One Last Thing....

Could I get the dresink on the side? Thanks.

Until We Meet Again

This is a very good but very heavy book written by a woman who was sent to Auchwitz and escaped. It details her experinece there, and about what happened after the war when communism became rampant in Prague. This is the British version that a I found at a used bookstore - I believe there is an American version that was published under a different name.

It's one of those books that is a reminder that the people who went through the war were just people - they did their best, there were no miracles, and sometimes they made mistakes. Some lucky ones survived and some did not, and there was no rhyme or reason to any of it. Survival means different things to different people, and you cannot predict how you will handle a situation until you are in it, lofty though your beliefs may be. And when your humanity has been stripped, how you view the world and the people in it is forever changed - but what does not change is our basic needs in life - to have food, shelter, a mate, children, and good things for our families.

Ascent to Heaven, One Step at a Time

St. Vitus cathedral on the grounds of Prague Castle is incredible to see. It is definitely something to do on a visit to Prague. The sheer size of it is overwhelming, and for lovers of Gothic Architecture, there are plenty of flying butresses and gargoyles to satisfy you.

You can climb up to the top tower to have a magnificent view of the city. Despite the 95 degree day, some of us thought that this was a great idea. 200 steps of a winding stone staircase...sure!


About 100 steps into it, with the cool air disappearing and the steps seeming steeper with every turn, I was about to give up and turn back. The worst part was when some of the lights were burned out and you couldn't see the narrow stairs or if someone was in front of you, behind you, or descending the stairs right next to you. All I could hear was my own heavy breathing. A French woman was right behind me, and somehow we became partners on this long journey.

Encouraging each other, we rested together when we needed to, and finally reached the summit. What a great feeling! We hugged when we got to the top.

Of course, the views were totally worth it. In this one, you can see the Charles Bridge.


Going down was much easier, of course. I was so glad that I had done it. As I was gathering with my family at the base of the cathedral, the French woman found me and introduced me to her husband. We smiled at each other and hugged again, and as she left, my mother asked me if I had run into someone I knew. I just smiled and said no, she was just on the stairs with me. It was too hard to explain. We had shared something unique, a moment in time when another person's smile can make the impossible seem possible.

The Writing on the Wall

We woke up early this morning so that our cousin Jana could take us on a tour of several synagogues in the Jewish ghetto. The first one we visited, Pinkas synagogue, is a memoriam to the 80,000 men, women and children of Bohemia and Moravia who died in the Holocaust. In the 1950's, the names of each one of these people was inscribed on the wall, with their date of birth and date of death.


Normally when you visit a site that honors a tragic event in history, you have a sense of compassion, but from the distanced view of your modern life. In this place, there are the names of four of our family members on the wall. Seeing those names - suddenly, we were no longer removed from the event, but a part of it. The feeling when you see it is hard to describe. I was very moved, and deeply saddened. I can only imagine how Jana felt, seeing the names of those so close to her and being reminded of that time once again.

All in the Family

One of the most meaningful things about coming to Prague has been getting to meet some of our extended family. On Saturday we had a reunion at the hotel, with speeches, introductions and gift-giving. As my brother correctly said, it was more of a union than a reunion. Despite language and cultural differences, it felt that we already knew each other.


We all met at a traditional Czech restaurant for dinner, which was very unique. There were 30 of us in our own room, with its own bar and piano player. It felt like we had stepped back in time at least a century. This was a great find, recommended by a friend of my dad's who had lived in Prague. Thank god we went here, and not to one of the other group-friendly restaurants that we had seen on line, which all looked like they were straight out of Medieval Times. This place, whose name translates to be The Blue Duckling, offered a charming experience all around.


Dinner was an experience - not everything was to everyone's liking, but I loved it all - probably a testament to the fact that I was meant to be a fat hausfrau in another life. Czech food is very rich and not for the calorie-conscious. The restaurant did a great job with our meal, keeping the wine flowing and the courses well-prepared. They even made a special vegetarian meal for my brother Josh. Our first course was pork knuckle, which tastes like ham.


For our second course, we had liver-dumpling soup, which was heavy with oil but very, very tasty. Just the kind of thing that would fortify you on a cold winter's night.



The main course was a dish that you see on a lot of Czech menus - duck leg with dumplings and sauerkraut. It's very similar to duck confit. As a dumpling fan, I was excited to try the dumplings, but these are not the doughy filled kind that you would expect, and I didn't like them. However, the duck and sauerkraut were delicious.


Dessert was these sweet pancake-like cakes with a blueberry yogurt sauce on top.


It was wonderful to enjoy this home-style meal in such an intimate setting. Going from table to table, you could hear stories being told by different members of the family, from all generations. This was definitely a night to remember.

Youth is Wasted on the Wasted

These are my cousins David and Robbie in front of one of the theaters near our hotel.

Just about every restaurant, bar and hotel in Prague boasts that they have the facilities to handle stag parties and hen nights. This is because, much like Amsterdam, Prague has become a top destination for bands of youth seeking an inexpensive location where they can spend a weekend getting sauced and saucy with their best friends. AKA cheap beer. So when you are out at night, English (both British & American) is heard all over town, as well as rousing school songs and the occasional puking in a dark corner.

It gives certain parts of the city a Vegas-like quality. The beautiful monuments seen in the daytime become an neon-lit background for the huge party that is a weekend in Prague.

It's no wonder that this city boasts having the largest discotecque in Europe. (Some German tourists actually stopped and asked us, "Excuse me, where do we find the largest discotecque in Europe?" It's real, and must be some kind of holy grail to those seeing the ultimate club experience)

Taxi drivers take full advantage of the revelers' weakened state after a night of carousing and charge an inflated flat rate after midnight to get you home safe and sound to your hotel, before you come to your senses and realize how much that adds up to in beer money.

In the Nick of Time

We walked by this building on the way to the synagogue on Friday night. My dad explained that it was a former SS building during the war. When his father, my grandfather, was trying to emigrate, he was told to arrive at the building at 1:30 to collect his papers, which he planned to do. Then an official took him aside and mentioned that he should come in at 1:15 instead. When he arrived at 1:15, he received his papers to go to South Africa, and he was told that he must use the exit papers before midnight. Good thing, as they closed the border at 12;30, and was one of the last people to get out of Prague. Without this guidance, it would have been a whole different story. And most likely, he would not have been here to tell it.

Co Je Blog?

I'm sorry, what was step 2 again?

If It's Friday, This Must Be Prague

After many hours of flying, a lot of waiting, and some really awful meals, we arrived in Prague this afternoon: 8 tired, hungry, and sleep-deprived people, badly in need of a shower and a lie-down.


The drive into the city is stunning. You drive past Prague castle and descend down a winding, cobbled road into the heart of the city, which is beautiful with its red rooftops and ornate architecture. It definitely has a fairytale-like quality about it.

I had my first Pilsner Urquell and a sandwich at the hotel, caught a couple of hours sleep, and then it was time to meet up in the lobby for our first night out. Including our family from London, we are 12 - all we need is a little flag, and a bus, and we'd be a bona fide tour group.

Walking into the main section of the city allowed us to see some of the buildings up close.
















We attended Friday night services at the Old-New Synagogue, in the heart of the Jewish ghetto. Built in the 13th century, this is the oldest existing synagogue in Europe. What I could see of the Gothic Architecture was amazing. It is highly guarded by security and everyone who enters has to be checked. They practice the old tradition of not allowing women into the acutal synagogue - women must go through a separate door to a surrounding chamber and can only look at the service through small rectangular cut-outs in the wall. Looking through that limited opening almost feels as though you are wearing a burkka. I have heard several expanations for practice: women are unclean, women are a distraction to the men - but the one I actually like is that women are believed to be closer to God, and therefore not in need of such rigid study. It has something to do with being able to give birth. Still, it's unsettling to be separated like that. In our chamber, we are allowed to talk, sit, read, whatever we want. It's a strange mixture of restriction and freedom.