Praha

After a some-what tiring afternoon of traveling, I got home to my apartment last night with my pre-made salad in hand, only to put balsamic vinegar on it, thinking it would perfectly complement the tomatoes and mozzarella, and wonder why it was tasting so salty... and so japanese like. Well, the answer is, I poured soy sauce all over my salad rather than balsamic vinegar. Like I've said before, you win some and you lose some. I'd say this was on the losing side of things. And yes, sadly, I still ate it. I know, I know... but I was hungry!

Regardless of the soy-sauce mishap, I had a really great weekend in Prague. I stayed with two friends from WashU on Friday and Saturday night and one of my best friends from camp on Sunday night. I did a lot of touring, yet didn't have to wake up super early which I am realizing is an added bonus of not having Monday classes... in fact, I did some solo-touring on Monday when my camp friend was in class. While it may not be that exciting to tour around alone, I was just happy that I figured out how to get to and from our meeting point without totally getting lost. I also happened to go to Prague on a weekend where the sun was out, which I appreciated tremendously considering Utrecht and the sun do not seem to get along very well. The Charles Bridge on a sunny day is great since you can see so far out. I also got to go to the top of the Dancing Building and look over all of the city right as the sun was setting. And earlier that day, I went to Prague Castle and got a view of the city from that angle as well. Lets just say, I have a seriously good collection of what one would call "picturesque" moments in Prague. 

Sunset in Prague from the top of the Dancing Building

View from the Charles Bridge... All hail the sun!!

My favorite part of my trip was when I visited the Jewish Quarter, specifically the Pinkas Synagogue which housed the permanent exhibition "Children's Drawings from Terezin 1942-2944". The museum has over 4,000 original drawings by the children who were imprisoned in the Terezin ghetto, many of which were on display. 

By Ruth Gutmannova

While Terezin was not a death-camp by definition, many who were imprisoned there never made it home, mostly because they were later sent to a death-camp if they did not first come to their death on their own. Among the Terezin prisoners, there were 10,000 children under the age of 15, with over 8,000 of them being deported to death-camps by the end of the war. These drawings are one of the ways in which these children's stories can be told to later generations; I guess whoever coined the phrase "A picture's worth a thousand words" wasn't so crazy after all. The drawings were truly amazing to see, especially when I took a step back and realized that the fact that the children had the ability to create artwork in such a terrible place was amazing it itself. I read that the adults created somewhat of an underground school for the children, and art was one of the "classes" that was given as the adults felt that  art was just as valuable as any other form of learning and of course was also a way for the children to express themselves. If you are as fascinated as I am, here is the official website for you to learn more about this collection of drawings: http://www.jewishmuseum.cz/en/acollectpict.htm

By Margit Koretzova