Prague Day 1

Internet is free in this hostel also, so I'm aiming for daily posts still. AND they have an American keyboard, which is very exciting for me after weeks of learning new configurations. Today we basically took out own walking orientation tour of Prague. Our hostel is on the fringes of the old town, so most everything is within walking distance. We slept in a bit again, although I haven't been getting as much sleep as I should since I started reading What is the What. It is an amazing book about the lost boys of Sudan and follows one's life in particular. It is incredibly depressing at some points, but I completely recommend it if you're looking for a new read. Anyways, back to Prague. First we walked to the dancing house, which is an architectural sight. It looks as if two buildings (one made of concrete, one of glass) are merging together and then separate again at the top. Too bad you can't really go inside. Then we walked along the river admiring the different bridges and the island parks in the river (like in Paris) until we got to Charles Bridge, which is the largest. Steve and I sat and people watched for a while and Angela and Adam checked out what the vendors were peddling on the bridge. We are going to walk more on it when we go see Prague Castle and the Loreta church since they are on the other side of the water. From there we meandered towards the old town square and stopped along the way for lunch. We all got pizza, and unfortunately since we were in a more touristy area it was a bit expensive. Still nothing compared to Switzerland. Last night we got a great dinner at a small resturant near our hostel. Angela got some great traditional Czech foods such as garlic soup and potato pancakes. I will need to try guloush while I am here.

We got to the old town square just in time to see one of the hourly shows of the astronomical clock. Not as intricate as the glockenspeil, but still pretty interesting. They had a skeleton who rang a bell and saints would glide past open windows. In the square we found a place with a Salvador Dali exhibit that we might go back to one day while we are here. It doesn't have any of his painting though, just pictures of him, and some of his ceramics and graphics. So it's on our maybe list. From there we walked into the Jewish district (I have a habit of visiting these on Saturday) and decided to come back some other day, probably tomorrow. We could see all the empty stands where they have lively markets, but it was the wrong time to go.

Like I said, most of our day was just walking around the city. It is a really beautiful city and I am constantly amazed at how beautiful most of the buildings facades are. Lots of different colors and many with paintings on the outside. There is a definite difference though between here and western Europe, I haven't been able to put my finger on it yet, but there is a different feel about eastern Europe. Walking around today we saw two cars that had been broken into and had their radios stolen.

But regardless I really like this city. The only think I don't like is the return of a high percentage of smokers. I had enjoyed the relatively low rate in Germany and especially Switzerland, but now it's back to around how it was in Italy. Although not as bad as in the Netherlands...

Tonight we are keeping it cheap and made dinner in our hostels kitchen (I still had leftover pasta from the restuarant last night). And we bought supplies to cook dinner for another night. And of course we all resupplied our chocolate stores (except Steve who is allergic to chocolate *tear*).