Day 4 - Church and Other Sightseeing in Prague

-Irena and Pavel asked if I wanted to attend a mass/service Sunday morning, and I said yes. Not because I can understand the language (because I can't) but because I love seeing cathedrals in Europe when they're actually being used, and the enormous organs filling the entire church with beautiful music - GAH! I love it.

The entrance to the palace, church is inside

 -We attended the 10am service at St Vitus Cathedral; although Irena is atheist and Pavel is Jewish, they told me they enjoyed the service, for some of the same reasons, and said that it was nice to go every once in awhile. Plus, if they hadn't gone with me, I wouldn't have gotten in, as the service was for Czech citizens only, no tourists. Almost blew my cover when we were entering and the guards asked us, in Czech, to turn our cell phones off, and I opened my mouth to say "mai mee"("don't have" in Thai), but caught myself, coughed and shook my hands to indicate I didn't have one.

-Though it was quite chilly inside the cathedral, it was a fairly sunny day, so we headed down the road to Petrin Hill. It was quite a hill indeed, and despite the cool air I felt halfway to a heat stroke by the top. There is a small tower there "inspired" by the Eiffel Tower, and I few other small buildings, including one with a maze of mirrors.

-The path down the hill was a long zig-zagging switchback style road, so we all looked at each other for a moment and then took off in a straight bee-line, cutting across all the grassy areas. We made excellent time this way, even with the occasional slippery patch.

-At the bottom was the Memorial to the Victims of Communism, created to represent the loss of life and humanity of those in prison camps during the war/occupation.

-Had traditional Czech for lunch again, and this time I had schnitzel - best schnitzel I've ever had.

-After lunch we made our way to the Žižkov Television Tower (voted ugliest building in Prague), where artist David Cerny designed giant babies crawling up and down the tower.

-On our way home we passed by one of the Jewish cemeteries; it was closed, but we could see through the fence and walked along until we reached the road on the other side.

Interesting new church

A tasteful and understated memorial  to Jan Palach, the Czech student who burnt himself to death in January 1969 in protest against the Soviet occupation of his country. It also commemorates Jan Zajic, another student who immolated himself a month later on almost the same spot.

-I had a ticket to Rusalka (Dvorak's Opera) that evening at 7, so we returned home around 5 so I could freshen up and such before going. Rushed off at 6:20 to make sure I arrived before it started, but true to form I forgot my camera, and was unable to take any pictures of the beautiful inside of the opera house. I had the best seat in the house, smack in the middle of the first row of the first level balcony and had not only a fantastic view of the stage and all the action, but I could also see a good portion of the pit orchestra as well.

-About 10 minutes into Act I, there was some...commotion...about 5 rows behind me - people were frantically climbing over each other to get out of the row and jabbering away in Czech. I had no idea what the probelm was, and still don't, but they eventually sorted themselves and calmed down, and I turned back to the excitement on stage and the lovely screen above it with the English subtitles.

-Came home afterwards to hot chicken soup and toast from my lovely hosts. Chatted a bit and mapped out my route for the following day's solo exploration.