Prague

The next morning we boarded the bus for Prague. The bus rides keep getting worse and worse. We drove an hour in the opposite direction to get a 5 minute tour of the palace where Franz Joseph Haydn used to work and compose. We listed to a few songs in the concert hall there then boarded the bus again after getting chicken schnitzel for lunch. For some reason we kept stopping every hour at rest stops, so the 4 hour ride ended up taking 9 hours. The bus is starting to get pretty smelly too, luckily we only have a few more long drives. I’m starting to read Sphere by Michael Crighton now.

            When we got to Prague, it was pretty much like I expected. The weather was kind of dreary and everyone seemed kind of sad. The city is a lot different from the others we’ve visited…you can tell it’s in Eastern Europe. Most of the architecture is more gothic and Byzantine-ish and they seem to love dark, blackish colors and green iron roofs. Everything is pretty cheap, but not as cheap as I was expecting. The exchange rate is 20 to 1, so I took out $100 and got a 2000 Krohn bill. Their money is cool looking, and I think 2000 Krohn is about all I need for two and a half days in Prague.

            We had class for 4 hours the first morning then immediately went to a museum in a palace near Prague Castle. It was small and unimpressive. The castle is on a massive hill pretty far away from the hotel, so it’s about an hour walk straight uphill. We misjudged the time it would take to get there, so we had to jog about a mile to get to the palace on time. The Prague Castle is the biggest castle in Europe, and it must have been really intimidating back in Medieval times because it’s literally on the biggest hill in the Czech Republic. After the museum, we went back to take a nap at the hotel, but Ryan and I got lost for about an hour on the way back. Prague is difficult to navigate, but it was a pretty cool way to explore the city. Like most European city, Prague randomly has little squares in the city with small statues or fountains. Prague seems to be a big tourist town, and it is true that beer is actually cheaper than water. While we were walking around, people were setting up projector screens to hold public viewings of the Czech vs. Poland soccer game. It was really cool how they were setting up bands, food stands, and markets for a public party. In the afternoon, people were getting ready as they were sunbathing at the beer gardens and drinking unlimited beer. Or some reason, a lot of people walk around without shirts here which I guess is just something unique for the city.

            Unfortunately, we couldn’t watch the soccer game because we went to see Don Giovanni in the same theater that it premiered in. I actually liked the opera more than I was expecting – that seemed to be the feeling for everyone in the group. We all had balcony seats so we had separate viewing areas that held about 9 people each. The show was great, but it lasted almost 4 hours. My only problem with opera is that it lasts way too long and seems to waste a lot of time repeating things. But luckily this one had subtitles too so we knew what was going on. We finished the opera around 10:30 and went to a place called the Beer Factory. They had kegs in each table that tracked how much beer we drank. Each table’s score was updated on the wall, and we ended up winning the night after about two hours. We finished with 37 liters, but it wasn’t really fair because we had about 20 guys.

            On the second day in Prague, we toured Prague Castle for a few hours. It was a long walk to get there again, but this time we went over the famous St. Charles bridge. The castle actually wasn’t that good – it wasn’t what I was expecting at all. It was more like a big palace instead of the castles I was envisioning from Scotland. The place was huge though, and we toured the big church inside it and saw the changing of the guard. Then we walked back to the hotel for a nap. At night, we went on a pub crawl that met at the astronomical clock. The clock was pretty cool but not as big as I thought. We saw it chime at 9pm when a couple little figurines popped out and a guy played the Czech national anthem on trumpet. Prague seems to be more of a tourist party city…there’s some history and things to see but not nearly as much as the other cities we visited.

You know you’re in Prague when:

• There are hundreds of promoters trying to sell you deals to bars or strip clubs.
• There are more cash exchange shops than food shops.
• Wearing shirts in public is optional.
• It’s the only place you can easily spend a 1000 dollars in a day.
• Most everything is in English; it feels more like an American city.