While Dustin worked I toured the Jewish Quarter, again...sorry about the lack of photos, but they weren't allowed. I first began at the Jewish cemetery. There are two buildings on either side of the graves. One has been dedicated as a sanctuary holding the names of the Jews who lost their life due to persecution by the Nazis...there were more than 80,000 names each painstakingly painted by hand on the walls of the sanctuary. Upstairs held the art work of children from the Terezin concentration camp. At the start of the Holocaust Jews were moved there to start a new community that's what they were told anyway, it turns out it was just a holding ground before continuing on to Auschwitz. The buildings at Terezin were originally used for another purpose and were meant to house 3,000 people by the end there were about 60,000 Jews living there before being sent to Auschwitz. So I'm sure you can imagine the living conditions. Some Jews managed to live there for two years creating their own community in a way, since many talented musicians and artists were exiled there, they began a kind of artistic way of live, with schools for the children (all hidden and secret of course) but they did their best to keep the children sheltered from what was really happening. The artwork was a therapeutic way for the children to cope with their new reality. It was so disheartening to see the names of the young artists and next to it "Auschwitz" meaning that's where they soon met their demise. A visit to the Jewish Quarter definitely helps a person keep things in perspective. I am a lucky girl in so many ways.
On the other side of the graves the building was used for the burial society. It was a group of men who tended to the graves and performed all of the necessary ceremonies associated with the cemetery. According to their laws and due to lack of available burial space for Jews they had to put at least five "palms" between one body and the next. Which made for a very unusual looking cemetery all of the headstones are placed like dominoes, all lined up one behind the other and due to the high number of people buried in each plot there are little hills of graves all different heights. I've never seen anything like it.
Next I walked around the Quarter to three other synagogues and learned more about Jewish culture and their struggles throughout the ages to be free. I learned so much.
That night I got to go on a work outing with Dustin! We went Kart racing. It was such a blast. I was a little nervous the first go around, but quickly got in the hang of it. I was no where near the fastest, but I was pleased with my time!
We had shared two pizzas for dinner...one with mushrooms and cheese and one with Nutella and whipped cream...so good!
That night, we hung out in the hotel bar, with the kernel team trying to gross Kim out, but, fortunately I'm a Kindergarten teacher ;-) Pee and poo are just part of my day!
-- Kim
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