So far, I've done a good bit of sightseeing and touristy things. Yesterday, I went downtown with my roommates to explore the Old Town a bit. First we headed over to the Charles Bridge, which over looks the Vlatava River. These aren't very good pictures of the bridge because they only show a small portion of it. The bridge is actually 2,037 feet long and it's breathtaking from farther away.
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| The start of the Charles Bridge |
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| Vlatava River from the Charles Bridge |
Next we headed over to the Lennon Wall, which has a really interesting history behind it. Although Lennon never actually visited Prague, he was idolized by Czech youth under the communist regime. So when Lennon was assasinated in 1980, they took to the wall to mourn him by spraypainting graffiti of his portrait and Beatles lyrics on the wall. People continued to write their grievances with the comunist regime on the wall throughout the 1980s despite the fact that it was illegal and the government would paint over all the graffiti. Today, it is legal to spray graffiti on the wall and continues to have layer after layer added to it.
Then we went to the Prague Castle, which has been my favorite place to see so far. The Prague Castle is absolutely massive and covers over 750,000 square feet, making it the largest ancient castle in the world. On the grounds there are multiple churches, halls, palaces, gardens, and towers with a wide variety of architechtural styles.
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| This was taken just inside Castle Grounds |
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| St. Vitus Castle on castle grounds from the front |
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| St. Vitus Castle from behind |
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| More buildingd on castle grounds. |
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| My favorite part of the castle. I could have stayed and stared at this for hours. |
One of my favorite things about Prague so far is the amazing public transportation system. Throughout the whole city they have the metro, tram, and buses running. Obviously, after spending my entire life in small towns this blew my mind and its so much better than any public transportation system I've seen in any American city. One of the reasons they developed the system so well is because the city is so old that the roads are too small for a lot of traffic. Another reason the public transportation system is so important is because they are a lot more environmentally conscious than Americans and don't drive much. The city is divided up into 22 districts and its really easy to get everywhere on public transportation.You can hop on and off between the metro, tram, and buses with only one pass, so you can really get dropped off almost anywhere.
Another difference between the United States and the Czech Republic is that the Czech people are a lot more reserved. For example, they don't really talk on public transportation, so if you hear someone talking too loudly they're probably American. They also don't smile while walking down the street much. Czechs may seem a little cold because of these differences, but they're nice when you get to know them more. The other day, I got turned around a bit coming home from the grocery story, so I asked a lady working at a fruit stand for directions. Although she didn't speak English, she was really nice and helpful pointing me in the right direction.
I've been to a couple of Czech grocery stores so far, and while they were similar to American stores, it was a bit of a culture shock. It was pretty intimidating walking in and not being able to read anything, but I figured out most of it by looking at how everything was shaped and what it was near. I did find myself picking up things to look at the ingredients a lot, but then I would realize that I couldn't read anything and that it wouldn't help. I did accidentally buy tartar sauce and garlic sauce while looking for salad dressing, but that's not too bad for not knowing anything.
The Czech Republic is also the beer capital of the world so its a big part of their culture. Czechs drink and average of 37 gallons of beer per person which is more than twice as much as Americans drink and the most in the world. In some restaurants, a pint of beer is even cheaper than a glass of water. So, when I went out to dinner I obviously had to try a beer. It was pretty good and only cost 30Kč, or $1.50. I'm looking forward to learning more about this part of Czech culture and trying more Czech beer.
So far, I've had an amazing time in Prague. It's still sinking in that I get to live here for 4 months, and I can't wait to get to know this city better. I'm looking forward to learning some Czech and some more about the culture so I can really appreciate everything more. I'm also planning some trips to other countries in Europe, so I'm excited to see even more places. Overall, I'm super glad that I chose to study abroad and even happier that I picked Prague.
Na shledanou!
