I arrived here about a week ago, and proceeded to meet up with Lindsay and Julia at the Chili Hostel, which is in a fairly convenient and somewhat central location, though Praha is so big that it's kind of pointless to talk about anything being really central. This view is from the room we occupied for the first five nights of our stay. Below that Lindsay looks on optimistically beside the front entrance.
It took me a bit of time to get comfortable meandering around Prague, but at this point I already have a feeling of familiarity with the city, though I still don't really mind getting lost. This is a good thing, as it occurs with alarming regularity on any given day. Our first night in Prague, the three of us went out for pizza to celebrate. Pizzerias are in all honesty maybe the most plentiful restaurants we see in the city. Observe Julia's suitably tough demeanor, and Lindsay's obvious attention to detail in the markers of her gang affiliation.
I have developed what some would think is an unnatural proclivity for narrow alleyways, and I will not be surprised upon coming home if no less than 50% of my photos involve such places. Prague is rife with little nooks and alleys, and one of my favourite things to do here is just walk around looking for weird places seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
I am certainly a sucker for big ornamented monoliths, and there are a great many structures along the Vltava (Moldau) to keep my camera clicking like a metronome to a presto tempo. I have not gone through the city with a guidebook, so I am not positive about all the buildings here, but based on my extensive research post fieldwork, I have deduced that the building below is Narodni Divadlo, or State Theatre.
I think that this is Univerzita Karlova v Praze Filozoficka Fakulta (Department of Philosophy at Charles University in Prague). I could be wrong. I think I am wrong based on google maps. I will try to update this when I am less spatially confused.
Here I am, tickled pink to have had my photo taken beside the Vltava. Thanks Lindsay!
View across the Vltava to Hradany, which encompasses an entire area known as the Castle District. It is supposedly the largest castle complex in the world, with buildings from the 8th century. I have not yet visited it, but fear not, before I return home I will ensure that I have borne witness to its gorgeousness.
Just so you all know, these photographs do not do any sort of justice to these places; they are absolutely ridiculous. The first time that I saw Hradcany from afar, I literally got goosebumps. And it was a very hot day, so they were not as a result of that. Everything is so ornate, it is very hard to know what to focus on.
I don't know if it is visible here, but there is a lot of goldleaf or something like that on a lot of statues; the people will be made of stone, but they will have gold weapons, halos, staves, etc. It is unusual, to me anyways. I am also amazed at all the various styles of art and stuff that are all so close together; baroque, art nouveau, neo-classical, gothic.
Oh, here are more of those cobblestone things.
These next two pictures are from Staromestske Namesti (The Old Town Square), which is arguably the most famous part of Prague. I culled out what I thought were hideous photos, but I think that might just have been an ugly monitor. I will also make sure that I post some more pictures in the future. This square includes Prazsky Orloj (Prague Astronomical Clock), which is insanely old, having been built in the 1400s. Also there is Kostel Matky Bozi pred Tynem, (Church of the Mother of God before Tyn) another building with ridiculously complicated history and age, which I may describe in greater detail at a later time. Most likely when I have a picture to accompany it. The square is always full of tourists, and it is here that lots of tours start. There are horse drawn carriages that seem a bit out of place amongst throngs of cars and trucks, but to their credit, the animals are cool as cucumbers.
Ah, a pizzeria! That's unusual! I haven't seen one of those for probably about 20 seconds.
Gotta love those colours. Everything fits together so well, a bit like lego.
Gah, places like this make me want to strap on my walking shoes
In the interests of not making this blog atrociously huge, I have removed the vast majority of the pictures I took this week, and this post doesn't include Kutna Hora's bone ossuary, or the medieval town of Cesky Krumlov, but those will have to wait for another day. Please ask questions if you want to know about something, now that I am writing I can't really imagine what people would like to know about.
People are surprisingly nice about my bumbling attempts at Czech, and I have had at least two or three conversations that instantly became about 10 shades friendlier when I gurgled out some non-English. I am kind of looking forward to the next leg of my trip. I will be doing WWOOFing (working with a family on an organic farm in exchange for food and accomodation) in a place that is far more rural, and I am hoping that English won't be spoken too much, so I'll be forced to speak Czech.
I will try to post here somewhat regularily, but I really don't know if I'll have too much opportunity when I'm out of the city centre.
Feel free to send me a note! I will try to respond individually, but I can't make any promises; time seems to lfy by here and I have suprisingly little time to attend to computer related stuff.
