Prague Calling

June 8-11: Well I finished exams and studying and am now on a last minute tour of Europe. I flew to Prague on Sunday without too many issues. The problems started after I landed. I got to the city and it turns out that my directions weren't so great. I was walking towards a castle instead of a church, and probably would have continued had I not met Alexander from Belarus. He was walking and looked as innocent as I was so I started a conversation and managed to spend 2 hours walking around lost in Prague. FINALLY I found my hostel which turned out to be in a little quaint lane off of the old main square. It was cute and quiet and perfect. I then spent the last hours of the day wandering around getting a feel for the city. The day was over, but the life at the hostel wasn't, and I met quite a few people, learned about accounting in the UAE, and learned how to play Euchre with some guys from Purdue.

In the morning, I got up and took a walking tour to see all of the different types of architecture in the city, as well as to find out a general overview of the city's history. Then it was walking around a bit more, and hanging out in the old square. They had set up some big screens to show the EuroFest 2008 soccer games, so that was fun. Later that night, my friends showed up, and we met up to go check out the Charles Bridge, where we just sat for a while taking pictures, watching boats come in, and enjoying the lights of the castle. Then... it was off to bed.

On the 10th, we spent the better part of the day touring the castle/palace and everything that it included. There was the Vitus Cathedral, the Golden Lane, the National Gallery, etc. It was beautiful and took us up until about 4 or 5 o'clock to get through everything. We decided to go visit the castle gardens, but apparently took a wrong turn and found ourselves hiking on rickity wooden planks through a mini-forest about 30 feet straight up from the road. Well, we finally made it back to civilization after about 45 minutes of wandering and decided it was time to try a Czech beer: Gambrinus. It was fabulous, even better than the Belgian beers. Then, we wandered the city some more, spend some more time at the Charles Bridge, stopped by a little music place on the river, and turned in for bed.

In the morning, I was enjoying the outskirts of the city, just wandering around people-watching, etc. Then I headed off to the airport to head back home to Brussels. Hopefully the next post will have more historical/interesting information and maybe even some pictures. Don't count on it though - my camera has decided to stop working and I don't really have the cash for another one. We'll see what I can work out.