Friday, February 25, 2011

And now, my trip to Prague!

Alright, so I'm going to attempt to get caught up on this blog, starting with my trip to Prague. First lesson learned, doors in Prague are difficult. I'm not sure why that is, but they don't like to open, or close, or lock, or be unlocked. It made for some entertaining moments over the four days that I was there.

I got in late at night on Saturday, and was immediately greeted by my shuttle driver and his wife (who were both crazy adorable, btw). He drove me out to my hostel, which was pretty incredible! There was a beautiful stone stairwell that I got to walk up everyday and the doors and ceilings were so ornate. I also ended up having an entire 6 person dorm room to myself most of the nights that I was there, which I definitely wasn't expecting. Basically, the lesson here is that if you ever go to Prague, stay at the River Bank Hostel!

I met up with Lizzy that night, and we hung out for a bit (after getting dinner at McDonald's. I know, but I hadn't eaten all day and it was the only thing that was open that late), and then I went back to my hostel and got some much-needed sleep. On Sunday, we went to the top of Petrin Hill to see the mini Eiffel Tower, and climbed about halfway up it to get some really cool photos of Prague.




We then wandered around Kampa island, which was an adorable little town with some great shops, before heading over to the Czech Museum of Music. At the museum, they had a special exhibit on the Beatles, which was really cool! Trust me, I'd show you pictures if they had let me take them. They had one display in there where you could experience "beatle-mania". You step into a small enclave surrounded by photos of screaming fans and after a second or two, the room erupts into shouts and screams. It was really cool, but terrifying if you weren't expecting it to happen! The rest of the museum was gorgeous, especially the sections of harps, harpsichords, and music boxes. Lizzy and I have decided that when we are eccentric billionaires, she will collect harpsichords, and I will collect harps, and we will start a band. So, be on the lookout in a couple of decades for a grammy-winning band called Harp(squared)sichord!

On Monday, I went to visit Prague Castle. It was freezing that day so that I could barely stand to be outside, and so I didn't end up spending as much time out there as I would have liked. I did get to see the changing of the guard, though, and wander around the palace and St. Vitus's Cathedral.


On Tuesday, I took a free walking tour of Prague. I kind of wish that I had done that first, since it gave me a lot of background that would have been nice to know, but oh well, lesson learned. We went through Old Town Square, into the Jewish Quarter (where there was a really strange but awesome statue of Franz Kafka), into St. Jacob's Church, which is one of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen, and saw the theater where Don Giovanni premiered. It was really interesting and we saw a ton in under two hours! I've picked out a couple of pictures that I think point out the highlights of the tour, but there was so much to see that I could never cover it all.






Wednesday was a pretty low-key day. I went further down into the South of Prague to see the Cubist houses, a form of architecture unique to Prague. Although that was all I had planned on seeing that day, I did end up climbing the hill to Vysehrad, which is the location of another palace. I didn't go into the Palace, but I did wander around the cemetery before heading back to meet up with Lizzy for lunch (paninis from a French cafe) and then getting on the tram out to the airport.



Prague was really incredible (and budget friendly! Everything, even the hostel and airport shuttle, included, I spent under $200 for all four days), and if you're planning on being in Europe anytime soon, I highly recommend going! Oh, and thanks Lizzy for studying abroad there, because I never would have thought to go otherwise :)

In other news, I have finished my third essay, which was on the ways people coped with the London Blitz, and am about to start my final paper, which is on plot (or lack thereof) in the novels of Virginia Woolf. Once I'm done with this in two weeks, I have no more work until the end of April!!

Love,
Emily

P.S. Lizzy and I managed to find a Mexican restaurant in Prague, and so my craving for enchiladas has been satisfied :) They were quite delicious.

1 comment:

lizf127 said...

Is that house above the cemetery in your picture a cubist house? I pass that on the way to class and pointed out how awesome it was just this wednesday.