So I went to quite a lovely place this afternoon. It's called Petrin Hill and it is located above Prague. If you look at pictures of Prague, there should be a large green hill behind the castle. This is Petrin Hill. I would compare it to Central Park in NYC. It's leafy and green, and pretty tall. I took a furnicular (cable car) to the top. At the top it is quite beautiful, it has a bunch of rose gardens there. There is also a stucture whose name I can't remember, but basically it is a baby Eiffel Tower. I took the stairs to the first platform on it. The view was crazy! You had a 360 degree view of Prague. Techinically, you could go to the very top of the tower, but since I'm afraid of heights (as you know) I decided that I'd settle for the middle platform view. There's also a church up there. I think I liked Petrin Hill a lot because it was QUIET! Just being on the streets of Prague can drive you crazy with all of the noise from the traffic and such. But it's pretty silent up there. It's probably my favorite place in Prague.
Oh, I also found out that what I thought was Legii Most for so long was NOT it! Basically, this is the bridge next to the Charles Bridge, but my map confused me so I kept walking down the next bridge over looking for everything and subsequently getting lost in sketchy parts of Mala Strana. Well now I know better.
Oh, Dad, I saw the Dancing House today and yesterday. It's pretty cool. There may also be a picture of the new National Library of the Czech Republic online somewhere. They just had an international contest looking for a design, and they chose one in March. I know these things because I saw a big exhibit on it at the Karolinium yesterday. The building basically looks like a big green slime blob with feet and purple bubbles. I know, it sounds weird, but it's kinda cool looking. Anyways, these are the sorts of things I find out when I get lost going places.
I also ate at this place called Bohemia Bagel tonight. It was in every guide book I read about Prague, so I resisted, especially when the guide books said things like "It's incredible to believe that Prague didn't have a place to get bagels before this!" As if a city is culturally empty without a place for bagels. Anyways, it was pretty good. Got a very American meal, a philly cheese steak and a diet coke. One of my friends said something funny, he said that although he loved Spain he couldn't live there because you don't get refills on soda. I sorta laughed this off, but I'm starting to understand his pain. Even the coke cans are smaller here! The coke bottles are very small too. I may have to go to McDonalds just to get refills on soda. Anyways, I digress.
So as much as I hate them, I have this weird interest in squirrels around the world. I've only seen one here so far but it seemed huge with pointy ears. I want to see another one to see how different they look. Anyways, like the pigeons before, as you can tell, I have an interest in differences in flora and fauna around the world. Maybe you can see why I like Zoology.
Tomorrow I'm taking an epic journey to Prague Castle. The directions confuse me, so wish me luck that I get there!
Thursday, May 31, 2007
2nd day here!
So Dad won the question of yesterday. How did you know? Yes, there are many KFC's here. More than Mcdonalds's for some reason. So today I woke up with goals of going to see the Mucha museum and the Communist museum. I found the Mucha museum and went through it. I felt very happy that I was actually able to locate where it was. I am consigned to the fact that it would take me years to know exactly where I was going. I do know how to get to Wencesclas Square and Old Town Square now though, so I feel very proud of that fact. Today, after I went to the Mucha museum which was very nice, I walked through a bunch of alleyways up to Old Town Square. I was kinda surprised when I came across it. Mostly because my wanderings never seem to lead me anywhere. I kept looking for this statue of Jan Knus that I kept reading about, but I didn't see it there yesterday or today. I thought I was going crazy. Turns out there is this huge advertisement covering it up because restoration is being done on it. Made me feel a little better.
I also went to St. Nicholas' Cathedral which was quite beautiful. You could strain your neck looking at all of the beautiful frescoes in it. I also sat in the square for a little bit just watching everyone go by. For anyone who cares, the pigeons seem to be exactly the same ones we have in America. For some reason, I thought they'd be different. They are fatter than the ones here though.
More later! Thanks for your comments. Hope I am keeping you entertained.
I also went to St. Nicholas' Cathedral which was quite beautiful. You could strain your neck looking at all of the beautiful frescoes in it. I also sat in the square for a little bit just watching everyone go by. For anyone who cares, the pigeons seem to be exactly the same ones we have in America. For some reason, I thought they'd be different. They are fatter than the ones here though.
More later! Thanks for your comments. Hope I am keeping you entertained.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
First day in Prague!
Hey everyone!
Thanks for all of your comments. They were fun to read this morning when I woke up. The nice thing about the time difference is that I am almost done with my day while in Florida, it is late morning, so everyone can read my blog at work.
So, the last flight to Prague was uneventful. It was about two and a half hours, but I fell asleep after dinner so it flew by (haha). The plane was nearly empty, so I laid down on the two empty seats next to me and got a lot of space.
I arrived at the hostel around 22:00. It's very nice. I share a room with bunk beds with two other girls (I haven't met them though, I was asleep when they came in). The bed is quite comfy, but the street the hostel is located next to is pretty loud. Nevertheless, I slept until about 12:00.
I got up and started the day by looking at my map and deciding where to go. I sorta decided to head for the river and to take it from there. Good thing I didn't have any set plans because for most of the day I had no idea where I was. Well, I take that back, I knew which area of the city I was in, but that was it. I only ended up seeing two sites today, because of that, but I did see every part of the city. I must have walked for about 10 miles or so. If you want to see where I went, pull up a map of Prague, start at the I.P. Pavlova metro station, walk west to the river, follow the river to the first bridge you come across, walk through Mala Strana (I swear I was there for hours today, it is a lot larger than it looks, at least it feels that way when you have no idea where you are.). Then end up around the castle, cross the Charles Bridge, walk through Stare Mestro, walk up to Wenclesas Square, through the National Musuem, and back to the metro station (I live about a block away from this station). Needless to say, I am pretty tired.
Some things I found interesting today: there aren't many American fast food places here (no Starbucks! Apparently they haven't taken over all of the world yet). But I did see 5 of one place in particular. Try to guess what it is. (hint: It's not what you think).
On Charles Bridge I saw not one, but 2 people that were also pictured in travel books I have read. I found that interesting, maybe they are there everyday for years and years.
The weather here today was kinda chilly. I wore my fleece jacket and a long skirt, but a bunch of people were wearing jeans and pants.
Anyways, the city is quite beautiful. For anyone thinking of coming, I suggest that you learn some Czech, at least certain food words, and how to order. Looking for food was intimidating (at least until I got to the touristy areas of town). I finally ate lunch in a cafe, where there were signs under the food pictured, which was nice, because I could just point to what I wanted. It was a cafe with no tourists that I saw. My lunch was about 60 CZK (about 3 dollars at 20 CZK=$1 USD) for a coke and a sandwich; in the toursit area of town under the Charles Bridge, a bottle of water costs me 45 CZK (a little ridiculous) and all of the restaurants wrote their meals in English. So it is really a toss up, do you eat at the place where you have no idea what you are ordering, or do you go to the place where things are in English, but which will probably cost you three times as much?
So, I am off to take a nap now, and look at what I'm going to do tomorrow. Leave comments or questions below!
Thanks for all of your comments. They were fun to read this morning when I woke up. The nice thing about the time difference is that I am almost done with my day while in Florida, it is late morning, so everyone can read my blog at work.
So, the last flight to Prague was uneventful. It was about two and a half hours, but I fell asleep after dinner so it flew by (haha). The plane was nearly empty, so I laid down on the two empty seats next to me and got a lot of space.
I arrived at the hostel around 22:00. It's very nice. I share a room with bunk beds with two other girls (I haven't met them though, I was asleep when they came in). The bed is quite comfy, but the street the hostel is located next to is pretty loud. Nevertheless, I slept until about 12:00.
I got up and started the day by looking at my map and deciding where to go. I sorta decided to head for the river and to take it from there. Good thing I didn't have any set plans because for most of the day I had no idea where I was. Well, I take that back, I knew which area of the city I was in, but that was it. I only ended up seeing two sites today, because of that, but I did see every part of the city. I must have walked for about 10 miles or so. If you want to see where I went, pull up a map of Prague, start at the I.P. Pavlova metro station, walk west to the river, follow the river to the first bridge you come across, walk through Mala Strana (I swear I was there for hours today, it is a lot larger than it looks, at least it feels that way when you have no idea where you are.). Then end up around the castle, cross the Charles Bridge, walk through Stare Mestro, walk up to Wenclesas Square, through the National Musuem, and back to the metro station (I live about a block away from this station). Needless to say, I am pretty tired.
Some things I found interesting today: there aren't many American fast food places here (no Starbucks! Apparently they haven't taken over all of the world yet). But I did see 5 of one place in particular. Try to guess what it is. (hint: It's not what you think).
On Charles Bridge I saw not one, but 2 people that were also pictured in travel books I have read. I found that interesting, maybe they are there everyday for years and years.
The weather here today was kinda chilly. I wore my fleece jacket and a long skirt, but a bunch of people were wearing jeans and pants.
Anyways, the city is quite beautiful. For anyone thinking of coming, I suggest that you learn some Czech, at least certain food words, and how to order. Looking for food was intimidating (at least until I got to the touristy areas of town). I finally ate lunch in a cafe, where there were signs under the food pictured, which was nice, because I could just point to what I wanted. It was a cafe with no tourists that I saw. My lunch was about 60 CZK (about 3 dollars at 20 CZK=$1 USD) for a coke and a sandwich; in the toursit area of town under the Charles Bridge, a bottle of water costs me 45 CZK (a little ridiculous) and all of the restaurants wrote their meals in English. So it is really a toss up, do you eat at the place where you have no idea what you are ordering, or do you go to the place where things are in English, but which will probably cost you three times as much?
So, I am off to take a nap now, and look at what I'm going to do tomorrow. Leave comments or questions below!
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
On route....in progress
Well I am almost there!
I´m currently at the Madrid airport in an internet cafe, trying to kill 7 hours until my next flight. The flights over were something.
The flight from JAX to MIA was in a tiny little plane, we had to walk out onto the tarmac and then climb stairs to get to it. I got a seat by myself with noone else next to me (there was just an aisle). It was really amazing to look over the ocean and the coast. There was a good deal of turbulence though, which of course made me queasy. It only took 1.5 hours though, so overall it was pretty uneventful.
Then the fun part! Seven hours in the Miami airport waiting for my flight to Madrid. I have this amazing talent that enables me to sit for hours just staring into space, so the time passed as quickly as it was able to. It still was boring, and my butt hurt. But eventually we got on the flight.
This plane was huge, and I was seated in the last aisle, in an aisle seat. My long lost only Spanish speaking grandmother sat next to me. I spoke Spanish to her the whole time, and to all of the flight attendants as well. My grandmother was pretty funny, making me eat my peas, and forcing me to drink tea. Ahh, good times. I´m sure she was appalled by my Spanish, but it was a surprise how much I remembered. I think the people here at the airport are impressed too. But I´ve already had to ask twice ¿Hablas ingles? so maybe not (like that cool upside down question mark? This keyboard is awesome!).
Anyways, so Iberia showed us a bunch of weird movies, like one of raccoons fighting and such. Then after dinner, I tried to get some sleep.
After about 2 hours of sleep, I woke up at around 2:30 AM Tallahassee time, with my grandmother eagerly pulling up the window shade to show me the sun streaming through. I, of course, shruck back like the vampire that I am. Jet lag sucks. I´m exhausted now, but trying to stay awake until tonight, when I finally get to Prague and get to sleep in an actual bed, not sprawled out on chairs in the Miami airport, or sitting straight up on the plane.
The Madrid airport is really cool looking architecturally. I´d be interested to know who designed it and how new it is, but my time is about to run out at this internet cafe and I feel slightly nauseous from the lack of sleep I´m getting.
So I depart in about 7 hours, and will try to stare into space for about 5 of them to keep myself busy, and maybe read a magazine and do sudoku for the other 2.
Oh and I got really cool euros from the atm machine! And this blog site is all in Spanish, so I have no idea what anything says!
Anyways, please leave comments if you have them or questions. Hope everyone is well!
I´m currently at the Madrid airport in an internet cafe, trying to kill 7 hours until my next flight. The flights over were something.
The flight from JAX to MIA was in a tiny little plane, we had to walk out onto the tarmac and then climb stairs to get to it. I got a seat by myself with noone else next to me (there was just an aisle). It was really amazing to look over the ocean and the coast. There was a good deal of turbulence though, which of course made me queasy. It only took 1.5 hours though, so overall it was pretty uneventful.
Then the fun part! Seven hours in the Miami airport waiting for my flight to Madrid. I have this amazing talent that enables me to sit for hours just staring into space, so the time passed as quickly as it was able to. It still was boring, and my butt hurt. But eventually we got on the flight.
This plane was huge, and I was seated in the last aisle, in an aisle seat. My long lost only Spanish speaking grandmother sat next to me. I spoke Spanish to her the whole time, and to all of the flight attendants as well. My grandmother was pretty funny, making me eat my peas, and forcing me to drink tea. Ahh, good times. I´m sure she was appalled by my Spanish, but it was a surprise how much I remembered. I think the people here at the airport are impressed too. But I´ve already had to ask twice ¿Hablas ingles? so maybe not (like that cool upside down question mark? This keyboard is awesome!).
Anyways, so Iberia showed us a bunch of weird movies, like one of raccoons fighting and such. Then after dinner, I tried to get some sleep.
After about 2 hours of sleep, I woke up at around 2:30 AM Tallahassee time, with my grandmother eagerly pulling up the window shade to show me the sun streaming through. I, of course, shruck back like the vampire that I am. Jet lag sucks. I´m exhausted now, but trying to stay awake until tonight, when I finally get to Prague and get to sleep in an actual bed, not sprawled out on chairs in the Miami airport, or sitting straight up on the plane.
The Madrid airport is really cool looking architecturally. I´d be interested to know who designed it and how new it is, but my time is about to run out at this internet cafe and I feel slightly nauseous from the lack of sleep I´m getting.
So I depart in about 7 hours, and will try to stare into space for about 5 of them to keep myself busy, and maybe read a magazine and do sudoku for the other 2.
Oh and I got really cool euros from the atm machine! And this blog site is all in Spanish, so I have no idea what anything says!
Anyways, please leave comments if you have them or questions. Hope everyone is well!
Friday, May 25, 2007
Countdown...3 days
So a lot of people have been asking me whether or not I am ready to go. So I thought I'd let everyone know what is actually done:
1. I have packed all of my clothes. Compression bags are lifesavers! I try to remind myself that just because your clothes can be compressed does not mean that they will weigh any less. Therefore, though my backpack may not look that full, I will resist all impulses to stuff it to capacity, and my back will thank me. It's also great travelling in the summer, because it means that your clothes take up a lot less space rather than heavy jeans and jackets. Anyways, that's done.
2. I have finished all of my travel arrangements! I just booked my Eurostar ticket from London to Paris today (should have booked it months ago and saved a lot of money, but oh well, live and learn), and all hostels, planes, etc are booked.
3. I am trying frantically to learn Czech. This is mostly a useless effort. Though I can say "hello!" (do-bree den) and "Do you speak English?" (lu-e-ta an-gletz-kay) which I figure should take me far enough.
4. I have made contact with my French landlady. I have a funny feeling that she spoke English, but spoke mostly French to me. I take pride in the fact that I understood every 2nd word or so she was saying, but couldn't put any of it together. I know how to say "I speak a little French" (Je pal a peau la francais, sorry, sure spelling is wrong, and Courtney will scold me), and I understand (Je comprands) which seemed to make her happy. So we'll see how that goes when I get there. I'm sure I'll have some funny story to tell about that encounter!
Other than these efforts, I am frantically trying to read about 900 pages of guide books to try and figure out where I am going and what I'm going to do. Travelling to a bunch of countries is kind of intimidating, if only because they all speak a different language, and a bunch of them use different currencies. I'm sure at some point I'll answer "oui" instead of "ano" and greet a shopkeeper with "ahoj" instead of "bonjour madame!" Such is life, c'est la vie.
Just wanted to welcome all of my family and friends who have newly found my blog. Please post questions or comments below, I'd love to hear from you! I will also have a quicker reply, rather than answering all of your emails individually. Ah well, back to packing,
For Courtney, Leah, and Suzanne: http://www.amazon.com/Nina-Essential-Simone/dp/B00004RIMQ/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-7539317-6525703?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1180113792&sr=8-1
1. I have packed all of my clothes. Compression bags are lifesavers! I try to remind myself that just because your clothes can be compressed does not mean that they will weigh any less. Therefore, though my backpack may not look that full, I will resist all impulses to stuff it to capacity, and my back will thank me. It's also great travelling in the summer, because it means that your clothes take up a lot less space rather than heavy jeans and jackets. Anyways, that's done.
2. I have finished all of my travel arrangements! I just booked my Eurostar ticket from London to Paris today (should have booked it months ago and saved a lot of money, but oh well, live and learn), and all hostels, planes, etc are booked.
3. I am trying frantically to learn Czech. This is mostly a useless effort. Though I can say "hello!" (do-bree den) and "Do you speak English?" (lu-e-ta an-gletz-kay) which I figure should take me far enough.
4. I have made contact with my French landlady. I have a funny feeling that she spoke English, but spoke mostly French to me. I take pride in the fact that I understood every 2nd word or so she was saying, but couldn't put any of it together. I know how to say "I speak a little French" (Je pal a peau la francais, sorry, sure spelling is wrong, and Courtney will scold me), and I understand (Je comprands) which seemed to make her happy. So we'll see how that goes when I get there. I'm sure I'll have some funny story to tell about that encounter!
Other than these efforts, I am frantically trying to read about 900 pages of guide books to try and figure out where I am going and what I'm going to do. Travelling to a bunch of countries is kind of intimidating, if only because they all speak a different language, and a bunch of them use different currencies. I'm sure at some point I'll answer "oui" instead of "ano" and greet a shopkeeper with "ahoj" instead of "bonjour madame!" Such is life, c'est la vie.
Just wanted to welcome all of my family and friends who have newly found my blog. Please post questions or comments below, I'd love to hear from you! I will also have a quicker reply, rather than answering all of your emails individually. Ah well, back to packing,
For Courtney, Leah, and Suzanne: http://www.amazon.com/Nina-Essential-Simone/dp/B00004RIMQ/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-7539317-6525703?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1180113792&sr=8-1
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Countdown...five days
Hello everyone!
Glad you were able to find my blog. I'll be updating it as frequently as I can. Hopefully, everyone can follow my travels here. And I'll admit, it's a little easier for me, rather than emailing tons of people telling them the same info about how my trip's going. Feel free to leave questions or comments on my posts, I'll do my best to answer them in a timely fashion. Bon Voyage!
Glad you were able to find my blog. I'll be updating it as frequently as I can. Hopefully, everyone can follow my travels here. And I'll admit, it's a little easier for me, rather than emailing tons of people telling them the same info about how my trip's going. Feel free to leave questions or comments on my posts, I'll do my best to answer them in a timely fashion. Bon Voyage!
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