Our tour guide even sang the Czech national anthem for us...
The Jewish Quarter was really interesting. It used to be the worst part of town because the street levels were so low and it flooded so often, so eventually it was abandoned by almost everyone who lived there. The city leveled the entire area and rebuilt on top of the existing rubble, which ended up raising the streets 4 meters... No more flooding! The Jewish cemetery, below, also has an interesting past: it's so high above the ground because once all the plots were full, they'd just put more layers of graves on top. Our tour guide reminded us that this street used to be 4 meters below where it is now, so the graves go even deeper than it looks.
Over 77,000 Jews are confirmed victims of the Holocaust, but thousands more were never accounted for. Hitler and his men destroyed everything that could help identify victims, including their homes, businesses, and all possessions (unless they were valuable enough to sell, of course). The building below, however, is a rare surviving Jewish building. Apparently, Hitler wanted the city of Prague to serve as sort of a 'Jewish Museum,' a reminder to the rest of the world of what Hitler had accomplished by eliminating the Jewish people. So, this building still stands... But definitely not with the purpose Hitler intended.
When the tour was over, I crossed the river and took about a million photos. It was the most gorgeous day (post-rain), and the views from the bridge were absolutely beautiful.
I hung around there for a long time, just taking in the scenery. After a while I found my way to the Lennon Wall, a huge wall near Charles Bridge that is covered in happy and inspiring graffiti- it's a symbol of resistance to the fallen communist government.
Prague Castle isn't too far from the Lennon Wall, so I headed in that direction next. What I didn't know was that there were a million stairs to get there... But the views from the top were worth the sweat!
I went inside the castle walls, but not the actual structure. Which was fine with me, because I still got to see the stone-faced guards... And I wondered if they were able to stand there motionless even during the crazy rain/windstorm we'd had just a few hours ago. I'll think about that next time I complain about rain... Maybe.
After the castle, I walked through the Royal Gardens... Mostly because they were in the way between me and the nearest beer garden.
When I finally made it to the beer garden, I kinda got distracted by the beer and forgot to take more pics. Oops! BUT I met a really nice family from Dallas who was doing a whirlwind European vacay, and I hung out with them for quite awhile. They were great company and it as fun to listen to their travel stories, even though it made me a little jealous that my family isn't here with me. After multiple tasty beers, we parted ways and I headed back to the hostel, where I decided to be social and go listen to (not participate in) karaoke. I met a nice guy from Tennessee named Casey who also hadn't seen much of Prague yet, so we decided to meet up the next day and do just about the most exciting thing ever: visit a brewery at a monastery. Monk-brewed beer?!? I could barely sleep that night, I was so excited :)
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