living in Prague

Since I have come back to Prague I have done a lot. I was sharing a room at the pension where we are living with five other girls for the first two nights before moving into my permanent room. I am sharing a room with one of the other girls from studio, Danielle, and our room is pretty small but we have a lot of shelves and cabinets and a refrigerator. It is just like living in a dorm again with all the girls on one hall and sharing a bathroom. So far though, it has been fun to be around everyone all the time.

We had orientation for school at the Institute on September 10 where we just went over everything we ever needed to know about traveling and being in another country. We got our schedules and picked out our studio desks. The Institute is right in Old Town Prague and near all the good shopping and touristy things to do. It is about a 25 minute trip everyday from the pension where we live to get to the Institute between walking to the metro stop, riding the metro, and then walking to the Institute. It is nice to have a metro pass and able to jump on whenever we want. The pass also lets us use the trams for free.

On Friday we did not have class and I really needed to do laundry since I had almost three weeks of dirty clothes so John and I took the tram to the laundry place which is actually nice and they give you free coffee or tea and have wireless internet.

After laundry, I went to see Prague Castle with some of the other girls. We took the metro to the river and then walked across the Charles Bridge. There were a ton of tourists in this part of town and the bridge was full of people selling pictures and jewelry. We walked through town and up the steep hills to get to the castle gate. At the gate there were armed guards that stand extremely still no matter how close people get to them. This gate went into the palace where the royal family lived. We walked through and it wasn't much more than a rectangular building with a large courtyard in the center. Just behind the palace is a huge church, which is what you see when you look at the castle from the other side of the river. We walked through the church and around the castle area before starting to head down. There were a few points where you could stop and see all of Prague out in the distance. You could see the baby tower from here, which I have found out is actually a television tower that holds observation decks and a restaurant.

That night I made a reservation for 14 of us to eat at a place called Klub Architektu in downtown, right near studio. John's cousin's boyfriend and the lady who ran the hostel in Marseille had recommended it to us and it was also in the Let's Go book that I have. We got there and it was inside of a 16th century underground cellar. They had a million drinks on the menu but only two beers on draft. I split a pitcher of sangria with some other girls. The sangria was not as good as what we had in Spain and a lot sweeter. I also got the dark beer that they had and it was very good. The menu was also huge and I ended up getting chicken stir fry with rice and that was also very good. I would like to go back to this place when my parents come. After dinner a few of us went to another bar before heading home.

The next day I didn't have much planned so I worked on the blog and my pictures some during the day. I also went for a run and while running I saw a big green area with a lot of trees that I thought was a park but ended up being a huge cemetery. I decided to just run through and check it out and the place was actually pretty nice and some of the gravestones were enormous compared to the ones you see in America or the ones I have seen in Ireland. After running around and somewhat losing my orientation, I was able to see the baby tower and it helped me to find my way back to the pension.

That night we were to meet John's Aunt Kathryn, who is visiting from North Carolina with a friend, downtown for dinner at 7pm. We were supposed to meet in Old Town Square by the big Jon Hus statue. John and I got ready and headed downtown and when we got to Old Town Square we saw that there was a huge 5K and 10K race going on and there were booths and a stage and a million people swarming around the meeting place that we had picked. After wandering around for at least 20 minutes we finally ran into his aunt and her friend. From here we went to two bars for a beer, including a bar called U Flecku which had an accordion and a tuba player and a lot of Czech people singing. They only had one beer on tap that they served to everyone and it was 13% alcohol which is a lot compared to typical American beers. It was getting late and being so close we decided to go to Klub Architektu again. The menu is huge so I was easily able to find something else good to eat and got smoked salmon pasta. It was fun to see John's aunt and we are meeting her again during the week for her birthday.

After dinner, John and I met some of our friends at a bar because our friend Ryan was turning 21 that night. Turning 21 isn't really as big of a deal here because the drinking age is 18 but we still wanted to go out. We ended up choosing a bar that had go-go dancers dancing on the bars, so that was pretty interesting. They had a huge 5 liter mojito that the other five girls and I shared which was really good. We all danced and had a good time before catching the tram and heading home.

Having a three day weekend is nice and today, Sunday the 14th, has been nice but it is already getting cold here. Tomorrow we start school but I don't have studio until 2pm and we are meeting in Old Town Square. The other classes I am taking are Urbanism, which goes along with studio, Drawing, and Bees and Beekeeping.

Happy 17th Birthday Conor!