First week in Prague 9/9/2008-9/18/2008

Classes started this week. That is, if you use the term ‘classes’ loosely. Basically we had an orientation session for the whole Prague Institute which included going over rules like ‘clean up after yourself’ or reminding guys to lift the seat before peeing. Real useful stuff. The next day we had another little orientation for the architecture program in Prague. We don’t have classes on Friday and studio is closed on Saturday, so it is heavily encouraged to travel on weekends. This being our first weekend though, most of us stayed in Prague and explored the city.

Ryan, Miller, Paul, Dumbielle, and I walked around on Saturday. We took a metro to Old Town. From there we walked across the Charles Bridge to Lesser Town. The Charles Bridge is always full of tourists and people trying to sell things, from jewelry, to paintings, to caricatures. I figured I was going to be here for the next three months so I didn’t take very many pictures of real touristy things such as the Charles Bridge, or the castle, or Old Town Square, with the intention of coming back later and taking better pictures than I would be able to get with a million people around.

Once in Lesser Town we took some pictures of the Vlatava River. Then, we walked toward the castle through a park in a valley because we heard there was a cool tunnel to see there. The park was pretty linear, following the valley/ravine up the hill toward the castle. There was one path up one of the banks, so we took it up and found an old wall with arched openings with a nice view of the castle and Saint Vitas Cathedral. Above this there were some nice fountains and a nice villa. We had no idea what it was at the time but later we found that it was used by the King’s wife, commonly called a Queen.

We went back down the hill and found the tunnel. It was pretty neat. The walls were brick and the form of an ellipse. We continued up the hill to the castle. We didn’t go inside because we knew that we would be exploring it later as a class. We did walk through it and around it. There were a ton of people. There was a band of street performers that were entertaining. The flute player had the greatest moustache I have ever seen, (think Chester A. Arthur stache) and I hope that one day I could have half the moustache he has. From the castle there is a good view of the city, and you can easily see all the way to the Baby Tower just a few blocks from where the pension is.

After being in Prague for less than a week, people were already flying across oceans to come and visit me. The first of these visitors were none other than my third favorite aunt on my mother’s side, Catherine, and her friend, Kerry. They were nice enough to take us out to dinner a few times during their stay. The first night we were to meet up with them, we decided on meeting in front of the Jan Hus statue in Old Town Square. This seemed like a good idea until Kelly and I arrived 10 minutes prior to our meeting time only to discover that the starting line for a marathon that was currently being run was at that very spot. Kelly and I spent the next 30 minutes combing the crowd looking for them, which was very difficult because Katherine is very, very short. We were about to give up when Kelly asked me “Do you hear that really hyper, loud, American voice?” I turned around to see Cathryn talking normally to Kerry and walking towards us. We ate dinner at Klub Architektu which was real good. My cousin Kate’s boyfriend Oliver had recommended this place to us and we enjoyed it thoroughly. It, like many restaurants and bars in Prague, is in an old 16^th century cellar, beneath an architecture school. We liked it so much we went back again later that week. We were also lucky enough to be present for Kathrin’s 26^th birthday. We ended up going to a nice place by their hotel. Overall, we weren’t too embarrassed by them. But seriously, we really enjoyed spending time with them and exchanging stories about our travels. They seemed to have a good time during their stay, and it was very generous of them to take us out to eat so many times.

(this image is from Kelly's blog. While it may be slightly more up to date, it's nowhere near as good as mine.)