Thursday, October 05, 2006

My week in Prague



I thought I’d take a couple of minutes to provide some more details about my time in Prague for those interested and for my own future reference. As stated numerous times before, it was AMAZING. From the moment I landed in Prague, I was so anxious to get out of customs so I could see Alex. Luckily for me there was only one counter open for all non EU passport. Oh and they don’t tell you this until you make it to the front of the line, at which time they point to the line you should be in.

Tuesday night and Wednesday were spent getting over my jet lag. I couldn’t really eat much and I was waking up at strange hours of the night. Thursday we took a day trip to Karlovy Vary, which happens to be such a nice little town. I could retire there. It offers mineral water fountains which you can drink from. The water is supposed to have healing properties, although after several sips of hot salty water, this point was lost on me. It was really cute to see the locals though as they just sat on the benches with their weirdly shaped cups, sipping on mineral water. Guess like many things, it’s an acquired taste. The mineral water fountain at Karlovy Vary

Friday, Saturday and Sunday were spent doing the tourist thing around Prague. I got to visit many monuments, half of which the names escape me right now. Of particular note was the Loreto, Main town square, Charles Bridge,Jewish Cemetary and Prague Castle which I didn’t realize was so big. We will have to go back to the castle and explore St. Vitus Cathedral, so beautiful and intricately designed that words can’t do it justice, St. George Bascilica, Golden lane and the Castle Towers. As you can tell I’ve been reading travel books!! On Saturday night we sat by the river and drank a bottle of wine as we watched the sunset behind St. Vitus Cathedral, so romantic. Sunday, it rained in the morning so we went and caught an exhibit of the World Press from 2005. It was a collection of photographs that won awards for capturing certain news, sports or general life stories.
Sunset with Prague Castle

Here’s some other details about Prague that caught my eye;
¨ Ladies, put away the high heels, you won’t be needing them. A) because you walk so much that your feet would be dead by the end of the day, and B) because cobblestones cover most of the sidewalks and streets meaning your heals would be trashed anyways
¨ Everyone owns a dog, I’d never seen that before in a European city
¨ McDonalds and if you can believe it KFC rule in the fast food world
¨ The metro and tram system is incredibly well designed. You can get everywhere with it and in efficient time, that is if you figure out where the trams go
¨ Gulash and Pilsner Urquel is a must. I know, most of my girl friends must be thinking “since when do you drink beer” but Alex told me as soon as I got that that everyone drinks beer so why mess with tradition

I also got to meet a lot of the other trainees in Prague all of which were super friendly and had so many interesting things to say. And I think that about sums it up as if it’s not enough.

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