Jewish Quarter & Prague Castle

Friday we toured the old Jewish Ghetto. Starting in the middle ages Jews lived in this area (by choice I think) but eventually they were constricted to it and a wall was built to separate the neighborhood from the rest of the town. They endured a lot of oppression and eventually most of the neighborhood was destroyed. There are several synagogues but only a handful of them are still in use. Some were destroyed, and most of them are museums now. We toured these along with the cemetery.  Cemetery with Klausen Synagogue in the background.

Saturday we went to the Prague Castle. The castle and cathedral are super old and surrounded by a newer palace compound.

No one lives in the castle anymore, but the president has his office here. You can tell he is in by the presence of a certain flag. It was hard to get pictures of the castle because the courtyard surrounding it is pretty small, but here is one shot.

And here is proof that I am actually here. This view of the city was taken off one of the castle balconies. 

Today is Sunday and not a lot is going on. I've been out to the supermarket for a few items, got some ice cream, and did some exploring for a scavenger hunt with one of my roommates.

The roommates and I are also having some drama with our washing machine! Whenever we attempted laundry, the machine started shaking like a jet taking off. So much so that the neighbors were disturbed and knocked on our door because I think we were shaking the whole building! Turns out, it did not have the things underneath to stabilize it and absorb the movement. But that was not the only problem.  We are still confused because the controls and settings are unfamiliar, and even though they are pictures and not words, us grad students can't figure it out! But an english instruction guide is on the way, I think. In addition, during this process we found out that we bought fabric softener instead of detergent!! It took a roommate and I like 5 minutes in the huge laundry aisle to decide which one to get, and we were pretty sure of our final decision, but alas we were wrong. Sorry, no pictures of this story even though it has gotten the most words. :)