Prague, Czech Republic

Last weekend, I traveled with three fellow students to Prague. What a beautiful city! The city felt similar to Budapest, but it has lots of onion domes and cobbled walkways. It's slightly wealthier too. On the other hand, it is crowded with tourists.

Overlooking the city is a castle. Apart from a few walls, the castle looks more like a palatial home than a fortified stronghold. The castle also has a large cathedral within its walls. The view of Prague from the castle is fantastic.

View of Prague from the castle

The cathedral

Sculptures popped out from the cathedral's door

We also visited the Lennon Wall (that's John Lennon, not to be confused with Lenin!) It's a wall covered with graffiti (the owner doesn't mind) honoring John Lennon. As a huge Beatles fan, I had to see it. Back in the day, the wall was full of anti-communist messages. Once, when the communists had the wall painted over, it was covered with graffiti again within a couple days. Now that communism is over in the Czech Republic, it's mostly about peace, love, and John Lennon.

Notice the yellow submarine in the center

On a sadder note, we also toured the Museum of Communism. It's difficult to grasp the totality of the Czechs' suffering under communism. Food was constantly in shortage after collectivization. Because the communists set price ceilings in a naive attempt to make food affordable, shortages were aggravated and corruption was rampant. The brutal secret police had thousands of informants throughout the country. Citizens were always to be suspicious that their neighbors and friends might be evil capitalist counter-revolutionaries. It was a crime to not report on neighbors even for innocuous crimes, such as overhearing a neighbor talking about wanting to leave the country. Dissidents were tortured, forced to "confess" their crimes against the proletariat, then sentenced to hard labor in mines, harsh prison sentences, or execution. 

Prague used to have statues honoring mass-murderer and dictator Josef Stalin

  

Overall, it was a fun trip. I learned a lot about the history of the Czech Republic, and got to explore a beautiful city.

Prague was all set for Christmas too!