On our way from Prague to Dresden, we stopped at Terezín, which was a Jewish ghetto and ultimately a concentration camp during the Second World War. Many Jews, primarily from Czechoslovakia were sent here before being transported to Auschwitz and other extermination camps.

Terezín was an existing military fortress prior to World War II, with a small town adjacent to the fort. During the war the former residents were told to leave and many of the Jews from Czechoslovakia were forced to relocate here, where not only was there not enough room for them, but there also wasn't enough food and supplies for them, resulting in many people dying here. The military fortress was ultimately converted into a concentration camp, and even though it wasn't an extermination camp, many people either died from illness, or were killed here by the Gestapo.

"Labor makes you free."

This is original furniture that was used during the Second World War in the camp.

The man who shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, which ultimately started the First World War, was sentenced to twenty years of prison here. The cell was completely dark and he was not allowed outside or proper medical attention when necessary. Apparently if he had he been 20 years old (he was only 27 days short of his twentieth birthday), he would have received the death penalty for his actions, which given the circumstances of his imprisonment, would have been much more merciful. And people think the American prison system is cruel....

After Terezín we made our way to Dresden, and had dinner at Schnitzelgarten. I. Love. Schnitzel.

And we walked around the town a bit. I love Dresden, by the way. It's so quiet and there's so many cool buildings. The city has a really interesting history too, and you can see it in every building. I think a lot of people know about the fire bombing that happened in Dresden at nearly the end of World War II. When you're looking at a lot of the buildings here, you can see how the bombing affected this old city, and the massive spaces between old buildings were now super modern complexes replace their destroyed predecessors.

The Opera House

We also, of course, jaunted into Poland for a trip to the pottery factories in Boleslawiec to pick up our own sets of Polish Pottery. My mom has been using hers since she got them when we lived in Germany thirteen years ago, as has my sister since she's gotten married, and they both love them. So McKenna and I got to go and get our own sets for our future houses. I seriously can't wait till I have my own house to use all these cool things I've gotten over the years. As I told my mom earlier, I don't have baby-envy like a lot of my friends out at school. I have house-envy. And its seriously bad. It's basically at the point where it pains me every time I see a piece of furniture for sale because I want so badly to buy it and bring it home to my non-existent house and craft the heck out of it. Such is my sad, sad life. Haha.

And here is where they are painting some Polish Pottery before firing it.

Boleslawiec was only an hour and a half from Dresden, so we spent the day in Poland and then drove back to Dresden to stay the night. Here are some photos of the Frauenkirche, which I have posted about before on here, but I'll give you all a little refresher on how cool this church is. During the fire bombing, this church was able to stand for about a day, and then finally collapsed because of the intense heat it endured during the bombing. The church was reduced to rubble and stayed that way for many years until an international effort was made to painstakingly reconstruct the church, using as many of the original stones as possible. The dark stones you see are the original stones and the lighter are the new ones.

And this is a picture of the inside that I wasn't supposed to take, but my mom was like "Maddie, just take a picture!" So I took a picture. With an old couple in it. But I like it, so that's cool.

She is so fab.

The morning we left Prague my mom and I woke up at the crack of dawn to take some photos of Prague that not a lot of people have the chance, or really the desire, to get. We were out of the apartment before 5am, and it was probably very obvious that we had woken up about 2 minutes prior to walking out the door, but it's not like there were many people out, so whatevs man. The only people who were out and about were drunk (some interesting experiences with that...) so I'm guessing they probably didn't even notice. Or they won't remember it if they did.

But I digress. I think I can count on two hands the number of people we saw on our little excursion, which was awesome because you could really appreciate the buildings and the monuments without having to push everyone out of your way. Or get frustrated when that stupid tourist steps right into your picture. Because you are obviously not a tourist, with your big huge camera, massive bag (carrying your guide book, anti-bac, lenses, napkins, etc.), and comfortable walking shoes. Oh wait....

 

Right about here is when two guys came up to my mom and I and asked if we knew of any bars that were open. Really? 5 am and you want to continue to get drunk? Why not just go to bed?! Young people....

Yep, definitely look like I got out of bed two minutes before walking out the door. Oh well. I need some kind of proof that I was crazy enough to get out of bed this early.

And my mom, of course looking bright and chipper, unlike me. Haha.

And behold! The fruits of our labor: Karl's Bridge with basically no one but a few pigeons to keep us company! The only time I've seen it this empty was when it was closed off during the floods, and even then there were more police officers on it then the total amount of people that were walking on the bridge while my mom and I took our time snapping some photos.

Luckily there were these three younger people on the bridge when we first got there who were able to take a photo of my mom and I together. Then they also cleared off the bridge and my mom and I were truly the only ones there. It was totally awesome seeing this other side of Prague. A quiet and peaceful side. Huh... who'd a thunk it...

Ok, I will admit that I am not a very good blogger. Considering it's been about a month and I've been on several trips since I last posted and I haven't written a thing about any of them. Better late than never, right?

Anyway, last month my mom and sister (McKenna) went on a roadtrip to visit me in Prague for my birthday (in case anyone doesn't know, my family is living in Harrogate, England right now, so no driving through the Atlantic Ocean was necessary). My mom's friend Heather also met us there with her daughter Abby and niece Lucy. We had a really nice time, and I had a lot of fun showing my mom and sister around the town I've been living in for the last two months.

The first day we went to the Alfons Mucha exhibition in the Obecní dům (Municipal House), which is a collection of Mucha's prints that a famous Czech tennis player had collected over the years and displayed in his home in Florida. He agreed to set up this exhibition in Prague so people could see the impressive amount of work Mucha did for various advertising commissions. We weren't allowed to take any photos,  hence me trying to describe this with words, rather than just show you the pictures. It was pretty cool though, and I think even McKenna, who hates museums, enjoyed going to it. Of course, Alfons Mucha is one of her favorite artists, so it would have been hard for her to not have liked it.

That night we ate at a Thai restaurant and walked around Prague at night, which was great because I'm not usually.... actually I'm never in Prague at night, so I finally got to get some cool shots of all the buildings all lit up and at their prettiest. I love seeing cities at night because there's just something almost magical about it. Peaceful... (well, as peaceful as Prague can get, anyway. There are many things Prague is, but quiet is not one of them...)

The day of my birthday we walked down Karls Bridge and up to the castle. We took a tour of some of the buildings on the castle grounds, then grabbed lunch and went to the Museum of Communism.

St. Vitus Cathedral on the castle grounds.

Left to right: Me, Mom, McKenna, Heather, Lucy, Abby.

The Tyn (pronounced teen) Church on the Old Square.

For my birthday we went to Hard Rock Cafe. My first American meal since I left the United States back at the beginning of May, and it was awesome. As much as I love Czech food, and other traditional foods around this awesome Earth of ours, sometimes it's nice to just have a burger, you know?

The Old Square at night.

The next day we went to the Jewish Quarter and saw some of the synagogues and the Old Cemetery. I've been a couple times now, and each time the Old Cemetery and the Spanish Synagogue have been my favorite. The Jews were confined to this area of town, so in the Old Cemetery they didn't have enough room to bury people after a while. Whenever they ran out of room, they had to lay another layer of dirt on top of everything, pull up the existing tomb stones to ground level, and then bury people in the new layer. So it's literally hundreds of tombstones squished next to each other everywhere. It's a very somber place, but very peaceful.

The Spanish Synagogue. It's so intricately decorated and the colors are gorgeous! (My mom was like "Maddie, take a picture of that so I can paint my dining room that color!" Our house is literally inspired from all of our travels, not even kidding.)

Eating some awesome traditional Czech food. Meat and potatoes, what's not to like?

And I may be way over enthusiastic about this, but there's this place Nikola showed me downtown that serves soft serve ice cream that is seriously the best soft serve ever. And I know I'm definitely overrating this, but whatever. It's delicious. You can get strawberry and banana, or chocolate and yoghurt. Not chocolate and vanilla. Chocolate and yoghurt. It's. So. Good.

Yay! I'm older! I do not feel any older, and I definitely don't look like I've aged since I was 18, as everyone likes to tell me. "Yeah, I've actually just graduated from university, not high school" is how that conversation generally ends.

After Prague, my mom, McKenna, and I split with the Jarmans and headed out for Germany and Poland. Considering the ridiculous number of photos on this post already, I'll split this little trip into a few posts so it's all a little more digestable.

Right now I'm visiting my family in Harrogate, England and I've really been enjoying this time with all of us together (except Megan and Chadd). Christmas will be great when we're all together for real. Can't wait!

Happy Fourth of July everyone! I'm trying hard to get in the patriotic spirit all the way over here in Europe and I can say that so far I've been having a good Fourth of July. I hope you all can say the same and that everyone has a safe and festive holiday filled with lots of patriotism and happiness!

(It wouldn't be Fourth of July if my grandpa didn't get in his plane and throw streamers with candy for the kids (and adults) waiting below.)