City of a hundred spires

The second half of my adventure in Prague was great.  On Monday, Sarka brought me back to the city centre for some more sights: Wencelas Square, which is more of a long street than a square.  It spans a long distance, is where lots of tourists and expensive shops are located.  The famous St. Wenceslas statue, with the patron on his horse, is found here (also found on the Czech coins).

We went to Letna Park, a favourite among locals for once again great views of the city.  It's nice to find some peace and quiet, away from the bustling city centre.  The rest of the day was spent in the Old New Synagogue (Jewish Quarters).  We learned about the history and culture of Jews, and probably the aspect that hit us the hardest was when we found ourselves in a section dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust.  In this building, the walls were covered with the names, birth and death dates, and place of birth of every Czech victim.  It's one thing to hear that 80,000 people were killed, but to read the names and details of every single person was horrifying.

The next day, I visited Český Krumlov, a lovely town about 3 hrs south of Prague.  It's medieval and has a cool castle that towers over the rest of the town.  There's a river where people row boats and rafts, a bit like Valborg, actually!  It's a nice place to spend the day and walk around, enjoy the surroundings and visit cute shops.  

Yesterday, Ivan took a turn to bring me around.  This time we went to a quiet garden that belongs to the Czech Senate, and along with water fountains, Japanese coy fish, random peacocks running around, there was a creepy dripstone wall, that if you look at it from a distance, resembles grotesque people and animals.   I also saw the Lennon Wall (not Lenin, but Lennon!), a graffiti wall dedicated to John Lennon and freedom (from communism).  Cool to see layers and layers of paint and art on this historical wall.  

The tv tower, otherwise known as the crawling baby tower, is pretty awesome.  There are giant, naked babies on all sides of the tower. Random!  Ivan also showed me a vineyard a little bit outside of the city centre - yet another beautiful view of this city of spires and orange rooftops!

I also tried a different dish, potato dumplings with pieces of pork back inside, with sauerkraut on the side.  It reminded me of Swedish pitepalt, though I'm sure the Swedes would have lingonberry sauce instead of sauerkraut.

My week here was perfect.  Though I found myself no longer in the safety net that Sweden pampered me with for 10 months, and in a world with not very friendly drivers, rugged and dirtier streets, and a language I couldn't even pretend to understand or speak, I couldn't have asked for a better start to my Eurotrip than this.  Everyone here has been so generous to me.  A wonderful time spent with friends, locals, and of course, good food :)