Prauge is home to europes oldest and most unique chapels and synagogs.includeing the bone chapel the oLD NEW SYNAGOG that houses one of
the most tragic massacres europe has ever seen.PrAuge has a very in depth complex history especially in the world war 2 era.nearly the entire
city is made up of gothic style buildings.upon arriving you feel as if you have just steped back into the 18th century.every bit of
the city is perfectly preserved and on display.being able to view history first hand and to have the oppertunity to reach out and touch it
is truely magnificant.
I was staying on the outskirts of prauge to avoid the tourist price hikes.gave me an oppertunity to see the sections of the chez republic
not many get to see. i took a train about 40 min outside the city to a small work hostel where i was the only tourist and thats the way i liked it.
i woke early the next morning and took the train into the city to begin touring.i was touring the jewish quarter.at one time prauge had been
divided.during the age of facism ,an area a little bigger than the size of a football feild was sectioned off and a wall was built around
it.thousands of jews were crammed inside elbow to elbow with barely enough room to breath.these where called ghettos and they where in many parts
of europe at the time.
When the jews left the ghetto to do work or shop in the city they had to wear large ridiculous yellow cones on their head to be clearly identified.
it looked basically like a yellow road cone.the first place i visited in the jewish quarter was the largest jewish cemetary in all of europe.the bodies
of over 100,000 jews were buried inside.some stacked 12 high in the ground.with tombstones pointing out every which way fourced and jammed together
like a boukay of flowers.it was erie walking in a place surrounded by so much death.the majority were killed during the plague and
the rest during the facist movment in world war 2.You would never believe that 100,000 could be burried in a feild so small.
We continued to a church called the old new synagog also europes oldest active synagogue.It had a history like no other in europe.
during the facist movement in europe.public officials gathered a task fource to take down an entire community of jews.during passover
all the jews gathered at the synagogue and some 3,000 were then locked inside and taken out one by one from sun up to sundown and
slaughtered.throats were cut and they where left to bleed out in the street.to this day the strret by the church is called krevní barvivo
Which in czech means blood stain.
The irony of all this is directly across the street.viewed right from the steps of the old new synagogue is a hugo boss
clothing.What most people dont know is that hugo boss was one of the original nazies.he believed in facism befor facism
was even a thought in europe.in fact he was the original designer for all the uniforms for the third riche.i guess next time
you can keep that in mind befor buying boss jeans or sweat shirts.
next i went to Kutná Hora, Czech Republic.were their was something very differant than anything i'de ever seen.The bone chapel
this is one of 2 bone chapels in the entire world the other one resides in south america.The bone chapel is made up of the bones
of 40,000 people.maily of catholic faith,catholics believed this site to be holy.therefor catholics from all over europe requested to
be buried here and one they ran out of room for the burial plots they came up with an entirely different way of memorializing their
remains.
As you enter the chapel you see a massive chandelear that hangs from ceiling and nearly touches the floor made completely
of bones.surrounding it are four post made of bones with and charipan holding a skull on top.in each corner of the chapel
lays a mountain of skulls in the shape of a piromid.Beside them was a crest made of pelvis and rib bones with a skull and cross bones at the top.The chapel is both disturbing ,interesting
and artistic all in one.Being here really gives you a feeling like no other.still to this day they are makeing additions to the chapel
growing more ad more each year.This was definately was the most interesting and haunting places in all of the czech republic.
In the city center of prauge square is the astronomical clock.An impressive 18th century masterpeice with interactive design.
with figures of towns people and angel and a danceing skeliton.Hundreds of onlookers wait for the clock to strike 12 and see the
figures twist and turn and the 12 apostles circle and trun as they pass by the window at the peak of the clock.The astronomical
clock is the only one of its kind in the world.Its sounds have echoed through the square for 600 years with very little repairs.
That is an amazing feat in and of its self.
i have been to may differant countries and i have learned that anywhere can be dangerous under certain cercumstances.Thats a
lesson i learned in prauge.I had left my hostel very early one day to catch a tour that was leaveing the city center at 8pm.
being that i was staying so far out of town i had to take the first train leaveing for prauge and that put me in the
city at around 5 am befor any tourist had arrived and shops had opened for the day.i was makeing my way to the square.
then sudenly i felt a sharp point against my back and i was pulled out of the middle of the street.a man said something
in either czech or russian.Then he said money ,iphone now!still faceing forward i took out my wallet.
luckily it was a new wallet i had just bought and did not have my credit cards or identification in it.i had just 200$ in the
wallet ,the rest was in my backpack.i passed the wallet back to him and said i had no phone but it was in my back pack.then he
scoffed a bit i think seeing as i was american he thought i would have much more money on me.i was in shock a bit and surprized
that someone would do this so close to the square.i thought to my self i cant let him get the bag.
He then tryed to open my pack and i had locked the zippers shut to prevent pick pockets in large croweds.Just as he was
fooling with the zipper 5 tourist turned the corner and starteled him.i felt his hands release my pack and i took the opertunity to run
because a man bold enough to do this in broad daylight surely would have no problem getting rid of me if he had to.so i ran as fast as i could
to the square that was just 5 blocks aways .i didnt even look to see if he was chaseing me.finally when i got to the squre where their was a group
of people i knew and i would be safe.
I always professed that i wasnt scared to die, i wore it like a badge of honer but until you feel a razor sharpe blade
slide up your back,you cant know that for sure.There are people in life that over come great adversary and do amazing things
but i learned something very important that day.That all of us are cowards because its human nature to be scared.This is just
a world full of cowards that do courageous things.because courage and bravery cant come from inside us,it comes from God and
being couragous and brave is a miracle...
Being from the united states puts you at a disadvantage pretty much every where.
It is internationally believed that US citizens are rich and carry boat loads of money.A desprate man down on his luck or
a carreer criminal search for tourist such as my self.Many times in many differant countries i found myself being followed.
At those times i immediatly find a store or well populated place to dunk into.Aside from that generally everywhere you
go will be same these instinces are extreamly rare in the area i was in.I guess i was just the lucky one.although i must say praude has its fair share of street side "charletions" such as certain entertainers that engage the audiance to distract them
from his partner picking their pockets.i witnessed alot of this.I fell victim to a diffent kind of con artist.One morning i needed to exchange some
currency.As i was walking into the exchage office a man approched me and said he could give me a better deal with no commission.Of course i was suspicious
but haveing had a lengthly stay in eastern europe i have exchanged money on the street although it is illeagle.
So i heard him out and the deal he was offering wasnt so good that it was to good to be true .so i thought why not if it will save me 20 bucks of so.
i pulled out 200$ and asked him if i could see the money and he handed it to me and it looked ligitament.I gave him the 200 and he gave me the what i
though was 5,000 czech krona.After he left another man approched me and said did you just change money on the street and i thought he might
be police so i said no.He said well if you did you just got ripped off.
I said how so he told me the money the guy gave me was worth nothing.Russian and czech language is very similar.So what the guy had given me was russian ruble
which looks nearly identical to czech krona but with a huge differance i krona is worth about 45 cents and a russian ruble is worth 15 cents.so i though ok
o got ripped off but the ruble he gave me was still worth about 75$.i went into the exchage office and handed her the ruble and she pointed to a sign that
had a picture of the bill i was carrying.So on top of being russian ruble instead of krona it was also altered from a 500 ruble bill to 5000.Basically
i traded 2 100 dollar bills for what may have been worth around 8$.I felt like a complete sucker but i learned my lesson.When it comes to money Never trust
anyone ever!!!
The czech republic is not the God fearing nation the US is.Only 2% of the czech republic identify as christian.It is morally opposite to most of
the US.In every liqure store you will find a wide variety of leagle drugs,mostly hallucinogenic one like payote,mescaline,shrooms as well as severel
differant kinds of marijuana such as marijuana brownies ,cakes,cookies and candy.Its not uncomman to find these at any liqure store as well as street
vendors.Absinth is also very popular in the czech republic.They have many differant absinth bars all over prauge.Although absinth bars are mainly a
tourist attraction and caters to foreigners mostly.
