Springtime in Praha

I went to Prague this past weekend, and it was quite incredible. It is a beautiful city, many people commented that this is what they thought Europe would look like. It's very old, and has never had a major conflict, so the buildings are actually intact and old, unlike most of the rest of Europe. It's filled with Gothic churches, a 700 year old bridge...and more tourists than you could imagine. The city is jam packed with tourists from all over the world. I went because I knew I could stay for free with Carlye, but it just so happened there were 3 more Mac kids in town to go along with Carlye and all those kids on her program. So it was a little reunion, and that made it a lot of fun. The city is a set up a lot like Budapest. The busier, flat side of the river is where most of the things happen, and the hillier, older side has a castle district and a funicular. It's cleaner, and smaller, and the river is smaller, but it's a similar look. The food was amazing as well. They have bratwurst and kielbasa stands up all over. You can get a brat smothered in onions and mustard until at least 1 in the morn. They were more expensive than in Berlin, but still, at least they got 'em. Carlye and I ate this amazing meal at some hole in the wall pub/restaurant. We got duck thigh, ham, sausage, other kinds of meat, potato dumplings, Carlsbad dumplings, bread dumplings, pickled cabbage and this delicious dark beer. It was served in a wooden trough, and we felt like kings in some old story, just shoveling food in our mouths. If I woulda had a beard, the image would have been complete.

I'll just throw up the pictures, and comment on them.




This was the incredible Gothic Cathedral in the castle district. It was modeled after Notre Dame, and I loved it.



We went to the Franz Kafka Museum, which was great, I never knew anything about him, and now I know a lot. This is the statue of him.



All the buildings in the city are old, but the ones that aren't are cool and moderny like this.



The astrological clock, where hundreds and hundreds of tourists gather to watch some minor movements of the apostles. But the clock is cool, 400 years old.



This is a turn to the right from the previous picture. This square was filled with an Easter Market, and that beautiful building on the right is another cool church.



This was the hotel Carlye stayed at, a swanky number called the Grand Hotel Evropa. It's on a historic square, and the inside is all the 110-year old Art Nouveau original stuff. Macalester paid for all the students on her program to stay there.



This is some tower in the city, there are many like this around the city, which is a lot of fun. The building that the tower is connected to on the left is the one Tom Cruise jumped off of in Mission Impossible, or so I'm told. I don't remember that, but every time we went past it, someone brought that up.



This is the river, the 700 year old bridge, and also the largest club in central Europe can be seen.



Here's the river again, from further downriver. Also Carlye is in this one.

Anyway, if you ever get a chance to go to Prague, do it. Its gorgeous, and at least for me, even the tourists weren't so bad, as they were kind of a nice change of pace.