Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Prague

Pictures: 1) my food the first night (told you it looked gross!), 2) the castle and the Plataba by night, 3) the astronomical clock, 4) in the old town center, 5) with the Charles Bridge behind me, 6) Anna and Anni, 7) with my pasta





I arrived in Prague and CSer Anna met me at the station. She was so happy to have me there and it was so nice of her to meet me at the station so I wouldn’t have to figure out how to get to her place alone. She is originally from Hungry, but has been living in Prague for about 2 years now working. Her English is excellent (and that is what she has to get by on in Prague because she doesn’t know Czech) and she reads a lot (including many of my favorite books/series). We have so much in common it was great!








After dropping my stuff, we met a friend of hers, Anni, at a restarant where other CSers were gathering for an impromptu meeting. We had dinner there and I had a traditional Czech dish consisting of thin slices of beef, covered in sweet gravy, cranberries, whipped cream, and dumplings (which looked like slices of white bread but were moist and heavy). It looked disgusting but tasted great!








From there we walked all around the old city, saw the astronomical clock, and I got to see the Plataba River and the castle all lit up by night. It was very beautiful.




The next morning I slept in and Anna left me her keys so I just got some cereal and milk, watched some shows online, and then went to the city centre by tube. I walked around the center square and took pictures and then asked a group of Americans to take my picture and started talking to them. They were from Texas, Minnesota, and California. One guy majored in chemical engineering and he was there in Prague giving pub crawls for the summer then going elsewhere in Europe to do other such things. I thought that was funny. We talked for a bit (his name was Johnny B - yes, the whole thing), and I found out he was on CS too. Then I went on a free tour at 2 pm given by a guy from Missouri who was traveling around Europe living in each place for a few months giving city tours in English. For only having been in Prague for one month, he sure knew a lot about the city! I learned so much. Basically, Czech history pretty much sucks - they have been in a state of constant opression by other nations. In 1918 they gained their freedom as a nation for 20 years, and then the Nazis moved in in ‘38, and then when the Red Army came in ‘45 they thought they were free again, but the Russians changed the former democracy into a “people’s democracy” (I.e. the difference between a jacket and a straight jacket). They were under communist rule until 1989, when the Velvet Revolution took place and they peacefully separated from Russia. In ‘93 they had the Velvet Divorce in which Czechoslovakia split into two nations: the Czech Republic and Slovakia (because they were two different cultures). On the tour we also passed by the oldest Jewish cemetery in the world that is in the ghetto area of Prague (it wasn’t actually called a ghetto, but all the Jews in the city had to live there). We saw the famous Charles Bridge, got the clock’s history explained to us, and many other cool buildings.





The tour ended at 5:30 on a little manmade island on the river where parts of Mission Impossible were filmed. From there I walked to the closest tube and met Anna near her house at 6:15. She was exhausted from work and I was tired too, so we just watched a movie and then grabbed some dinner at a pub nearby.





The next day I went into the city again, walked to the castle, explored the gardens around the castle, went into the beautiful cathedral, and looked at the view over the city. In the morning I’d gone to the mall in which they had a pharmacy to buy allergy medication; however the Zyrteck made me sleepy so I came back to Anna’s flat early, bought some food at the grocery store, and read some of the novel Anna gave me until she came home. We sat around talking until we met Anni again for dinner. I had some great pasta with garlic, chicken, spinach and cream sauce.

That night Anna picked up her dad, step-mom, and step-sister from the train station at 11 pm and all 5 of us slept at her place that night. They were in town because her dad had to give a speech at a conference over the next few days. In the morning I just packed up, talked to her mom and step-sister, and then met Anna at the tube stop where she accompanied me to the train station during her lunch break.


The train to Dresden took about 2.5 hours. Will write more about Dresden soon.

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