I am safely back in beautiful Copenhagen, where the plants are FINALLY starting to bloom! It is still pretty chilly, but manageable!
Prague:
Saturday I ate my one and only non-Czech meal, Starbucks for breakfast, because for whatever reason, all bakeries in Prague are close on weekends! I needed something quick because I was planning on doing a walking tour of the city and Starbucks was my only option (in case you are wondering, Starbucks is overpriced in Prague too, I got a coffee and a muffin and it was one of my most expensive meals...). Anyway, as I ate my Starbucks I watched the clock tower performance in the Town Hall Square (very famous, extremely lame, the 12 Apostles peak their heads out of a door above the clock...and that is it...). Then, I was waiting and waiting and waiting for my walking tour, but of course the guide was sick so the company was only doing the PAID walking tours (I was obvi going to do the free one!). So, I figured I'd just do the tour Sunday and headed to the National Museum!
The National Museum is actually a museum of natural science so I LOVED it, and spent over 3 hours there (it wasn't that big and all of the exhibits were in Czech...but it was still awesome!!!!) They had rocks, prehistory/archeology, zoology, history of the earth and planets, paleontology, and anthropology (the rock exhibit was my favorite)!!!!
After the museum, I had a chicken schnitzel sandwich from a street vendor, and then headed to the Jewish Quarter (called the Jewish Quarter b/c back in the day Jews could only live and work in this tiny section of the city) to go to the Jewish Museum (which is actually a series of buildings, 4 synagogues, a cemetery, and a ceremony hall). However, what I failed to remember was of course, Saturday is the Sabbath Day in the Jewish religion, so of course everything was closed! So, I went back to my hostel to regroup/find a new plan. I decided to go to Petrin Tower, which is a famous tower where the communists had spies or something like that, but it boasts an incredible view of the city. The Tower itself is on a huge hill that is just 1 huge park so I spent some time climbing the hill/walking around the park as well. When I got to the top of the hill there was a GIANT line to get up to the top of the tower (plus about 300 stairs) so I decided to skip the tower and go to this random festival that they were having at the top of the hill (the view from the top of the hill was amazing enough for me)! I got this donut type thing that street vendors sell all over (it is dough wrapped around a wooden stick, cooked over coals, the rolled in nuts, vanilla, toffee, almonds, cinnamon, and sugar) walked around, and sat in a tulip garden! After the festival, I went back down into the city, had yet another fantastic and cheap meal (beef goulash this time, AMAZING!!!!) and went back to my hostel!
Sunday I woke up early, did a walking tour (by this time I had seen most of the sites but it was cool hearing the history of the city), ate lunch (I don't know what it was, but it was like 300 grams of protein smothered in gravy, mmmm!!!) and headed across the river. I went to St. Nicolas Cathedral, St. Vitus Cathedral, and then to the Jewish museum. After that I went back to my hostel to relax before dinner, went to dinner (pork medallions with bacon and garlic, Cole slaw with vinegar instead of mayo, and of course, beer), walked around a little, and then went back to my hostel. I turned in pretty early b/c I had to leave for the airport pretty early in the morning.
Monday I flew home, went to the gym (lots and lots of gravy in Prague...) and attempted to do homework. Had dinner with Anne (Peter was in Koln for work, Henrik had soccer from 6-9), did more homework, and went to bed.
Tuesday was a normal day, class, shwarma for dinner, wall street for cheap beer.
Today I woke up, went to a bakery near my house, ate a pastry on the shore of the lake near my house, and now I NEED to finish my paper that I've been putting off for a week! These next 2 days are going to be major hw days (end of semester rush) so you probably won't hear from me, but I will update next week when I am doing all of my last minute cultural things!
I can't promise that my pics from Prague will be up within the next two weeks, I'm going to be pretty busy, but I will try!
