Easter in Prague!

On Saturday we left Frankfurt early by bus for a long drive to Prague, Czech Republic. We decided to spend Easter weekend here, where we met up with our friend, full-year Rome student and travel buddy, Jennifer. By late afternoon we were reunited and went off exploring the beautiful old city that has virtually been untouched by time. Luckily (and disturbingly) Prague was mostly protected from destruction in WWII because the people of Prague immediately handed over authority to the Nazis when they arrived and waited to rebel until right before the war ended. The "disturbing" part was that Hitler especially liked Prague and wanted to retire there. He also kept the Jewish Quarter intact because he was planning on turning the area into the museum of the "extinct Jewish race."  Anyway, walking from new town, Nove Mesto, into the old town, or Stare Mesto, was like walking back in time, with old medieval buildings, a beautiful church, and a gorgeous astronomical clock tower. In the town square were Easter markets, which, as one of our friends warned us, "are magical and make your money disappear." We had a wonderful time wandering around this area, and we stopped at a restaurant serving traditional Czech food for dinner. 

Bus Trip Number 2!

Nove Mesto, Wenceslas Square

Meat-filled potato dumplings with sauerkraut. 

Beef Goulash

Church of Our Lady before Tyn

The Astronomical Clock of Prague.

After scouring over Prague for an Easter Sunday morning mass in English (which we finally found across the Vltava river in the lower Castle district), we went back to old town to the Easter markets for lunch. In our opinion, the best part of these traditional markets is the food, for you know all of the street food offered are favorite local dishes. Most of the food items included various potato dishes, sausage and ham, grilled cheese, and sauerkraut. For treats they had trdelnik, which are wrapped sweet bread coated with sugar and almonds that have been rotisserie over an open fire. And, in keeping with our traveling tradition of experiencing the culture through food, we sampled these various dishes for both lunch and dinner. In the afternoon we took a long walking tour around the old town and Jewish Quarter. We splurged on a classical music performance by a quintet from Prague's Philharmonic, featuring Bach, Mozart, and Czech's Dvorak. We finished off the Easter Sunday with our yearly tradition of watching "Easter Parade;" all in all it was a wonderful Easter! 

The Vltava River

Easter Markets!

A sausage with a potato, bacon and sauerkraut side. 

Easter Market potato chips!

The Astronomical Clock. 

At the Classical Music Concert.

Various potato dishes as the markets.

Grilled Cheese

Megan with a chicken skewer and Jennifer with a sausage. 

A chocolate filled pastry.

Trying trdelnik!

Easter Monday we crossed the Vltava river to explore Prague Castle, which is supposedly the biggest castle in the world that is still inhabited by the ruler of the country, in this case, by Prague's president. What's interesting about this castle is that it doesn't look like a castle at all, rather it is made up of various palaces constructed by rulers throughout Prague's history, and they are all connected to form this "castle." In the center of the castle stands the enormous and impressive St. Vitus Cathedral. While it was a long walk up to the castle, the views of the Old town district and the castle district below were magnificent. We spent most of the day up in the castle, learning about its long history and appreciating the different palaces and churches. 

Prague Castle

Prague's coat of arms.

Enjoying the view from the castle.

There was a small chocolate festival so of course we had to get something!

St. Vitus Cathedral

Beautiful stained-glass in the cathedral.

Megan and Katie with St. Vitus Cathedral.

After climbing down the large hill on which the castle stands, we meandered through the medieval streets and found the John Lennon Wall, a graffitied wall with messages of hope and peace. We left our stamp with the classic Roman "SPQR" or "Senatus Populusque Romanus," which means "The Senate and the Roman People." For dinner, we went to a local restaurant that is so old that it was a favorite of Mozart when he was in Prague. After dinner we took a pleasant evening cruise on the Vltava river, where we appreciated the city all lit up at night. 

The Charles Bridge

More Easter Markets!

John Lennon's Wall

The Vltava River from Charles Bridge.

More treats from the Easter Markets!

We forgot to mention one thing that happened Monday. Before coming to Prague, our friend Jennifer learned from one of her friends who had studied in the Czech Republic of an interesting Easter tradition. We learned that on Easter Monday, it is common for Czech boys and young men to take hand-made "whips" out of willow bark and go around whipping girls' and young women's legs while reciting a poem. In return, the girls are supposed to give them candy. The reasoning behind this calls back to fertility and new life that is present in the meaning of Easter. Of course, when we heard this, we were a little unsure and nervous as to what to expect from this tradition: is it still present or does it happen in the bigger cities, such as Prague? Well, we can confirm firsthand that this still is widely present in Prague, for as we were walking around he Easter markets, we were unexpectedly ambushed by a young Czech man who "whipped" each of us on the back of our legs while saying "Happy Special Day!" We were stunned and didn't really know how to react so we left the area as quickly as possible before we burst out laughing at the awkwardness of the situation. At least we got to experience all of Prague's Easter traditions! 

The Charles Bridge on our night river cruise.