DAN CASE writes:
Apparently I set my alarm last night but did not turn it on, so I awoke to some of the students knocking on my door because they were on their way down to the lobby to meet everyone for the tour. So, I got up at 9:44 a.m. and was out the door for the day at about 9:47. Great start.
I did, at least, have the opportunity to snag a donut thing and weird fruit juice from the hotel breakfast before we left. Once everyone got down to the lobby, we left and filed into vans en route to the Prague Castle. From the outside, the castle looks like nothing I have ever seen in person, and it looks like it has been collecting grime for hundreds and hundreds of years, which it has. The cool thing about the castle is that half of it was built in the 13th and 14th centuries. But it wasn’t finished until the 20th century, so the style is quite unique.
After touring the outside of the castle, we ventured inside the mammoth cathedral and it was filled with some of the most intense pieces of stained glass that I have ever seen. The funny thing was one of my favorite pieces had a ton of religious imagery in it, but the inscription on the glass apparently said that it was commissioned by a bank and therefore was not a religious piece.
After the castle, we went on a frankly pretty lame boat river that took us up the river like a mile and then turned around. However, we did get to see this huge metronome that sits at the top of hill, and it’s a fairly prominent landmark in Prague. The metronome replaced a huge statue of Stalin that was there during the Communist era and symbolizes that they are no longer in those times.
Once we got back on land, we took the vans to the Old Town and the Jewish Quarters of Prague, which were absolutely breathtaking and mirror my mental image of what Europe looks like. But my camera died before that, so I’ll talk about it once I go back for some more quality time.
Eventually we ate some lunch at a school café and then took the tram back to the hotel. I finally figured out our Wi-Fi situation (only in the breakfast and Internet room). I got on and surfed the Web a little while and sent some emails. I can tell just from six hours of Internet that it is not very reliable since it has already gone out twice. Once my computer battery ran out I took my well-needed, first shower of the trip and then headed out with some girls for dinner.
In searching for a place to eat with an English menu, I got to witness some firsthand anti-American hostility. Hooray! Luckily, we ended up finding a place where the menu was an English-only menu. Some notable menu items included American Sauce and Potatoes on Grease, but I stuck with the vegetarian plate.
After the dinner, we went to a little grocery store to pick up some things, and I tried to no avail to get a razor because I forgot one. At dinner, someone on the subject of beer in Prague said that “beer is cheaper than water, I heard,” which I thought to be an exaggeration, although I had been getting it pretty cheap in bars. The grocery store proved me wrong. I was gazing over at the beer selection and a bottle of Primus quickly stole my attention. 7.90 krons for .5L (17 ounces)! That is a whooping 50 cents U.S. for a little over a pint of beer. Amazing.
After grabbing a bottle, I went over to look at bottled water and sure enough it was about 10 krons for .3L. If you can believe it from some facts like this, the Czech Republic consumes more beer per-captia than any other country (2.6 kegs per-person per-year). After the store, I went back to my room and watched a little BBC news, read a little of some homework, typed this and headed to bed.
Dan Case is a Music Business major.
Posted by bwhite at May 20, 2008 11:13 AM
