Prague Trip!
Our first
group trip was to Prague this last week.
I think this trip was full of great experiences and lessons
learned. Before we left Thursday, I
believe pretty much everyone was excited and ready to take our first “Field
Trip.” I love Olomouc, but I was ready
to get out and explore as well. Last
week we had the opportunity to learn some Czech history to prepare us for our
trip to Prague, which helped enhance our experience when touring the various
places in Prague. I am very grateful
that we were able to learn these aspects of Czech history and seeing these
places in person was amazing.
As we left
Thursday morning, I was very excited because I had never been on a train before
as a mode of transportation. I loved
it! The countryside was awesome and the
travel was quick and easy, with only one minor issue with Hannah left at the
wrong train stop! I feel as though this
first trip constantly taught us different lessons, and was extremely important
in helping us better understand traveling in Europe.
The weather
was cold and dreary when we arrived but we went out and about to tour the first
afternoon anyways! We visited the church
where the seven men who killed “The Prague Butcher” had a standoff with the
Nazis and eventually were all killed.
This was an extremely moving experience for me. It was very surreal to stand underneath the
church where the men fought the Nazis and were eventually flooded out. To see the bullet holes in the walls, the
window where they placed the firehoses, and the most touching part for me, the
hole in the wall where they almost succeeded in digging through to escape. One of our Professors had family members
instrumental in hiding these men before their deaths at the church, and I believe
his stories made it that much more impactful.
To actually stand in the same place these men did, was amazing and an
experience I will never forget.
That night
one of our girls had a video conference, so she thought nothing of going to the
corner to McDonalds right near the hostel by herself. She was cornered there during the conference
by two men who tried to take her things and it was very traumatizing. I think this was the first time the group
realized that yes we are in an amazing city and here to have fun, but dangerous
things can happen and we need to always be extra cautious even if the likelihood
of something happening is not great.
The next
day was even more cold and dreary and the rain decided to join us as well on
our tour! We were able to see the St.
Charles Bridge, John Lennon Wall, and the Prague Castle. This day included a ton of walking in the freezing
cold, but we experienced so many amazing views and learned a lot of
history. For me, the sheer size of the St.
Charles Bridge and Prague Castle is just astounding. It amazes me that they were able to build
such magnificent structures without the technology we have today, and they have
lasted all these years. The view from
our hike to the Prague Castle was breathtaking and definitely worth the
walk. As we were enjoying this view,
however, Maekayla had her wallet stolen out of her purse and she lost all of
her cash and cards. This was a hard
time, because not only was it cold, but it was also raining and it was just one
of those moments where I felt like, why did this have to happen? However, she got everything taken care of and
learned a very important lesson. I think
we all did, because it’s easy to get caught up in the moment of touring and
taking pictures and forget that there are bad people out there. We were all enjoying one of the most
breathtaking views of Prague, and it was in those few split seconds we were all
brought back to reality to realize that we can enjoy all this, but still have
to be so cautious.
The next
day was a little more uplifiting as we took a bus to Dresden, Germany for the
day. The Sun was FINALLY shining and the
temperature a little warmer. I thought
the countryside on the way to Dresden was beautiful and very unique. There were a lot of little towns nestled into
the hills. In Dresden we visited the
area which was bombed in World War II and rebuilt. I found it so neat that they rebuilt these
parts but they were built to still match the other buildings. I feel as though in America, they would have
just been rebuilt to whatever the current style was at the time. Another thing that really intrigued me, was
the Protestant Church. Although the
church was not directly bombed, the heat from the surrounding fires crumbled
the church structure. The interesting
part to me was that they used whatever blocks and pieces of the old church that
they could to construct the new one.
Therefore, when you look at the building, it is a mixture of the
lighter, newer material and the darker, older material. I find that so intriguing because they
incorporated their history into their new church and I think that is so
important. A lot of people want to just
move on and not think about the past when it was something bad, however, this
shows that the people acknowledge the bad that happened, but also are moving
forward and rebuilding. After leaving
the church, I visited a museum full of different weapons, armor, and other
items from different periods. This
museum was extremely interesting and I loved getting to see the progression of
the weapons, clothing, etc. It is really
interesting to think and compare the technology we have and use today and the
technology they had back then. It blows
my mind to think what they accomplished with what they had.
By Sunday,
I think we were all tired physically and tired of the weather as well. Sunday morning, we visited the Jewish Cemetery
in Prague that was preserved, interestingly enough because the Nazis wanted to
keep it to show after the war was over of the Jewish race they made extinct so
to speak. The cemetery and Synagogue were
both very moving. We also visited a building with 85,000 names of Jews killed
in the Czech during the War. That in
itself was extremely somber. I am very
thankful I have been blessed to experience these things so far, because
although they are sad, I have a greater understanding of the War and the feel
even more emotions for those who suffered.
I really cannot wrap my brain around the amount of lives lost and
hardships endured during the war because although I have had hardships, they
are nothing in comparison. We are very
blessed to live in a land where we have not experienced such events. It really struck a chord with me when our
Professor, Jan, spoke about how he remembers taking Communism classes. We all think of this in America as history
that happened a while ago, but the people here know all too well that it was a
lot more recent than most people comprehend.
I cannot imagine walking down the street scared of the Soviet soldiers
or being taught Communism in the classroom.
I think this taught me just how much freedom and rights we really do
have in the United States, and I am very grateful.
Overall, I
thought Prague was great! However, when
the weather is so cold and dreary, it does put a damper on the experience. I tried not to let that affect me, however,
it was difficult to enjoy walking around the beautiful city when it was rainy
and cold. Also, a lot of valuable
lessons were learned, and although they put a damper on the mood at the moment,
I love that we learned lessons and made memories. I also believe these situations made us
closer as a group and that’s a win in my book!
Fortunately, I have traveled and studied abroad before, and I have
learned that it is best not to dwell on what is not the same as home or what
went wrong that day. This trip to Prague
just reinforced the idea of “go with the flow” and make the best of each
situation, which I think is essential when traveling. Some of the greatest traveling memories I
have made, happened when things went wrong and not according to planned. I am looking forward to our other field trips
as a group and hope to experience many more beautiful places full of history.
