OK, so I hateeee looking like a tourist. It’s kind of easy to do when traveling in America (?) but over here we stick out like sore thumbs, so at this point I’m not really trying to hide it yet. There is so much to see, and while a lot of it is where all of the tourists go, there’s a reason. Because it’s awesome. And we might as well get it all out of the way in the beginning so we can begin to orient ourselves & exploring more off-road parts of the city.
Today started off early, I was up at 4 AM to say a rough goodbye to Will before he left to field training for a month, and after that, I just couldn’t sleep. The sun was rising and the birds were already chirping for whatever reason. The girls I was rooming with woke up extremely early to leave for Vienna, so I took a shower and kind of wandered around the place before breakfast. Jasper, Edward, Joe, Rob and myself were the only ones here today from NCSU, so we ate our light breakfast and went on our way. First stop, Old Town.
The place was breathtaking. There was so much movement and color that I was completely taken aback. I don’t know the significane of any of these places yet, but I know that I’ll learn soon enough. And that I probably should have done more research before coming here..
We walked around the church of St. Nicholas for a bit before heading to St. Charles’ Bridge. There, we were bombarded with all types of tourist-y things to buy, live music, and a beautiful view of the river. Disclaimer: it was sunny, so I’m squinty in this picture. And every other picture of me taken today. And there will probably be many, many more where that came from.
We got across the bridge and then began to hike up what felt like a mountain. There were tons of little shops and restaurants along the way, but once we got up to the castle and the cathedral, the views were amazing.
The castle and the cathedral were right next to each other. They were both insanely crowded but definitely worth a visit. I really loved the cathedral. I might go back one day and pay money to get a closer look at everything.
It was only lunchtime at this point, so we wandered further up the hill and went to lunch at this little pizzeria. We thought we had gone far enough away from the main road to not get scammed, but we definitely did. It was still good though, and my whole meal I think cost around $15 (after a day of spending money I’m finally starting to figure out crowns, Thank God).
We had plans to go farther up the hill, but at this point our bellies were full and it was time for a nap. We stopped by the Institute where we’ll be having our classes just to look around, and it’s lovely 🙂 I have no idea how I got there, but I think it’s going to be a great location and seems to have a lot going on around it. We found our way back to the Pension and now, it’s truly nap time.
A Place in Prague 