Okay, I'm back to write some more. After pointing out that I haven't written for something like a week, my mom reminded me that I only have a few weeks until school starts, and then I probably won't have that much time at all to sit down, sort through pictures, and try to remember everything I did. She made a good point, and I'm actually looking forward to writing it all out with pictures. So here we go.
Prague is unlike any city that I've ever been to before, in that it's not very metropolitan at all. It's more of a fairy tale town that just keeps going and going. The streets are all cobblestone and the buildings have white walls and red roofs. Since downtown Prague is more of a touristy, historical area than a business section, the only way to really get around is by foot, which is why we took a walking tour the first morning there. The buses took us to the top of the hill, where the castle is, and dropped us off with some native tour guides. There were hundreds of people, all with different groups and countries, crowding the entrance as we made our way into the courtyard, and I'll have to admit that it was a bit of culture shock, to be in a place that looks so different from the cities I know at home with a different language and thousands more years of history.
One of the guards who basically just stood there without moving or making any facial expressions while people took countless pictures of him.
Inside the palace square.
The most majestic building in the castle area would have to be the St. Vitus Cathedral, whose Gothic structure sets it apart from everything around it. According to its website (I swear I tried to listen to what they were saying, but it was hard to hear, especially when your guide doesn't really speak English and everything around you is just so pretty), it's the largest and most important temple in Prague, and the coronations of kings and queens were held here. And I stood inside of it!
Like a lot of the other old buildings we saw, this was undergoing some sort of construction to keep it preserved.
After we finished up at the castle, we headed by foot down the hill to continue the walking tour, where we got a lovely view of the city from above.
A restaurant on the walk down that I thought was especially pretty.
Why, look at that! Looks familiar! One of the things I noticed about Prague was how big the arts are in their culture. Posters like this are papered everywhere. Sometimes the same poster will be up there ten or twelve times, just to emphasize that it's happening, I guess. People are standing in the streets on every corner handing out pamphlets for concerts that are happening somewhere in the city that night. On a few different occasions, the people I was with managed to mention the chorus' concert to the advertisers, and they all said that they would try to make it.
I just loved seeing this guy run down the street with his cello on his back. Normally I'd say that it's a Portland thing, but apparently it's actually a Prague thing.
It's the bridge of love locks! Apparently there's one in Paris, too, and this one isn't nearly as big, but it's still really pretty. The river flows underneath it, and there were people on boats below, looking incredibly picturesque.
Our walking tour wrapped up at noon at the astronomical clock, along with every other tourist in the city, it seemed. The clock is a huge attraction in Prague, so the square was completely packed with people, all looking up and waiting for the hand to strike twelve (watch out for pickpockets, we were told. There isn't much violent crime in Prague, but there's a lot of pickpocketing.) The clock has an astronomical hand, a bunch of sculptures that move at the hour, and a dial that shows the months.
After the tours ended, my grandma and I went off with some other Chorus people and had lunch at an outdoor restaurant in the middle of the city. Then we went off to the Charles Bridge, which is like an arts fair with statues everywhere. People were selling jewelry, portraits, and albums every couple of feet. Several different bands were playing as we walked along.
We continued on to the Jewish Quarter after, where thousands of Jews are buried and used to live over different centuries. This street leads down the cemetery, where so many people needed a place to be buried that they started stacking the bodies on top of each other, and then adding more and more dirt so that there would be space. We didn't go inside, but we did get a glimpse of what it looked like.
By this time, we had been walking for about nine hours in total, and decided to find our way back to the hotel. Street performers are abundant in Prague, and here's some puppet-type show that we got a look at when we returned to Wenceslas Square.
And that was the end of day one, more or less. We showered relaxed in our hotel room (I actually have a picture of the soles of my feet after walking around for nine hours, but I'll spare you that image), and then went down to the lobby to meet up with some people to go out to dinner. I got to talk to some people I didn't know very well some more, and heard all about what different things people had done with their day. There's just so much to do in Prague that it would take a week to accomplish everything that had been done in that room alone. For dinner, we went out to a restaurant that I believe was called "Czech Restaurant" (what better place to go when you're looking for somewhere with Czech food?) and I put a thumbtack on where I live on the map in the restroom. Oregon Coast, you are represented!
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