Day 3 in Prague

Greetings again from Prague. It's pouring today. sucks.

Gonna try to write this quickly as internet time don't come cheap. As a result, forgive any spelling and grammatical mistakes (my inner perfectionist is screamed as I wrote that)

I'm on my 2 day in Prague. Checked out of my safe and somewhat comfortable hotel and am now writing this entry from my new digs: Sir Toby's Hostel. Haven't seen my room yet (8 bed dorm. Bunk beds. Yay...) but the rest of place is amazing. Very friendly staff.

Spent yesterday exploring the 'Stare Mesto' (sorry, can't do the accents), the old section of town. Old town square was nice, but way too touristy. Spent the whole time ducking out of the way of rampaging tour groups (vicious!). Beautiful architecture all-around, and the astronomical clock was interesting.

Highlight of the day was the Jewish Museum in Prague (which is actually made up of 6 sites). I wasn't going to do this, but I after seeing a postcard of the interior of the Spanish Synagogue, I knew I had to go. That place was awe-inspiring. All of the relics (including a massive amount of Synagogue silver from Bohemia and Moravia) on display were ones seized by the Nazis for eventual display in their "Museum of an extinct race". In fact, these beautiful synagogues were used as warehouses for the seized items. The displays in each location detailed the jewish religion through the use of the relics, and the spanish synagogue was devoted to gains and (massive.. which is an understatement) losses made by the Jewish community in this region

Interesting bit: On July 4th, 1939 there was a public notice for all jews to hand over all of their ski equipment, record players (grammophone) and records. Can you freakin imagine the nerve of that?!?

Walked to the river and saw the Castle (which is more like a small walled city) from a-far. Watched some sketchy guy which I can only assume was a pick-pocket do his rounds. Also walked by the Charles Bridge, but it was jam-packed with tourists. Gonna wait for early tomorrow to the bridge and the castle. Thursday I'm gonna do a a day trip Hutna Hora (Sedlec Ossuary!!!). Friday I plan on going to Plzen (AKA the home Pilsner Beer... Hmmm beer)

After that, not exactly sure. Right now, my tentative plan is to go to Munich for a couple days, and then after that Zurich to meet my friends Dave and Anita (and they're daughter Dalia). After that, I think I'll resume my original Eastern Europe plans and head to Hungary. That means that Poland will have to wait for another trip.

Random thoughts:
- While I was preparing for this trip, I was trying to read my Lonely Planet book... but honestely, it would bore to tears, especially the history sections. Now that I'm here, I'm absolutely fascinated by the history sections. I guess that's one of the things I was looking for with this trip... a little perspective. Can't believe the amount of upheavals that have occured in this country.
- Did you see the Emmy's on sunday? I can't believe Fox censored Sally Fields for saying "If mothers ruled the world there wouldn't be no goddamn wars!!!". Such bullshit from the 'fair and balanced' company.
- South park kinda sucks in German. (ok... I watched a little TV. I haven't completely disconnected from the world yet)
- So far, everywhere I go to eat, they're playing bad 80s music. Nothing like eating breakfast to 'Ghostbusters' and supper to 'The Neverending Story'

BTW, having a bitch of a time with the language. No matter how many time I look over my phrasebook, I can't get the pronunciation of the Czech language down straight. This doesn't bode well for the rest of my trip where every country is a different language (most supposedely even harder than Czech. Lovely).

That's it for now. Sorry for the lack of picture, but can't find a USB port.

L8r. Matt