Exploring Prague with Junior Year in Munich
In May 2024, the Junior Year in Munich (JYM) Program organized a three-day trip to Prague, inviting students to immerse themselves in the city's culture and history. Throughout their stay, JYMers embraced every opportunity for exploration. Second-semester JYMer, Annabel Zhao from Swarthmore College shared a blog detailing her experience of the journey and her experience on the trip.
Over a long weekend the JYM cohort – now with second-semester students – took a trip to Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. Early Friday morning, JYMers met at the Hackerbrücke bus terminal for the five-hour commute.
Day one
We split into two groups upon arriving in Prague: those who wanted to take advantage of the beautiful weather took a walking-dominated hike to the hostel while the other group navigated there with public transportation. After dropping off bags, the entire group embarked on a walking tour of the city. During this tour, students from the “Kulturgeschichte” class gave presentations at important stops.
The presentations covered, among other sites, (1) the Estates Theater, (2) the Jan Hus Monument in Old Town Square, (3) Cafe Montmartre, and (4) the Charles Bridge. Other “Sehenswürdigkeiten” included the many “Baumstriezel” (chimney cake) stands, a gorgeous astronomical clock on the side of the Old Town Hall that gave Marienplatz-“Glockenspiel”-vibes, and trumpet players who memorably interrupted a “Referat” twice with their musical advertisements for a nearby evening organ concert.
The evening concluded with a group meal at Pivovarsky Dum. We entered the restaurant and promptly descended into the Keller via a spiral staircase.
Because we all love each other so much and cannot bear to be apart for a single moment, we ended up merging several long dining tables into one mega-table. Traditional Czech fare such as goulash was served.
Day two
On Saturday morning, we visited St. Vitus Cathedral. Its magnificent stained-glass windows inspired many photos. Afterward, we explored the Golden Lane with its narrow houses. During our free afternoon time, I went with a small group to explore the city’s art offerings.
On the way to our destination, we came across two well-trained pigeons named Romeo and Juliet. Not only did the birds sweep us off our feet with their cuteness, but they also swept our wallets clean. Lesson learned…
One of my top places to visit was the Mucha Museum, home to the works of Czech artist Alphonse Mucha who was famous for his works in the art nouveau style. Saturday night offerings included an optional visit to the jazz club, AghaRTA. Little did many know that, while the jazz band was playing, a heated battle of wits and wills commenced late into the night in the lobby of the hostel. Nertz, Monopoly (card version) and Blackjack took over two standing tables in the lobby.
Exploring Jewish life
The schedule for the last day in Prague focused on Jewish life. We explored the Kafka Museum. We visited several synagogues in the Jewish Quarter and also learned about the symbols used on gravestones in the Old Jewish Cemetery. Our tour guide was incredibly knowledgeable and interested in answering our questions.
Before we went to the opera, we enjoyed dinner at Café Slavia, a restaurant near the riverside that hosted three full tables of JYMers. At the opera, we got randomly assigned seats. Some had boxes, some were standing and others were near the pit orchestra.
Afterward, meaningful small discussions on the racism and misogyny in Mozart’s "The Magic Flute" helped round out the opera experience. Why did the director decide to include lines of racism in the modern-day production while cutting out other lines? Altogether it was a mentally stimulating experience that called for “Baumstriezel” after.
Returning home
The sun finally rose over the morning of departure. After breakfast, we boarded the Flixbus back to Munich. Highlights of our return trip were two-fold: (1) At a rest stop, several JYMers got off to buy snacks and use the gas station bathroom.
As we waited in line for the cashier, we saw our bus pulling away with someone starting to chase it. Thankfully, the bus was just u-turning. We re-boarded smoothly. (2) The German border patrol pulled our bus over. As the three officers moved down the aisle checking only the left side of the bus, literally everyone noticed the objectively very physically attractive border patrol officer leading the trio. Woo.
That was the first time I ever felt a community kinship with a busload of people. I don’t have any photos because I thought that’d be disrespectful of the work that the officers were doing.
That concludes our JYM Prague trip. Many memories were made.
Signing off, Annabel