SOLO EURO: DAY 13 [PRAGUE]

i'm starting this post with a side note. a year ago from today, i left for this trip, spent my birthday sick in an icelandic airport and hid from security for 14 hours. man, do i miss it! time flies and i can't believe it has taken me this long and i am not even done (still have poland to do)! 

anyhoo! the next morning was rainy. very rainy. and unfortunately a big walking day. i had originally planned to take the tram, but everything is relatively close together and it seemed a bit pointless. the first stop, was  the memorial to the victims of communism.  

after, i made my way to the church of ss. cyril and methodius. here, is the national memorial to the heroes of the heydrich terror. i did not know this story before, but in 1942 czech in-exile soldiers worked with the british to assassinate reinhard heydrich, acting reich protector of bohemia/moravia (what would later become the czech republic). side note, he was also the main architect of the final solution, the holocaust. this was the only successful government organized assassination of a top-ranking nazi.

one day heydrich was driven to prague castle, nazi headquarters. when his mercedes benz slowed down gabcik attempted to open fire, but his gun jammed, so kubis threw a grenade. the grenade hit the car (not heydrich), but he was inflicted with shrapnel. both attempted to shoot heydrich, but failed. heydrich's condition improved, but a few days later he went into shock and died. after the assassination attempt, kubis, gabcik, and others hid in the crypt of this church.

the nazis thought the village lidice was the hiding place. as a result, there was a complete destruction of the village. all men over 15 were killed, while the children and women were sent to camps.

someone turned themselves in and turned over the info of who and where the assassins were originally, with a czech family, and eventually found out they were at the church. no one in the crypt was taken alive. they were either shot to death or committed suicide in the crypt. leaders of the church were also killed.

the crypt.

memorials to gabcik and kubis.

i then made my way to vysehrad castle. it was bit of walk, but lovely. i was not in the touristy area, so it was a quiet stroll. along the way, i found a cute little cafe.

a flat white and a chocolate coconut bar. the servers were soooo nice!

a boy sitting on the roof. 

i continued my walk to vysehrad, a fort from the 10th century. it was a royal seat alongside prague castle, until the 14th century when prague castle took over completely. in the 17th century the habsburgs monarchy remodeled it with the baroque influence. by this time, vysehrad converted into an army training center.

one of the entrances to the fort.

st. martin rotunda (c. 1000s)

the view (and my mug) from the top of the hill. 

these views were better than prague castle and the cloudy skies made the river so shiny.

the gothic cellars that were once under a palace, is now an exhibition.

on the property is the basilica of st. peter and paul. the current building was competed in 1903.

beautiful mosaics.

outside the church is an ornate cemetery (est. 1869). the most visited area is the slavin tomb, where notable czechs are buried. my beloved alphonse mucha is buried there, but the slavin tomb is not very impressive when it comes to looks. now the other graves, these aren't just simply tomb stones, but works of art. they are quite macabre and don't symbolize celebrating life, but mourning it.

this big shot was a composer.

a view of prague from near the church.

it was a very windy day, but it did make the leaves so pretty.

i then took the streetcar back to the hostel (and accidentally went on the car, oops), but found my back. also, exiting the train station i found the jan palach memorial. i tried to find this my first day, but failed. it is hard to notice something on the ground when there are normally swarms of people. john palach was the first to immolate himself as an act of protest once the soviet union gained control over czechoslovakia. a month later, another student set himself on fire  on the same spot. 

this memorial is the spot where palach collapsed.

i went back to the hostel feeling a little tickle in my throat, but thought it was due to the gusty wind drying it out. spoiler alert: i got sick again, more on that the next post. for dinner, i planned on returning to narodni kavarna, but the service was so bad (i did not even get to put my order in), so i went to a quickie place and got a crepe and salad (the dinner of champions).

now for a song. lately, i have jumped back into musicals. i don't know how i had never heard of lin manuel miranda's 21 chump street (i listened to hamilton and in the heights on repeat multiple times, especially while planning this trip). my favorite song is 'the money,' but here is all 14 minutes of this short musical / creative expression of journalism. enjoy!