HaveBeen: CityTrip - Prague (Czech Republic) - Part 3

After our pub crawl night we revived ourselves with toast and some strange kind of strawberry juice the next morning. Which is pretty impressive really, because there was absinthe involved the night before and wow, that stuff is strong. But we were all shiny and happy  (and perhaps a bit tired) again and ready for the next round. 

Today it was time for the Jewish Quarter. You have to pay to get into most of the synagogues, but there is a possibility to buy a combination ticket (with a big student discount!). The ticket does not cost much and you get entrance to all the available tourist spots in the Jewish Quarter. There is a lot to see so it might take the whole afternoon. 

 Men are obliged to wear a kippah (the little hats), but these are given our for free in some of the synagogues and sold for a couple of euros is some of the others, so it’s not BYO (although this is allowed). That’s the only dress code. Oh, and cameras are not allowed. Taking photos is absolutely forbidden everywhere. As you can see I listened to those signs very well (first we actually listened, but then we saw everyone else taking pictures and we wanted some too).

 One of the most impressive buildings was the Pinkas Synagogue. The walls of this building are written full with all the names of Czech victims of the holocaust, 80.000 in total (see above).

 After our visit to the Jewish Quarter we needed a little break before we set out on the search for a theatre show to go and see that evening. Since internet on your phone does not guarantee the easiest searches for theatre nights, we decided to go old school and walk to some of the places to see what they had on offer for that night. Bonus; more nice sights to see. 

In the end we chose to see Extracts of The Swan Lake. The tickets were a lot cheaper than the average ticket in the Netherlands for a similar show (we paid about 25 euro), so we were pretty happy. This ballet had a smaller cast than the original version, but the dancers and orchestra were great and the show beautiful. I just love the iconic music and costumes and I’m happy I got the chance to see it. 

On our last day in Prague we only had half of the day before we were taking our bus/ flight home. Our goals for the day: spend all our last crowns and d a boat trip. You recognize the men (I did not see any women) who sell tickets for the boat trips by their sailor uniforms. There are many of them lined up in the area around the bridge so it’s very easy to get the tickets. 

Our sailor man/salesman was so nice to walk us to the starting point of the boat trip and we were lucky not to have to wait too long. The boat leaves every hour and the trip takes around 50 minutes (costs; around 10 euro). On the boat there is a recorded guide that gives you information in several languages. This was pretty annoying because every sentence was repeated 5 times, of which I could understand most (no chance to miss any information that way though). 

 

After the boat tour we walked around a bit more and got ourselves some lunch, a good way to spend our last hours in the city. We went to ones of the most famous beer bars/ producers to try some real Czech beer (terrible stuff (to me at least), even darker and more bitten than Guinness). Oh, and I also got to take some cool pictures of me holding a snake.

After that, we ended up almost running to the apartment, packing our last things at top speed and running to the bus station so I could be there on time for my bus (I made it!). In the end the queue for the bus was so long that we easily could have taken our time (the bus was also going to London, and turns out this is a popular destination for Czech people). 

Crazy end of a crazy, but fabulous, trip!