I had never been anywhere so far east. Both Hungary and the Czech Republic were of course part of the Soviet Bloc until 17 years ago. I wasn't sure what to respect in that regard, but I think Prague has changed dramatically since then. Everything I learned in IB twentieth century topics came rushing back to me this week. This picture is me with a giant statue of Vladimir Lenin at the cities Communist Museum. It was an interesting study in contrasts that that museum was located above a McDonalds and next to a casino. A fast changing place indeed. Wenceslas Square, the large central boulevard in Nove Mesto (translated as "New Town" although it's actually about 600 years old) has seen 4 revolutions in the past 100 years. That is a lot of murder, violence and suicide in one place. Everything is peaceful now though and it is a major shopping area actually.
Of Course Prague has a history stretching way back past communism. The city is 1000 years old, and this can best be seen in Stare Mesto, the Old Town. This area is full of old buildings and churches remarkable preserved and still used. A dominant feature is the Astronomical Clock, a giant medieval clock which shows the time, the phase of the moon, the star sign and a variety of other important facts. It is quite beautiful and people crowd around it right before the hour to watch the various mechanical figures dance when it strikes the hour. My favorite part was a small dancing skeleton figure holding an hourglass- he is supposed to remind the citizens to be aware of their own mortality. Kind of dark but kind of cool too. Most of the Old Town is very touristy, full of restaurants and gift shops selling nesting dolls and tee shirts. Even so it is very pretty, especially when the sun comes out, as it only did one afternoon of our four day stay in Prague.
Prague is known as a party city but it also has some pretty cool shows at night as well. My favorite that we went to was an all marionette version of Don Giovanni. Puppets singing opera sounds kind of lame, and isn't for everyone, but it was actually pretty funny and well done. We also saw a black light show which was incredibly stange and trippy. Not really my thing, but if you like dancing eyeballs wearing powder wigs or a three foot tall red mouth singing yellow submarine, definatly worth checking out.

Coming up: Churches, Castles and Nazis!