Prague

As this is possibly my last chance to do some traveling before moving back to North America, I am trying to see as many places as I possibly can in the next three months while also completing all my work. I headed to St Andrews last weekend for the beginning of semester to get some paper work done and sort out loans, etc and instead of flying directly back to my town, I took a slight detour to meet up with my parents in Prague. They are over here in Europe for a month traveling around the Czech republic, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, etc. I flew Ryan Air which is a cheap way to fly in Europe (although not the nicest) and I've never had a problem with them..... until now. I usually fly with just carry-on but because I took my laptop, I was over the weight restriction for carry-on and had to check my bag. Somewhere in between Edinburgh and Prague (via Frankfurt), my camera was stolen out of my bag by the baggage handlers. Needless to say, I'm not very happy, partly because it's my own fault for not moving it to my carry-on when I checked my bag. Oh well. Lessons learned I guess. Now I have to buy a new camera here in Germany and hopefully will be able to understand the instructions and everything. I guess that will help with the learning German program!

Prague itself was a great time. It was nice to explore a city with other people, especially for the evening since I usually travel alone and rarely explore cities at night by myself. We didn't see nearly as much stuff as I usually pack into days when I'm traveling, but that too was nice, since it was much more relaxing than normal and since there wasn't anything I was dying to see, we just sort of explored whenever we felt like it and for as long as we wanted. We went to some of the major sites, like the Palace in New Town, the Jewish quarter in Old Town (and all the cute shops around there), and the citadel which boasts the earliest settlement in the area. The Jewish quarter blew my mind, in part because it was originally planned as a museum of the "extinct" Jewish tradition following their extermination by the Nazis in WWII. However, things did not turn out for them as planned and it is now a sort of memorial to the holocaust but also a beautiful representation of the traditions and cultural practices of the Jewish people. I learned a ton about marriage and burial practices along with all the religious practices. Stuff I've only come across in passing but didn't really know much about. Our last full day we headed up to the citadel and went to the national cemetery which has some of the richest and most famous Czech people buried there, including Dvorak (sans accents). Quite a different experience from the Jewish cemetery the day before.
I really love Eastern Europe and wish I had more time to explore more parts of it, but I guess I have to save that for later. All in all, a good time but by the end, I was starting to get anxious and needed to get back to work. I know, I know, a sad life I lead. So now I have about a week and a half, touring around Germany with my parents and trying to finish this paper, then off to South Africa!!!

The sad thing of course is that with my camera gone, I have no pictures of Prague. My dad took a bunch and has put them on his website, so if you are interested, either email him or send me a message and I will send you the link.