Yesterday we decided to visit Prague Castle. It's pretty close to our apartment (less than a ten minutes away) but the hike is entirely up-hill. But, it's completely worth the hike because the view is AMAZING! The castle overlooks the entire city of Prague and we could even point out various buildings we knew (the National Theatre, Orchestra Hall, our school, etc...). Inside the castle, there are tons of things to see. For 175 Czk (~$10) tourists gain access to Stary Kralovsky palac (Old Royal Palace), Pribeh Prazskeho Hradu (a museum that tells "the story of Prague"), Bazilika sv. Jiri (Basilica of St. George), Jirsky klaster - Narodni galerie (Convent of St. George - National Gallery), Obrazarna Prazskeho hradu (Prague Castle Art Gallery), Prasna vez (Power Tower), Rozmbersky palac (Rosenburg Palace), and the St. Vitus Cathedral.
We went to the Cathedral first. The cathedral's architecture is truly amazing with large stain-glass windows, marble, and high ceilings. Everything in it is beautiful. The cathedral is the burial place for multiple princes and kings, including St. Wencelas, Charles IV, and Rudolph II of Austria, Ferdinand I of Austria. Apparently I take too many pictures because halfway through the cathedral my camera died again, but I've posted pictures from first half on facebook if you want to check them out!
Next we went to the Basilica of St. George and the Prague Castle Art Gallery. Both contain really old old artwork and artifacts.
Last night we decided to go on the "Prague Pub Crawl" (www.pubcrawl.cz). Basically it's a 5-stop pub/club crawl that ends at the Biggest Music Club in Central Europe (a 5-story club). It was a lot of fun and great to get to know other girls in our program better!
Because we weren't able to see everything in the castle yesterday, we decided to go back and see the rest today. We decided to try out the tram system on the way to the castle (partly because we didn't want to hike back up the hill, but also because we need to figure out the tram system). The tram system turned out the be really easy to use and dropped us off by the Strahov Monastery near the Prague Castle. Between the monastery and the castle lay beautiful gardens and are supposed to be some of the best (and most beautiful) gardens in Prague. We haven't had a chance to walk through all of the gardens yet but what we did see was gorgeous. It was so quite and peaceful that we almost forget we were still in the city. Unfortunately, we still ended up having to hike up to the castle, but at least we got to take a different path.
At the castle, we saw the Old Royal Palace, the Convent of St. George - National Gallery (art gallery), the Powder Tower, and Rosenburg Palace. The Powder Tower houses history on the Palace Guard and the Old Royal Palace's balconies gave us an incredible view of the city. It's crazy how much history is located in the castle.
Our favorite attractions at the castle were:
1) St. Vitus Cathedral
2) The Story of Prague
3) Old Royal Palace
We weren't able to get pictures of everything in the castle because cameras are not allowed in some of the exhibits, i.e. the art and artifact galleries, etc... (although I snuck a few pictures in the Old Royal Palace when the guard wasn't looking). After two days, Schawnne and I still feel like we could have spent more time in the castle.
With sore, tired feet, we decided to head back to our apartment. Just as we got back, we heard music and saw a parade coming down our street, passing right in-front of our apartment! I posted a few pictures of it.
I think we're going to try an Italian place we heard about for dinner tonight and then we'll have to start on our class readings. Unfortunately, our first summer session beings tomorrow at 9:00 a.m.
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