Prague

Where to stay in Prague? We based our decision primarily on how good the pun was in the name of the hostel, which is how we ended up at the exceptionally titled 'Czech Inn'. On our first night, a big group of Italian men moved into our dorm room at 1:30am, and then all woke up to simultaneous alarms and checked out at 4am. Perfetto! Luckily this is the last hostel dorm we're staying in this year, so our final five nights should be more restful.

We're somewhat retracing the steps of Dan's 'Kayitz' Jewish education tour from 2011, during which he visited London, Budapest, Prague and Berlin (although swapping Berlin for a substitute German city for geographical ease). In that spirit, we wandered around the old synagogues and cemeteries of the Josefov Jewish quarter. Prague's Jewish cemetery is ancient, but was never able to expand sideways, and since Jewish law forbids moving buried bodies, they had to just bury people on top of previous graves. They poured more soil on top, raised the headstones, and layered the graves (not unlike our experience in certain hostels this year). All of which means there are tens of thousands of graves in a relatively small space, with headstones stacked on top of one another. It's an intense but peaceful place.

We pottered around the Christmas markets, old town square, castle, Charles Bridge, Kafka museum, and Wenceslas Square, enjoying the winter lights and plenty of hot drinks to ward off the cold. We are very grateful for the long-johns we bought in Kyrgyzstan. We found Prague more beautiful but also more touristy than Budapest—a big claim, because Budapest is very beautiful and very touristy itself.

One extra exciting piece of news from Prague was an update on Chelsea's job hunt... she's accepted a role starting in January! Which means she can stop thinking about interviews, and instead of taking a break, start thinking about other aspects of the future, like how to get all our books from Bristol to London 😂 Woohoo! 🎉🎉🎉Leggi altro