Prague, Czech Republic

After Munich we headed to Prague. There are quite a few K-Staters there and we were lucky to get free lodging from them as well as the best tour of a city I have been on! My former roommate Alyssa is studying there, so it was good to catch up with her.

We took a train from Munich to Prague. Due to construction on the track, we had to change trains in Pilzn, which is where Pilsner beer is from. Our train was delayed and so we ended up missing the connection and ended up in Prague an hour later than what we had told our friends. The Czech Republic doesn't use Euros, they use the krown. So, we had to go to the ATM before getting a metro pass. Our options were 1,000 or 2,000 krowns! It was kind of weird pulling 2,000 out of my bank account, but that equaled about $100 USD.

Our Prague friends cooked us dinner the first night that we were there and they made fajitas! It was nice to have a change of flavors from Italian and even the heavy German food. The next day was our only full day in Prague, so we began our whirlwind tour. First we went to Prague Castle.

Being a castle, it is located on the highest point of the city and afforded us some nice views.

There is a really pretty Gothic church and this is a picture of the oldest section of that building.

Around the castle are a bunch of royal gardens. One of the inhabitants of the garden is a rather raucous albino peacock.

We crossed the river and hit the main part of the city. On the way, we were able to see St. Charles' bridge.

Prague is home to a very accurate astronomical clock. We were able to get there in time to see the figures on the side move and ring the bell. It was also a special celebration of the police, so there were batallions of police performing complicated routines with their rifles while marching around.

A common thing that we have seen while in Europe is locks that are locked to bridges. I guess the trend is to buy a lock with your lover and as a symbol of your intentions, you lock it to a permanent structure and throw away the key in the river. Kind of romantic.

A visit to Prague can't be complete without a visit to the Frank Gehry building with the nickname of "Fred and Ginger."

Prague was interesting in that it was the first formerly Communist country that I had visited. I was greatly surprised by the beauty and the ornateness of the architecture. However, there is still the mark of Communism on the people. Our next mode of transportation was to be bus. The information that we had told us the bus left at 9:30 from the train station. When we got to the bus stop, the sign said that it left at 10:30. After going to buy a reservation for the bus, we found out that actually the bus left at 11:30. Nobody seemed to really care that the sign was wrong. That's just life in Prague.