By Saturday, we were already pretty exhausted! Not only were we in a new place, but we were having to try to communicate in a completely new language (fortunately many people spoke English!) and deal with a totally new currency. (I got jeans for 299 CK....it sounds expensive, but that is only about sixteen American dollars!)
We decided to explore our side of town before going to the main part of the city. Amazingly, we found an amazing monument by wandering around with no map - it was called the Vysehrad, a gorgeous fortress with a huge wall that looked out over the city.
Inside was a church and a graveyard. Unfortunately, we missed seeing the church by about 3 minutes! I still got a few pictures of the inside though, through the glass in the door.
The inside of the church. The ceilings were so beautiful!
Another gorgeous graveyard.
View from the wall
Prague is so pretty!
After the wall, we headed to the "mini" Eiffel Tower in Prague. The line to ride up to the tower was at least an hour and a half long, and would probably cost about 10 euros. So we (some of us reluctantly) decided to trek up the mountain. It was rough work! After that walk, I could definitely feel the effects of the German food I've been eating! It was worth it though. Now I can say I've been to two Eiffel Towers!
It definitely looks a lot taller in real life than it actually is! This tower is only 60 meters high in comparison to the 273 meter high Eiffel Tower.
The Jewish Quarter is closed on Saturdays, because of the Sabbath, so we saved that for Sunday. After having seen most of the sights we wanted to, we headed to the old town square for some souvenir shopping! We successfully found a decent crystal place. Not the cheapest (we had lots of warning NOT to buy cheap crystal in Prague!) but reasonable with what seemed to be pretty high quality crystal. Some of you reading this should be excited - there may be some crystal headed your way!
It only rained for a few minutes on Saturday, and we ducked into the Salvador Dali exhibit in the Old Town Square. Laura and I had both studied Dali a lot in our middle school and high school Spanish classes, so it was cool to see a lot of his work outside of the textbooks. In case you didn't know, though, Salvador Dali was CRAZY. Talented, but crazy.
This was one of his coolest pieces of work. I couldn't see it at first, but this is a collage that from far away looks like Abraham Lincoln. It was so weird - you can see Lincoln so much better through the camera's lens! Without it, Lincoln is much more difficult to see.
This was the view out of the exhibit. There was a folk dancing competition in Prague this weekend, and there were people dressed up everywhere we went! Can you see the crazy headdresses?
Jenny, Laura, and I waiting for the bus.
We had dinner at a great local restaurant - it wasn't easy to find, but it was a little underground restaurant on one of the main streets. We think it was much more of a "local" place rather than a tourist restaurant. I had good intentions of trying some more good Czech food, but when I saw some of the interesting choices (pork knee) I opted for familiar chicken breast. Maybe I'll be more willing to try the native food in Italy...pizza and gelato? I can do that!
Our basement restaurant - I wanted to find an underground pizza place recommended to me by family, but this was a good substitute. Thank you for all of the Prague advice, Terry!
We all were asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow. One more day!
OK mom you were right...I should have brought my Chacos! Sperry's are not the most practical shoes for miles and miles of walking.
SUNDAY:
We didn't sleep in on Sunday, but we went straight to the Jewish Quarter. This was probably my favorite part of the whole weekend.
We went on one of the strangest tours I've ever been on. One ticket covered six different places, so we had to walk all over the quarter. It was definitely worth it! There were signs posted everywhere not to take pictures, but we managed (along with almost all of the tourists) to sneak a few. It was too amazing not to photograph!
All of the men were asked to wear a head covering. Brad was not thrilled to be wearing his Yarmulke, but he was a trooper.
This is the Jewish cemetery. For many years, any Jews in the Czech Republic had to live in this small area. They were also only allowed to bury their dead in this cemetery - over 100,000 people are buried here, some as many as 12 people deep! As you can see, all of the headstones are piled on top of each other. It was incredible.
Click on this picture - it should open in a bigger view. This is inside of the Pinkas Synagogue. Painted on the walls inside of this synagogue, there are over 80,00 names of Czech Holocaust victims. It was very moving and also amazing how precisely the names were written.
A picture of the ceiling of the Spanish Synagogue - I wasn't looking when I took this picture because the man behind me was asking people to put their cameras away. The ceiling was so ornate!
This is a picture of all of the people who gather to see the Astronomical clock every hour.... and this was a Sunday morning!
After stopping in a few more souvenir shops, we ran back to the hostel and then to the train - literally. We had an hour to get from the Old Town, to our hostel to get our bags, and then to the train station. In Prague, trains do not run on time like they do in Germany (we're spoiled, I guess...) so we were racing through the streets like typical crazy Americans. We arrived at our train five minutes too late - but thankfully, the train was delayed 20 minutes! Definitely an answer to prayer!
This was the double-decker train we took back to Leipzig. It was not a fast "ICE" train like the one that we took on our way to Prague, but it was ironically about 20 degrees colder than the "ICE" train.
When we returned, all of the students met in a group to discuss our weekends. It was great to be together again and to laugh at all of the experiences we had.
This is the only other travel picture I have so far. Grant, Branson, and Collin went to Paris! This weekend was the end of the Tour de France, so it was pretty crowded.
As is our tradition, we ended the evening with our communion in plastic shot glasses.
This week is going to be our last full week here! We are excited, but we know we'll be tired at the end. We are talking to players, interviewing staff of the basketball team, thinking of creative ways to promote the team around Leipzig, and working on our final presentation. We have a long way to go, but I know that our final presentation will add a lot of value to this team.
Last night, the girls went out with one of our German friends, Elfi. She is a businesswoman here in Leipzig, and it was great to hear about her experiences living and working here. Hopefully we'll see her again before we leave!
Love you all! Thanks for reading!
-Sylvia
