Tours and such...

So the first blog is actually from Thursday, but I forgot to publish it. This is a the real Friday post...

Today we went on a walking tour of Prague, led by a really nice woman named Dagmar. We spent most of the day in the Mala Strana (Little Quarter) neighborhood, where the AAU is. We walked up a beautiful little street called Nerudova to Prague castle, which is huge. From the front of the castle you can see all of Prague, which is absolutely picturesque, even with the cold and foggy day we had today. We witnessed the changing of the guards and people took pictures with them as they stood stock still. Inside the castle is the gothic St. Vitus Cathedral, which took 1,000 years to build. It was one of the most awesome structures I've ever seen. The ceiling is incredibly high and the stained glass is so intricate and beautiful. I also loved the gargoyles hanging off the outside.

We walked across Charles Bridge to Old Town Square. The famous astronomical is here, and every hour little doors open on the side of the tower and you can see the 12 apostles float by. There is a skeleton (that I love) near the clock that holds a bell and an hour glass to remind us of how valuable our time on earth is. Or time in Prague, in my case :)

I was by myself after the tour so I just wandered the streets. I actually feel very safe being alone in the city, even at night. The language barrier makes it difficult to get around sometimes, so I'm looking forward to beginning Czech class on Tuesday. Apparently Czech is the 3rd hardest language to learn? Anyway, I wandered to the Palladium mall, which is very fancy. It's like an American mall, but newer and nicer. They have some American stores. I only stayed long enough to buy a new scarf and get warm, because it was very cold today and then I got on the metro, which is very fast and efficient. You have to be careful of the escalators though because they move really quickly! Once I was back in my neighborhood, I braved Tesco again to buy toilet paper and a big fluffy towel because the towels provided are pretty small and scratchy.

There's a grad student named Matt who lives down the hall from us who has been living in Prague since September. He's been very helpful teaching us Czech words and giving us advice. He took me and my roommate Kelly to a delicious dessert restaurant called Mus... something. Amanda, you will love it. And then he introduced us to Billa, a great little market that is much more manageable than Tesco.

We're getting ready to go to a book bar!! I'll write more soon :)