For real, last blog entry from Prague - Part 1

A couple of weeks ago, I woke up with the idea of posting to PragueBlague after I'd left Prague, pretending I'd gone back to Prague. "I'll trick them!" were the exact words in my half-awake, half-asleep mind. After I woke up for real, I abandonded that idea. There's no fooling you guys. So, I'm going to have to admit it - this could very well be my last blog entry ever from Prague as such. Tomorrow morning I leave for Stockholm, and not long after that Nicole heads southish east. We will still post, but the name PragueBlague will become a bitter-sweet anarchonism. In reality it will be StockholmBlolhmg when I post and AnyNumberofCitiesBlog when Nicole posts. Yes, Prague will still be in our hearts, but the reality of our immediate surroundings will be in our minds.

Yesterday was my second to last day in Prague. I spent most of it in Terezin, the fortress city in the Czech Republic that was once "a police prison of the Prague Gestapo in June 1940; in November 1941, a ghetto and concentration camp for Jews was established in the Large Fortress and town of Terezin." (http://www.photo.net/bp/terezin)

Why did I spend my second to last day in Prague in such a dreary place (a question I asked myself many times yesterday)? I don't know, actually; I just got the idea the night before. I guess I thought it was the best way I could spend the rest of my time here, since going to Auschwitz was so worthwhile. One big difference was that Rachel went to Auschwitz with me, and on the way there, we talked about all the thousands of babies we would have and all the crazy places we would live. Terezin had no such redemption.

Bad omen: someone had scrathed a swastika into the door of the bathroom stall. I can only hope that it was supposed to be the spiritual pre-nazi swastika, but if it was, then why was it painted over? The Jewish Ghetto musuem was way too much to take; not so much emotionally... there was just way too much information. It's hard to read a book when all the pages are posted on the wall (though Rachel and I both agreed that we would wallpaper our thousands of kids' walls with fancy small type words and mucha paintings so that they would always be forced to learn no matter where they looked... even if they try to hide under their blankets, which will be designed with old newspaper pages).

After the museum, I went to the gift shop to buy some Terezin gear for people back home (will you be one of the lucky few who gets a Terezin fanny pack?). Turns out the stuff was really expensive, and I didn't have enough crowns to pay for it. So I asked how much it was in Euros, since I had some Euros left from Berlin (old news but relevant again now that Nicole posted that Berlin photo). I didn't have enough Euros either, so I had to pay in Crowns and Euros. She took every crown I owned and had to pick through my 10 cent Euro coins to raise enough funds for everything I got. This meant that I had absolutely no money left for the bus ride home. Did I ask if I could return the packet of postcards so I could have enough crowns for the bus ride home? No. Did I know that I should? Yes. So why didn't I? Because I'm irrational. Which is also the reason I bought all these heavy souveniers when I had the whole rest of the day ahead of me. And also the reason I refused to take more money out of a cash machine no matter what. The weight of my backpack and the weight of the fear of being stuck in Terezin for the rest of my days was very heavy indeed. But man, those postcards were drawn by Jewish kids who were being taught in secret classes, and the drawings were about their life in the Terezin Ghetto. Definitely worth it.

I wandered back toward where the "Small Fortress," the main event, was supposed to be. The whole town is walled though, so I kind of thought I was already there before I was. I walked down into this grassy valley between the highway and a giant red brick wall. Basically it was an old European ditch that was designed in the 18th century to stop invaders. Long story short, I wasted a lot of time watching snails. There were a ton of snails in this ditch and for some reason I wanted to mess with their heads a little bit. I put five snails, who were originally scattered about the ditch, all right next to each other to see what would happen. I was hoping it would be something like Microcosmos. Instead, all the snails ran away from each other. Some brotherhood! It gave me a good idea for a fable, though. I would tell you, but I don't know who reads this blog. There could be a Hollywood producer out there just waiting to rip off a good idea. So I'll tell you in person. Anyway, snails are really slow, and not always easy to find, so I wasted a lot of time on this venture.

After that, I walked into a strange, dark hole in the brick fortress wall. It went for a really long way and had no light at the end and was really scary. The end of the tunnel was blocked off by wood. I know, I know, I should have broken through, but I ran into a spider web and am horrified of being eaten by brown recluses. So I ran out of there, very scared. It was the most scary thing that happened to me that day. Notice the passive phrasing even though it was my fault that I was in that tunnel? That's because I evade responsibility every chance I get. When I find out who put me in that tunnel, they are going to regert the day they put me in there, that's for sure.

I wandered around the old fortress town for a while. It was pretty interesting, and an urban explorers dream, but I just wasn't in the mood. Maybe it was the backpack or the lack of money or the fear. I looked on the ground for some money near a bicycle ramp, pretty much the only place in this old concentration camp town where kids can have fun (Oswiecim was pretty miserable too; why would anyone raise their kids in a city that used to kill thousands of people a day?). I found half a crown in a pile of dirt on top of an old couch that also had an old tractor tire on top of it. Half a crown used to buy you a lifetime of shaves and haircuts in Prague, but now it's nothing. I would have to rely on my cunning.

I pretty much gave up on seeing any more of Terezin. My goal was to get back to town without taking any money out of the cash machine. Another note on the ATM business - I only had a day left in Prague, and knew the cash machine would force me to take out more than I need.

Okay, I will finish this later.