Anika's Blauge (Prague)

From an email to my dad: 

"Prague was kind of a whirlwind, and I kind of needed a few days to just process the things I experienced there. 

Right off the bat, Prague was a bit stressful from the moment we arrived. A few students in our group got pulled off the tram by a train cop for not validating their tram tickets right away, and he was trying to fine them 1000 krona each. Dr. Powell had to come from a different train and sort out the situation, and he ended up talking the cop down to 1000 for both of them combined. We couldn't tell if it was a scam or not, cause the guy didn't look very official, but he did have a badge. 

The next morning we went to Terezin, and got a guided tour from an ex-special forces historian guy. He was an incredible storyteller, and I knew we would be going to the town and museums of Terezin, but I didn't know we would be going to the concentration camp that was right outside the walls. Most of what is known about Terezin is the concerts and the thriving arts community that was operating under the noses of the Nazis, but historians brush over the "Small Fort" section of the town, where there was a literal concentration camp that criminals and townspeople would disappear to. I honestly am not ready to describe the details of what our guide told us occurred there, and I don't know if I will be anytime soon. Pavel, our guide, didn't sugarcoat any of the atrocities that happened, and he was very animated and passionate in his descriptions of all the worst things humans have done to each other. And it wasn't just learning about all the things the Nazis did to the prisoners, it was also what the people from the Sudetenlands did to the Nazi officers and their families and children in the same prison once the war was over. Both sides just committing the most unspeakably evil things. I was trying to hold it together, but every so often I would notice tears falling down my numb cheeks. I've never felt colder in my life, and even just thinking about it right now, my body is starting to shake and tense up just remembering the sensations I could physically feel in my body while I was there. I have no doubt that there were hundreds of unrested souls there with us in that place. It was actually traumatic being there, which made me feel stupid because I was having such a physical and emotional reaction, and there's no way I could possibly come close to imagining what it was like to live and die there. I also felt angry at Dr. Powell for a while, because it I didn't know exactly what we were walking into. I knew that many people died in Terezin, but I had no detailed knowledge of the exact methods used to torture and kill people in the most horrific, humiliating, and dehumanizing ways. But then I thought maybe that was the point, and it was an experience I think more Americans should have. I don't know why, but I think more people should go there. I was continuously trying to figure out what the experience meant. What was the lesson? What was the message trying to be conveyed? What did these feelings mean? I still don't know, but I know it was one of the most important experiences of my life. It's really, really difficult to put into words the thoughts and feelings I experienced on that tour." 

Going to Terezin shook me up so much that the rest of our time in Prague was kind of a blur. The Czech Philharmonic was wonderful, and absolutely technically brilliant. The musicians moved and connected with each other like individual spokes in a mechanical wheel. In my overly critical opinion, the performance didn't quite have the otherworldly quality that the Berlin Phil did. However, the music was still impeccable. A trip to a neat speakeasy right smack in the middle of the old town provided the best drink I've ever had, and eating traditional goulash at the oldest bar/tavern in Prague (circa the 1500's) was a delightful edition to my time in Prague. Our final performance was an opera called Kate and the Devil, which was super goofy and funny. The only way I can describe it is if Dr. Seus created the second half of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and the main character was Pippy Longstocking. Super weird and silly, but the costumes and set were amazing, and of course so was the music.