Dearest Readers,
Last Sunday, my family and I traveled to Prague in the Czech Republic. Prague has a very rich history, and picturesque architecture. The Czech Republic was a communist country under the control of Russia from the 1940’s to the 1980’s. There are many memorials commemorating the students that lost there lives trying to free the Czech Republic from communism and Russia. At first, I didn’t understand what was so bad about communism. I mean, the government takes care of you and makes sure everybody is equal. No one has personal possessions and everyone lives together. A bit like a kibbutz. To better explain what communism was, my mother found a book called Breaking Stalin’s Nose. (Stalin was the leader of Russia during the communist time.) The book is in the perspective of a young boy who lives in Russia when communism is at it’s peak. At first the boy is a true believer in communism. But many things happen throughout the book and in the end, the boy thinks otherwise. This book really helped me understand communism, and gave me a better picture about what life would have been like for me if I lived in Russia or the Czech Republic during the communist time. I highly recommend this Newbury award winning book for tweens/teens and adults alike. It is a quick and easy read, though I would not suggest younger children read it due to the heavy topic. If you guys find the time to read it, I’m sure you will enjoy the book.
Now that you know a little about Prague’s history, I will go on to tell you about our travels. When we arrived, we took a taxi from the airport to our lovely apartment. It was on the top floor of a bright yellow building, only a five minutes walk from the main square. After lugging our three suitcases up what seemed like an endless staircase, we finally arrived at the apartment. The interior was miss matched, and light colored which made the place feel like home. There were large windows on the ceiling and a blue clock and a traffic sign on the wall leading to the kitchen. Wooden beams crisscrossed the ceiling and the wall alternated from brick to white paint. After the usually fight about who would sleep were, we came to a conclusion. My parents would sleep in the room at the far end of the apartment, which was furnished with an assortment of dark brown wooden furniture and dark blue bedsheets. Safta, who would arrive from Israel later that day, would sleep in the room next to the living room with me. It had a chestnut color wardrobe, two black faux velvet chairs, a white desk and a honey colored bed, a blue mattress on the floor, and white and blue striped bedsheets. By brothers would sleep in the living room on an extra bed. The living room had old off-white leather couches, a golden colored wooden table, a fluffy dark brown carpet, a big white beanbag, and a small green bean bag. Lenka, one of our old au pairs, would sleep on the couch when she arrived on Wednesday. Lenka, lives in a small village about an hour away from Prague. After unpacking our suitcases, we set out to the supermarket before my dad would go pick up Safta from the airport.
Prague really is breathtaking. Its colorful buildings and clear blue skies looked like a painting. Most of the buildings in Prague are very old, from as long ago as 920 AD. At the main square we saw a beautiful clock tower, and every hour small windows open up and a short puppet show featuring an assortment of saints commences. We also saw a formidable castle, which looks exactly like the Disney Palace, only darker.
Every now and then, there is a modern building, like the Dancing House. The Dancing house was designed by Vlado Milunić and Frank Gehry. It is supposed to be an artistic interpretation of the famous American dancers Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. I love this building, it flows with the buildings around it, yet at the same time it stands out.
Prague is also the home of the 4th ugliest building in the world. It is a T.V. tower that juts out of the landscape a soars high in the air. It looks a bit like some silver straws with a band around them. If you are far away it will seem like there are oversized ants crawling on it. But if you get closer you will see that they are actually babies, with a barcode on there head instead of a face. These babies match a statue next to the modern art museum. Three huge babies with barcodes for faces.
There is another modern statue at the top of a hill right on the edge of Prague, it looks like a giant metronome that is actually going from side to side. We couldn’t figure out why the artist decided to build a metronome, but there is an interesting story behind. Remember that Stalin guy I told you about earlier? Well, there used to be a stone statue of him on the mountain, with people standing behind him. But when Stalin grew out of favor, the city of Prague decided to destroy that statue and replace it with a metronome.
There is also a smaller version of the Eiffel tower on the top of a hill. The Czech government didn’t have enough money to make it the same size of the Eiffel tower in Paris, so they built it on a hill. If you measure the tower including the hill, it is exactly the same size as the real Eiffel tower! We climbed the hill and went to see the tower with Lenka later in the week. The tower is tiny! Though they do have delicious ice cream and some hilarious fun house mirrors.
After we finished grocery shopping, my dad went to pick up Safta, and my mom, the boys and I went home. Once we arrived, my brothers ran to get the iPads and were glued to the screen immediately. Even though we are only aloud to have 30 minutes every time we complete a school day, or a certain amount of a book, Yanai and Milo always find a way to get a lot more time. My mom went to research Prague on her computer and I just hung around, reading a bit and then doing some extra school work. 6:30 pm my dad still wasn’t back and my stomach began to gnaw with hunger, so I started making dinner. Right when I was setting the table, my dad came back, with Safta! We all ate and went to bed early, it was a long and tiring day full of sightseeing, and there was more yet to come.
Bezpečná Cesta! (Safe Journey in Czech!)
Liv the Explorer
P.S. I'll post about the other days later this week.
P.P.S . I will FINALY post the pictures of my travels so far later this week.
Last Sunday, my family and I traveled to Prague in the Czech Republic. Prague has a very rich history, and picturesque architecture. The Czech Republic was a communist country under the control of Russia from the 1940’s to the 1980’s. There are many memorials commemorating the students that lost there lives trying to free the Czech Republic from communism and Russia. At first, I didn’t understand what was so bad about communism. I mean, the government takes care of you and makes sure everybody is equal. No one has personal possessions and everyone lives together. A bit like a kibbutz. To better explain what communism was, my mother found a book called Breaking Stalin’s Nose. (Stalin was the leader of Russia during the communist time.) The book is in the perspective of a young boy who lives in Russia when communism is at it’s peak. At first the boy is a true believer in communism. But many things happen throughout the book and in the end, the boy thinks otherwise. This book really helped me understand communism, and gave me a better picture about what life would have been like for me if I lived in Russia or the Czech Republic during the communist time. I highly recommend this Newbury award winning book for tweens/teens and adults alike. It is a quick and easy read, though I would not suggest younger children read it due to the heavy topic. If you guys find the time to read it, I’m sure you will enjoy the book.
Now that you know a little about Prague’s history, I will go on to tell you about our travels. When we arrived, we took a taxi from the airport to our lovely apartment. It was on the top floor of a bright yellow building, only a five minutes walk from the main square. After lugging our three suitcases up what seemed like an endless staircase, we finally arrived at the apartment. The interior was miss matched, and light colored which made the place feel like home. There were large windows on the ceiling and a blue clock and a traffic sign on the wall leading to the kitchen. Wooden beams crisscrossed the ceiling and the wall alternated from brick to white paint. After the usually fight about who would sleep were, we came to a conclusion. My parents would sleep in the room at the far end of the apartment, which was furnished with an assortment of dark brown wooden furniture and dark blue bedsheets. Safta, who would arrive from Israel later that day, would sleep in the room next to the living room with me. It had a chestnut color wardrobe, two black faux velvet chairs, a white desk and a honey colored bed, a blue mattress on the floor, and white and blue striped bedsheets. By brothers would sleep in the living room on an extra bed. The living room had old off-white leather couches, a golden colored wooden table, a fluffy dark brown carpet, a big white beanbag, and a small green bean bag. Lenka, one of our old au pairs, would sleep on the couch when she arrived on Wednesday. Lenka, lives in a small village about an hour away from Prague. After unpacking our suitcases, we set out to the supermarket before my dad would go pick up Safta from the airport.
Prague really is breathtaking. Its colorful buildings and clear blue skies looked like a painting. Most of the buildings in Prague are very old, from as long ago as 920 AD. At the main square we saw a beautiful clock tower, and every hour small windows open up and a short puppet show featuring an assortment of saints commences. We also saw a formidable castle, which looks exactly like the Disney Palace, only darker.
Every now and then, there is a modern building, like the Dancing House. The Dancing house was designed by Vlado Milunić and Frank Gehry. It is supposed to be an artistic interpretation of the famous American dancers Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. I love this building, it flows with the buildings around it, yet at the same time it stands out.
Prague is also the home of the 4th ugliest building in the world. It is a T.V. tower that juts out of the landscape a soars high in the air. It looks a bit like some silver straws with a band around them. If you are far away it will seem like there are oversized ants crawling on it. But if you get closer you will see that they are actually babies, with a barcode on there head instead of a face. These babies match a statue next to the modern art museum. Three huge babies with barcodes for faces.
There is another modern statue at the top of a hill right on the edge of Prague, it looks like a giant metronome that is actually going from side to side. We couldn’t figure out why the artist decided to build a metronome, but there is an interesting story behind. Remember that Stalin guy I told you about earlier? Well, there used to be a stone statue of him on the mountain, with people standing behind him. But when Stalin grew out of favor, the city of Prague decided to destroy that statue and replace it with a metronome.
There is also a smaller version of the Eiffel tower on the top of a hill. The Czech government didn’t have enough money to make it the same size of the Eiffel tower in Paris, so they built it on a hill. If you measure the tower including the hill, it is exactly the same size as the real Eiffel tower! We climbed the hill and went to see the tower with Lenka later in the week. The tower is tiny! Though they do have delicious ice cream and some hilarious fun house mirrors.
After we finished grocery shopping, my dad went to pick up Safta, and my mom, the boys and I went home. Once we arrived, my brothers ran to get the iPads and were glued to the screen immediately. Even though we are only aloud to have 30 minutes every time we complete a school day, or a certain amount of a book, Yanai and Milo always find a way to get a lot more time. My mom went to research Prague on her computer and I just hung around, reading a bit and then doing some extra school work. 6:30 pm my dad still wasn’t back and my stomach began to gnaw with hunger, so I started making dinner. Right when I was setting the table, my dad came back, with Safta! We all ate and went to bed early, it was a long and tiring day full of sightseeing, and there was more yet to come.
Bezpečná Cesta! (Safe Journey in Czech!)
Liv the Explorer
P.S. I'll post about the other days later this week.
P.P.S . I will FINALY post the pictures of my travels so far later this week.