-For if those streaks, those mile-long, shiny, tearstains, aren't waterfalls yet, in a quick age or so, as ages go here, they probably will be.
Elizabeth Bishop, https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/questions-of-travel/
I had to force myself out of bed this morning in order to make the Jewish Cemetery and the Museums/Synagogues before my train to Berlin. My favorite of the Museum-Synagogues was the Spanish museum (pictured above). It was by far the most extravagant and intricately designed.
The graveyard was incredible haunting. The graves (pictured above) were uncomfortably close together because the Jews had a very limited space in which they were allowed to bury their dead within the Ghetto of Prague. In some places, about 12 people are buried, one on top of the other. Because they were forced to bury their dead so compactly, the bodies contaminated their water supply, causing epidemics throughout Prague. From above, the grave stones almost look like chess pieces.
What struck me about Prague overall was:
The quality of their chocolate (amazing!!)
The beauty of the buildings—usually a city has quite a few beautiful buildings, but Prague’s buildings are gorgeous no matter where you turn. Pictured above is a random street corner that just happens to look like a major tourist attraction would look in any other city.
That tourists were taking actual SELFIES with grave stones in the Jewish cemetery. (????????!!!!!!!!)
How much there is to see in such a tiny space. I was very disappointed to learn I’d missed out on an underground tour of the city, which showed art made out of (real human) skulls. Here is a picture from a friend I met later in Berlin, who did get the chance to go there:
Once I got to Berlin, I was planning to do a lot, but I ended up sleeping for 3 hours instead. Then I walked around to Alexander square and looked through the market. I found it strange that a lot of the stuff being sold was being marketed as African (flags, bracelets, paintings, etc). There were as many of those shops as there were German ones.
While eating ice cream in a square, I watched a few people bungee jump off of the top of a sky scraper and I met a couple kind German people who shared music and stories with me. Their names were Ulrike and Sascha. Ulrike was devastated because she and her boyfriend had just broken up, meaning that she was unable to go to Barcelona for some big music festival. She seemed much more upset about the festival than about her break up. She almost cried talking about how it was the 25th anniversary of the festival and she was missing it because of her crazy ex who broke up with her the night before they were supposed to go.
Question of the day:
If you could travel to the place in the world you most want to visit but only if you were to go with your ex (or with someone you wanted to break up with), would you do it? I think I probably would, but I’m not sure.