More Prague Photos

View of the "City of Spires" from the ramparts of Prague Castle.

Climbing down the through the vineyards.

We spied a bride and her wedding party as we came down from Prague Castle.

On Charles Bridge again.

A house in the Old Jewish Quarter.

The Old Jewish Quarter, near the Cemetery where Franz Kafka is buried.

A synagogue in the Old Jewish Quarter.

The Communist Museum. "Dream. Reality. Nightmare."

An interrogation office.

Lenin and Lenin.

Learning about Prague Spring.

Poster of the Velvet Revolution (1989) in the Communist Museum.

The Dancing House in the New Town.

Prague Castle and the Vltava by night.

Hilarious Menu in Prague

On our last night, we ate at this place called Atmosphere. The menu was in Czenglisch. Very strange. It was the primary factor in our decision to have dinner there.

"Potatoes...poured with cheese."
"Fried potatoes, cutted for tiny slices...with chili a horse reddish sauce."
"Basket full of fried little fishes."

And my favorite, which isn't in this photo: "Sauteed sea shells." Unfortunately the food wasn't very good, and I think we annoyed everyone in the place by constantly breaking out laughing, because everything was ridiculous. We accidentally ordered much more food than we could eat. J got this drink called "Hot Apple," and on our way out, he yelled as a battle cry, "Hot APPLE!!" His entree was "Atmosphere 400G," which was spaghetti noodles "poured with" BBQ sauce.

Photos from Prague

Whose idea was it to arrive at 5 am??

Old Town Square, early in the morning, on the way to our hostel. At this point, we still thought we would be able to check in and crash.

The fascinating Astronomical Clock. Right across it was the alley which we went through to reach our hostel.

Then we found out that we couldn't check in until 2 pm, but we could come back in a few hours and crash in their rec room.

Wandering around the Old Town in a fog of exhaustion, but it's so beautiful!

Allowed back in the hostel, crashing in the rec room.

Finally allowed into our eight-person room! D is frantic with relief, V is already passed out.

B was my bunk mate. By the end of the trip, his stuff was strewn all around his bottom bunk, so that I could see every article he brought with him, and couldn't reach my top bunk, haha.
I decided not to nap with the others, so the other B (I'm using initials for their anonymity, but it's getting confusing because everyone has B or J names) and I went to explore the Old Town. After it started sprinkling, we took shelter at a cafe, where I recharged with tiramisu and cappuccino.
Prague Castle just after sunset - we went the next day.
View of Charles Bridge, spanning the Vltava River.

B and I walking along Charles Bridge.

Lunch the next day... goulash in a bread bowl! The food was good and cheap, but the service horrible.

A small mug of the dark Czech beer. Yummy.

At the open-air bazaar in the Old Town.

V and D got handmade silver necklaces with their names, courtesy of this guy.

Lovely D sitting in one of our hostel windows.

We climbed the hill up to Prague Castle. We're all sweaty because we accidentally took the hardest possible path, kind of through a jungle, instead of the nice paved path we later took on the way down.

Entering Prague Castle.

Beautiful Gothic St. Vitus Cathedral inside Prague Castle.

Gorgeous rose window.

Detail of the clock tower.

Last Day in Prague

The weather reports predicted clouds and rain all weekend, but we've been lucky: sunshine the entire time we've been here! I'm blogging from the hostel. I just had breakfast, and the others are getting ready for the day. I don't know yet what we'll do, but our bus back to Wuerzburg doesn't leave until midnight. We're getting back to Wuerzburg at around 5 am, in time for our morning language classes at 9:15. I predict that many people won't make it, and I think I'll be more accurate than the meteorologists.

Prague is beautiful. The city, for such an old one, has a very light atmosophere... I'm not sure exactly what it is that makes me feel that way, but I'll try to put it into more exact terms later. Yesterday afternoon, we went to Prague Castle, and St. Vitus Cathedral was incredible. The other art history students and I had a really good time putting our newfound knowledge to the test and deciphering the story behind its architecture. As evening set in, we walked back down through the gardens on the castle ramparts and the vineyards on the side of the hill, and made our way to Charles' Bridge, which we ambled around as the sun was setting.

I've tried goulash and bread dumplings, and the famous Czech dark beer, which I rather liked, even though I'm generally not a big fan of beer. We went to an open-air bazaar as well, where they sold all kinds of knick-knacks. Many of these Eastern Europeans don't smile much, but I'm not sure if that's because we tourists are so obnoxious, or if it's the lingering effects of communism, which J seems to think. We celebrated the Fourth of July in the good old-fashioned American way, by visiting the huge shopping mall, the Palladium.

Time to go pack, and explore more of this lovely city.

Hello from Prague!

We arrived in Prague yesterday morning at around 5 am. It was already light outside, and the bus station we drove into was kind of outside the city, and we had a hard time finding our hostel. But C had his iPhone with GPS, and we found our way eventually. When we got there, we were all really excited to sleep, because though the bus was modern and comfortable, there's only so much rest you can get on public transportation, right? We had told the hostel we would be arriving at 5 am, and we thought we could check in then and nap for a while, but they wouldn't let us check in until 2 pm, the normal check-in time. Tired, hungry, and with none of the local currency, we felt rather like some of the homeless people we later saw on benches in the Old Town Square.

We ended up wandering around the city early in the morning, and later we realized what a rare thing it was to see this lovely city deserted and bathed in soft morning light. I took some great pictures, which I will upload when I get home.

The hostel is really comfortable and clean! Eight of us are in one room, and B is in a hostel on the other side of the square, because she decided to come after we had already booked.

Anyway, I'm going to go meet B at the Astronomical Clock now, and we're taking a walking tour of the city today!

Belated Update, and Vienna Pictures!

I have been really busy! School really picked up, and my weekends have been busy with excursions. On the weekend of the June 19-21, some of my classmates and I went to Vienna to visit one of my oldest friends from middle and high school. She has been in Vienna since January or February of this year, and showed us all around. Though it rained all day Friday and Saturday, we had a really wonderful time! We did as much as possible in two days, including the Flea Market, the Hofburg, Museum Quartier, St. Stefan's Cathedral, Schönborn Palace, the Central Cemetery, the Opera House... here are some pictures.

D, V, and I on Mariahilferstraße. I'm the only one smiling, because I didn't get duped into paying five Euros for three roses by a con artist. The con artist was a sweet-looking girl who approached us in the street and handed out flowers; the others took them, but my dad always says, "There's no such thing as a free lunch," haha. Of course, J was the one who ended up paying for all of them. I'm holding J's flower.

On Saturday, we had lunch in a cafe in the Museum Quartier. J had waffles and hot chocolate - such a little kid! We got scammed again, when the bread the waitress brought to the table ended up costing 1.20 Euros per piece!


One of the museums - the art museum, I think.
The Hofburg - seat of the Hapsburg dynasty.

The antique foundations of the city - about two millennia old!
Rounding the corner and seeing this massive Gothic cathedral in the midst of downtown Vienna was quite a shock - there's a hilarious picture of us with our mouths hanging open.

Inside St. Stefan's Dom. In our art history lecture the following Monday, Dr. Süß had gotten wind of our trip, and had a slide on the cathedral!
A shrine.

Atop St. Stefan's Dom! We took the elevator to the top, and I didn't think it would be that bad, but it actually was kind of scary.

A long way down.

That's all for now... I have to run into town to pick up some things for Prague! I'm leaving tonight with eight of my classmates, and we're going to be arriving at around 5 in the morning. It should be interesting. There's another wine festival today, this time in the Hofgarten of the Residenz, and a bunch of us are meeting there withour professor, Dr. R.

More soon to come! I won't let 20 days pass again without updating. :)