Day 30: Prague
Sorry for the lack of updates to the blog. It gets tough trying to plan where you’re going to go next, what you’re going to do (and actually doing it), and trying to keep a blog all at the same time. If I don’t add a post one day, I’ll typically add it to the beginning of the next day’s post. No pictures yet on this post – I’ll probably add some when I get some free time.
Yesterday (Sunday the 13th), I grabbed a free tour of Prague at 11:00am. The tour guide was way too enthusiastic and seemed like she was reading from a script. She took us through the east side of Prague, from the Jewish Quarter and through the Old Town and New Town. It wasn’t the best tour I’ve ever been on, but it was free, so I guess I can’t complain too much. The weather wasn’t very good either – there were light gray clouds (almost like a haze) most of the day, which didn’t make for the best pictures. In the afternoon, I wandered around the shopping district and then went back to the hostel and ended up watching the Germany – Australia match in the evening, even though it was a pretty big blow out.
Today (Monday the 14th) I woke up around 9:00am. The other people in my room told me that I was talking in my sleep when they got back from the bars last night. They said it sounded like Spanish and that I sounded upset about something. Ha – I don’t remember anything. I know I talk in my sleep, but I don’t know any Spanish at all.
After taking a shower, I decided to knock out some laundry down the street. While waiting for it to dry, I met some girls who go to NC State and are studying in Prague for a couple months. They gave me a huge list of things to do with the time I have left, but there is no way I’m going to finish it all. I also had to run out and get some contact solution, which I found in a pharmacy instead of a grocery store. It cost me about $16 for a regular sized bottle, but it’s not like I wasn’t going to buy it just because it was expensive.
Around noon, I took the tram into the Old Town Square and killed some time before taking a tour of the castle at 2:00pm. The town square is all set up for the world cup games – they have a big screen TV that they play all the games on with street vendors surrounding the square.
The castle tour was pretty good and lasted about 4 hours. We had good weather and I got some good pictures – I’ll upload them later once I have more time.
Tomorrow, I am going to Kutna Hora and seeing the Bone Chapel – a church made from skeletons from people who died in the plague. It should be pretty good. I am also in the process of planning Krakow and Kiev. I have a family friend (Steve Roberts) who has contacts in Kiev which have graciously offered me a place to stay. I am probably going to book a round-trip plane ticket from Krakow to Kiev, and then take the train to Bratislava once I get back to Krakow. I also just reserved a tour of Chernobyl on June 24th, so I’m pretty excited about that.