Classes were cancelled on Friday because the Tour de France was ending in Metz. It was really cool to get to watch! and hard to take pictures of because they were moving so fast:
Attempt 1: fail.
Attempt #2! Better this time -- still blurry but at least I got all of them!
Then we came back to GTL to get our bags, went downtown and had some dinner, and found a really unique art performance on our way to the train station. It involved a guy hanging from a bell suspended from a crane and a tribe of people carrying fire wearing weird outfits. When he rang the bell they froze on the platforms they were standing on and then they would unfreeze when he laughed. I've decided one theme from this summer is "lost in translation"...
The tribe of fire people
The guy hanging from the bell suspended from the crane. who controls the frozen-ness of the fire people tribe. Let me know if you follow what's going on -- cause I don't...
Then we made our way to the train station to catch our overnight train to Munich. Then we caught a Deutsche Bahn bus from Munich to Prague. We arrived around noon, found our hostel -- where they upgraded us to a 3 person private room with a balcony! It was AWESOME (including chocolates on the pillows, slippers, and shampoo provided in the shower. coolest hostel ever. We spent the rest of the afternoon grabbing lunch and exploring Prague while we waited for the rest of our group to arrive.
Cute sign we found -- Happy Prague :)
Charles Bridge
Me rubbing everything on the Charles Bridge (pretty sure this brings me love or loyalty?)
Fun street musicians on the bridge -- reminded me of the south!
Once our group arrived we had dinner at a delicious pizza place recommended by our hostel and stopped at a beer garden/restaurant on the river looking at the Charles Bridge and Prague lit up at night. So pretty! We befriended some German guys and chatted with them for about 2 hours.
Sunday morning we woke up for a walking tour led by our hostel. It was about 3 1/2 hours and was a GREAT way to see a ton of the city. Our tour guide was from Michigan and is teaching English there -- he knew a TON about Prague. I learned a lot during those 3 hours!
Astronomical tower from the side in the Old Town Square
Tyn Church -- the towers are different sizes designed to represent Adam and Eve
Astronomical clock -- the skeleton (death) rings the bell which starts the whole clock going. A statue on the left looking into a mirror (vanity) shakes his head while another guy shakes his money bag (greed) while another statue shakes his head playing a guitar of sorts (lust -- luring all the ladies with his song). All the while the 12 Apostles stroll by the open windows. Pretty impressive for an old clock if you ask me!
These were the golden bear doors. When they didn't have street names they used to identify homes based on the decorations -- this has 2 bears. But the alchemists put in something in the concrete that when you're there at night and take a picture -- the bears show up and glow gold! Also, they're different sizes to represent ursa major and ursa minor. So if you're facing the door, you're facing north!
Cemetery of the Jewish quarter. Because they were confined to live in one area, they also had to bury their dead in one area. See how packed the grave stones are; the bodies are also 12 deep in some places.
After our walking tour we went to a great vegetarian restaurant recommended by our guide! I had a delicious salad and hummus with pumpkin oil. SO GOOD! Then we went to the other side of the Charles Bridge to see the castle and a monastery up on the hill. The monastery brews their own beer so we stopped at that beer garden for a break after hiking up the hill. It offered a beautiful view (seriously, on the info guide a spot was labeled "beautiful view"). We also stopped at the Lennon wall (thanks to a great suggestion from my friend Daniele who studied abroad in Prague last year!). It was really cool and a great spot for pictures!
Me and the castle in the background on the Charles Bridge
"Beautiful view" from the monastery
Me and the Lennon Wall -- in 1980, they were communist and western music was banned. So when someone painted his face on the wall after he was shot, it was an act of defiance. Ever since then, people have been graffiti-ing over and over it!
The poem from Invictus painted on the Lennon wall
Sunday night we went to a pub crawl also hosted by our hostel. It started off at the bar in the ground floor of our hostel. Then we went to a bar that we just kept going further down the stairs with every turn. I read about it in my Let's Go Europe book where it is described as an Alice in Wonderland experience -- that's an understatement. Then we went to a bar called Propaganda which was decorated with communist propaganda. Can't say it was my favorite...especially when the power went out! We waited outside for the last few minutes of that stop on the pub crawl. Then we went to a couple more bars and a 24 hour burrito place!! I had tortilla chips for the first time in NINE weeks! However after some awful directions from the pub crawl guides, we got lost in Prague and ended up a 45 minute walk away from our hostel. It was taxi time. Since we went to sleep late and didn't have to catch our bus until 4 pm, we slept in!
Monday was a leisure day. We went to a bagel place (again recommended by our hostel's map -- great work hostel map! every place we ate this weekend was recommended by them and fantastic). That's right everyone, A BAGEL! another thing I haven't eaten in a long time. We spent the day wandering Prague and souvenir shopping. We spent our last bit of time back in the Old Town Square where we climbed the Astronomical Clock tower to see it in action one more time -- this time from the top with great views of the city!
Old Town Square -- how cute!
Me and the Tyn Church
Crowds gathered to watch the clock
We didn't get to see the clock in action this time but we saw the trumpet guy play! Off every tower in Prague on the hour they play this song from every side of the tower. Really cool!
Then it was time to catch our bus to Munich. We got a quick dinner in Munich of pretzel (yum!) and a salad before our overnight train. We arrived at 6:30 this morning before class! After 4 days of class, I'll head off to Interlaken this weekend to go canyoning! Can't wait to write about that :)
No comments:
Post a Comment