Prague Part II

The three girls outside of St. Vitus
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Back for Prague part II ... sorry recently I've (gasp!) actually had work to do so the blog got cast aside. But I promise I'll do my best to catch up this week before I leave on spring break!

2-26-07

Today we started our day on a hunt around town for orchestra tickets, because we figured Prague would be a good place to buy tickets for a show that might be too expensive for us elsewhere. We ended up finding tickets to see the Prague Symphony Orchestra play in Smetana Hall, the biggest concert hall in Prague.

Stained glass in St. Vitus cathedral.
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After we got our tickets, we headed to the Prague castle, which, despite being touted as "the largest castle complex in the world" was actually cooler from down below than it actually was inside. We did have fun watching the changing of the guard, which was funny and a little unnerving because the guards were smiling and joking with each other (not like in London at all). We did get to see the window where the defenestration of Prague took place (the beginning of the thirty years war, which involved either the Catholics or the Protestants throwing the other faction out of a window... I'm still not quite clear on which was which).

The dancing building at night.
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Also in the castle complex was St. George's Basilica (again nothing super special except for some interesting frescoes (sp?)) and St. Vitus' cathedral. We loved St. Vitus' cathedral, mostly because there is some beautiful contemporary stained glass there designed by Alfons Mucha. It's absolutely stunning. The end of the morning at the castle was Golden Lane, which used to be slums but then some famous writers starting being fascinated by it's colorful facades so now it's tourist trap shops and you actually have to pay to walk on the street (it was included in our ticket for the castle though).

View from the top of St. Vitus cathedral.
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After trying some fried cheese (a great recommendation from a friend who studied in Prague) we kept walking north up the hill to the Strahov monestary and Loretta (a pilgrimage site) which were unfortunately closed. So we turned completely around and went into the Southern part of the city, to Wenceslas Square. Wenceslas square is a much more modern part of the city, with big chains like H&M and McDonalds, lots of graffiti, and TONS of people. It was actually really shocking after the quieter, older parts of the city. It was pretty in its own way though, with more colorful buildings and art deco everywhere.

Enjoying the playground!
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We also decided that maybe KFC is so popular in Prague because fried chicked is like schnitzel. We finished our afternoon walking by the National Theater, the dancing building (just an office building but a pretty awesome one!), and the world's coolest playground. We ate dinner (amazing again) at the hostel and stayed in, playing cards and doing homework with the study abroad students we met from Rome.