Praha Part Two

Even though Prague was subjected to a double whammy of destructive occupations, first the Nazis then the Soviets, there are still an amazing amount of churches and synagogues perfectly preserved. The churches have far outlasted the faith of the people- this city is something like 86% atheist, but they have the most beautiful religious buildings. The most impressive in my opinion was Saint Vitus Cathedral. St. Vitus is actually in the center part of Prague Castle, one of the biggest castles in the entire world. It was kind of cold and rainy so I didn't see most of the castle, just the cathedral with it's amazing stain-glass windows which were glowing despite the pouring rain. I actually saw several different beautiful churchs in Prague, all roman catholic and Renaissance or Baroque in style. They shared similar painted ceilings, huge frescoes and gold gilding. I haven't been to Rome (yet) but these were the most beautiful churches I've seen thus far.

Europe is of course full of grand churches, but what is unique to Prague is the pefectly preserved Jewish Quarter of the city called Josefov. Almost all the Jews in the city were wiped out by Hitler (I think there are about 600 left in the city today) but he left the buildings just as they were. Sickenly, he meant them to serve as a museum of the "extinct race." The lucky thing is that all these synagogues are still there, you can visit them all for one price, including the oldest synagogue in Europe (it is confusingly called the Old-New synagogue) and a really elaborate Spanish synagogue. My favorite part of the Jewish Quarter was the Old Jewish cemetary (Europe's oldest jewish cemetary). Yes, I have a thing for cemetaries. Yes, I know that is weird. I just really like them okay? What made this one interesting was the unique arrangment of tombstones. The cemetary has been around for so many years that people have been buried in layers one over top of one another, which has cause odd rippling and sinking in the ground. As a result the tombstones are extremely crowded together, leaning against each other, on top of each other, sinking into the ground, just general chaos. It's a little hard to describe but very interesting to see.
Other cool things I saw in Prague included the Charles Bridge. This is a medeval bridge which crosses the Vlatva river and has these amazingly huge religious statues dominating it, such as the one on the right. We went there are sunset and watched the sky change from gray to pink to purple, blue and black. Very beautiful and very romantic. I also really enjoyed waundering the old quarter of town. I happened upon some very cool shops and this cute outdoor market selling fruit, food and souveniers. Prague was a very pretty city, it fit exactly into my ideas of Old Europe. Still, after four days in the city I felt like I'd pretty much seen all of it and I was ready to move on.
Coming up: Budapest- aka the best city in the entire world (except maybe london)!