Pivotal Moment
Strahov Library - Prague, Czech Republic
Have you ever had a pivotal moment while traveling? A significant experience that marked you?
Take a moment of reflection…
Maybe one moment or many come to mind, or maybe you’re still waiting to discover that moment for youself. Either way, once you do have that experience - it changes you, it inspires you, it allows for that deeper reflection on “Who or what am I becoming?”
I had a marking moment recently in Prague - a city that played a key role in WWII. As some of you already know from my posts, WWII is a period that interests me greatly. A period that I have not just read about, but was able to time travel to while being in Prague.
A quick tip! If you haven’t done Airbnb Experiences before, I highly recommend it! There are plenty of great culturally immersive experiences to choose from where you are able to connect with the locals and get historical background on the area you’re in from a native of that country. This is where my pivotal moment in Prague began.
Let me set the scene for you: it’s early in the morning, the snow is falling, beautiful full snowflakes blanketing the ground as we walk to the historic Wenceslas Square. The Christmas markets are just getting setup, peace and joy fill the air as we head to the famous statue of St Wenceslas, one of the most famous sculptures in Prague made by Josef Václav Myslbek (1912). It’s magical. At this point, awe and wonder are already taking over and the tour has yet to begin.
It’s here that we meet our guide, Jiri, and the few members of our group. We started the day with a walking tour around Prague city center hitting some of the famous historical WWII spots: Czech Radio building, former gestapo headquarters, Prague train station to view the Nicholas Winton Memorial and Farewell Memorial, site of Operation Anthropoid, as well as the church and memorial where the resistance fighters of Operation Anthropid fought bravely until their death against the Nazis. We did this tour our first full day in Prague and it made the rest of our trip that much richer having experienced the city in this way, learning more about the history and people of Czechoslovakia - their strength and perseverance through all they have endured.
After the walking tour around the city, Jiri took us to lunch (another cool local experience!) before we headed about forty-five minutes outside of Prague to Theresienstadt Concentration Camp.
Visiting the camp was a special add-on to our walking tour and was an intimate, moving experience. Not only was it a small group (three people total), but it was the end of November (non-tourist season and best time to go) - we had free range to the entire vicinity. Jiri is a master tour guide and highly recommend his tours if you’re ever in Prague! As we walked through the camp, he took the time to explain in depth the different areas. It is still incomprehensible to imagine what took place here and let me tell you - this camp is larger than I imagined! Upon arriving, I learned that it is the second largest camp next to Auschwitz and that it also still has many of the original buildings unlike many of the other camps that were bombed during WWII. I’ve never had an experience like this before and is one that I am still processing since getting back to the US.
Not only was this experience so marking, but what also made it so pivotal for me is that my great-great-grandmother is from Prague. Before my grandfather passed in 2019, he did some in depth research on our family history and found that part of our family lineage was from Czechoslovakia. Upon returning from my trip and messaging with my aunt, I told her how much my grandfather (her father) was on my mind and would have loved Prague. Not two minutes later she messages me saying that she opened a drawer and found this note with information from my grandfather on my great-great-grandmother.
I feel honored to have been able to have the experiences in Prague that we had and know that my family is from here. It is amazing how you can become tied to a place you travel to, how you can be forever marked by an experience.
So, dear discoverer, I encourage you to culturally immerse yourself and travel into the depths of a place that you’re drawn to or is meaningful to you and see what you discover not just about the place you’re in but about yourself as well.
Much love,
