Monday 8/31/09

It's hard to believe its the last day of August! Crazy! Well I'm at school right now waiting for my first class to start. I came early so I could get my books, computer login, print card, etc. It's really easy to get to school. Just take tram 22 about 15 minutes to the stop in front of starbucks...yes they have numerous starbucks here. Then I have to walk towards the Charles Bridge a block and take a left at a little ally way. My school is on the first street after the Charles bridge so its in an area with tons of restaurants, bars and shops, but since it is so close to a huge tourist attraction the food is more expensive. Things are cheaper here. I had dinner on the first night for about 100 Crowns which is about 6 dollars. A beer costs anywhere from 17 to 40 crowns, which is 1-3 dollars. I bought a bottle of red wine at the grocery store for about 3 dollars. Kinda nice!

So lets see where I left off. So the Castle Quarter is really neat. Everything is old and in cobblestone (so is Old Town). There are a lot of restaurants and shops and of course the Prague Castle. It's a huge complex with three courtyards and a HUGE cathedral in the middle. I can't remember the name of the church though. The church is Gothic and holds the tomb of St. Wencelas, a very important historical figure in Prague. The Castle houses the President and many governement offices. More importantly it is surrounded by gardens! You could spend an entire day walking around the gardens but you have to pay to get into most of them. The only one that is free is the one that has the most amazing view of Prague. It is absolutly spectacular. I have a lot of pictures that I will post when we have internet at home...so yeah thats about it from the historical tour.

So yesterday I slept in until about 11:30, way longer than I wanted to! I then explored the area around my apartment. My apartment is in Prague 2 which is just south of the "downtown" area. It's in a residential area so the food and shopping is less expensive, which is nice. I first walked about 10-20 minutes south to a big park to see if it's runnable. There were some trails but I will have to run in quite a few circles to rack up the miles. Then I made my way northwest to find a gym that our guide told us was close to our house. When I got there, however, the gym was a tanning salon! So I tried to communicate with the girl to find out where there is a fitness center and she pointed me to two different places. It took a little time but we figured out what we were trying to tell each other. She told me to take tram 6 south, very close to the park actually, but tram 6 wasn't running yesterday. I'm guessing because it was Sunday. So then I wandered around looking for a place to find notebooks...no luck! I found two different bookstores but they just had books, no school supplies. I did find a promising looking store but it was closed. So then I walked home and found a couple of close grocery stores and a vegitarian restaurant! When I got home the rest of my roommates were up and we decided to go check out the Lennon wall and lay in a park near the river. The lennon wall is a memorial for John Lennon that kinda turned into an anti-communist monument. Its pretty much all grafetti, but pretty. Then we sat in the park and read, etc. It was really nice! Around 6 we hoped back on the tram home. We organized/unpacked/made dinner for a couple of hours went to a near by internet cafe then went to bed. It was really nice.

I really like Prague! Everything doesn't really seem real to me yet. I feel like I'm on vacation! It's just so pretty and historical here, I really like exploring out on my own. After class I'm going to go home and run. I'll look for the gym again too. Then I really want to go up to the Jewish Quarter and check that out. Or maybe I'll go to a museum. Well I should get to class. Bye!