Prague is Beautiful

Can you guess what the gist of this post will be? That's right. Prague is beautiful.

This was the first of our free weekends, so we wanted to maximize the time we had in the city. We left immediately after classes on Thursday, and got to Prague at about 8 or 9. We checked into our hostel, only to find that our reservation had been forgotten. Luckily for us, they had a room big enough for the 6 of us.

Wait, scratch that. The 7 of us. Our friend Danny joined us on our trip last minute, so he didn't have a spot at the hostel with us. Luckily, we were able to get him situated with us for half price, since he wasn't using an extra bed.
7 People, 6 Beds, 1 room. Cozy.

That night, we went out and saw some of the town before heading to a bar/dance club called Double Trouble. It would be best described as a music dungeon. I was probably an old wine cellar or something like that before it was converted. All in all, it was pretty cool. I also noticed that there were about eleventy hojillion tourists out in the city, mostly American. A little bit unfortunate, but we were warned that Prague had become kind of touristy. We were out until probably about 3, and we got to sleep close to 5. 7 people in one room means nobody gets to sleep for a while, as I'm sure you understand.

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The next day we go up around noon, and made our way to the Castle (it's literally called Prague Castle). Before we got there, we saw the raptor and bird of prey exhibit on the grounds. It was probably one of the most depressing things ever. The birds were tied on one leg toa post in the ground. Each only had about a foot and a half of line to move around on. There were also owls out in broad daylight, which as you might know, is not normal for owls. One little owl looked pretty frightened, sadly. We moved on to the main grounds.

The cathedral at the castle was amazing. Gothic architecture is incredible. We all climbed the south tower (287 steps!) and got a great view of the city. On the way to the Royal Apartments, we saw a couple, dressed for a marriage, kissing/making out for what must have been 6 or 8 minutes, while a photographer took pictures. It was...unexpected, to say the least. Next we entered the royal apartments.More importantly, this was the site of the Defenestrations of Prague! I got some pics of the windows, and the view from them, so you too can know what it is like to be defenestrated! St George's Basilica followed that. It was pretty neat, but paled to the cathedral. We then headed down Golden Lane, a series of traditional craft shops and an armory that included such pieces as Gunswords, Gunaxes, and Gunshields. Seriously. At the end of the Lane stood Dalibor Tower, named for a legendary violinist (Dalibor) who learned his trade while imprisoned there for some large number of years, so the story goes. Now, it's a dungeon museum, with all sorts of nasty implements inside.

After the Castle, we headed to Charles Bridge, famous for its statues of religious figures. It's also a flea market during the day, which means that it's full of people, again, mostly tourists. It was pretty awesome, though, since it was near sunset, and there were some beautiful views. Dinner and a bar again that night (and it was a really cool place, too), although we didn't stay out nearly as late (fine by me).

Fun Fact: We met an American family (mom, dad, daughter) while going back to the hostel. The daughter is getting a chemistry doctorate in Prague, but doesn't speak a word of Czech. And she was saying how it didn't seem to be working out. What.

They were nice people though.

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Saturday, we headed into the old town square, and saw St Nicholas Church, a incredibly fancy clock tower, and some more cool architecture. Then we took a tram car to the top of the mountain in Prague (the name escapes me right now), where we found a beautiful rose garden. We hung out there for a while before trying to find the Citadel on the mountain. Although we were unable to find it that day, we did walk down the side of the mountain and had the fortune to come upon a great view of the city from a cafe.

Fun fact: While walking around Old Town, we ended up in th Jewish district. This fact became most apparent to me when I started seeing Golem references everywhere (like cafes, statues, and souvenirs). It's pretty neat to see how mythology (and film) makes its way into everyday life.

Fun fact: there was a Czech fast food style restaurant that we stopped at that served only healthier/lighter food. It was called Endy's, which made me giggle a little bit.

***

We checked out early (10am) and left our bags at the hostel before going out the last day. Lucky for us that we found the Citadel, Vysehrad. It was really cool. There were reenactors all over the place, with little shops and stalls set up on a main road. I really like medieval fairs, in case you didn't know. Moving to the wall (after enjoying some tasty roasted bread twist thing), we all settled down for a nap for about an hour. Afterwards, we saw the grave of the famous composer Dvorak in a cemetery there (it was a really nice tomb - I might want one like it when I finally go), and then got to enjoy a random Royal procession to a church. The Fake King gave a speech (not that I could understand it), and we were off to a Hockey game -H.C. Sparta vs H.C. Mountfield. Although we cheered for Sparta, they got stomped bad (4-1). Honestly though, they weren't really that good compared to NHL players. It was still a good time though, and I bought a hat to commemorate the game. After that, it was dinnertime, and then back to Berlin. On the way back to the hostel, we ran into the same American family again. This time, they informed us that they had been pick pocketed for 500 dollars. Wow.

Let me clear something up here: We scheduled our bus back to Berlin for 11:55 Sunday night, because we're stupid and wanted to enjoy another day in Prague.
I fell asleep almost immediately on the bus, only to be woken by a slap on the leg from the border policeman checking passports. Then I slept again, only to be woken by the lights of Berlin at 5:10am. It had to have been around freezing. I was having a hard time stopping shaking, even though I had a hat, gloves, scarf and jacket - with layers underneath, also.

I didn't sleep before going to class this morning, since it would have been only about half an hour to forty five minutes before I would have had to wake up for class. That's about it for the weekend. I have about 400 pictures from Prague to upload on top of everything else (yikes), and no time this first half of the week. In fact, I shouldn't even be typing this post now; I should be working on a presentation for my German class Wednesday, or doing the 200 pages of reading for my lit class tomorrow. Instead, I'm going to go to bed in 10 minutes.

By the way, all of those late nights in smoke filled bars has resurrected my cold, although it hopefully won't get any worse than it is now (which is not that bad, aside from the fatigue).

Good night.