PRAHA!!!!!!!!

January 4th
Holly and I decided to take a three hour free tour of Prague. Our tour guide was an interesting character. He had long straight hair that came down to his shoulders, a rainbow hat and he wore no gloves (an amazing feat considering that Prague was FREEZING COLD). He was very entertaining though. Lot's a funny stories. They like to add in random facts to keep their audience's attention.

The town square in the Old Town was our first stop.

A church I don't remember the name of. But I thought it especially beautiful.

And of course, the astronomical clock -

The clock dates all the way back to 1410 and is mounted on the wall of the Old Town City Hall.This is the building where Prague's famous defenestrations occurred in 1419 and 1618. Don't know what defenestration means? Neither did I! Apparently defenestration is when you throw someone out a window. I wont go into details, but what it boils down to is religious conflicts.You can find a basic run down of events here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenestrations_of_Prague . The clock itself has the zodiac signs, the Old Czech time scale, as well as the positions of the Sun and the Moon. Every hour, a man in full trumpeter costume, stands at the top of the tower and blows a horn and puppets come out of the clock.The trumpet guy was, of course, my favorite part.


Next on our tour, we saw the Estates Theatre

A statue of Franz Kafka.

The statue is based off of one of Kafka's short stories, "Description of Struggle." In the story a man rides on the shoulders of an "acquaintance," depicted in the monument as an empty suit.
















And now we enter the Jewish Quarter. Originally the swampy area of Prague, it has since become one of the most affluent and sought after regions of the city.

Despite its Moorish design, this building is actually a synagogue.

Outside the Jewish cemetery. Holly and I went back later and saw the museum and the cemetery itself. You aren't allowed to take photos, so we will just have to make do with the images I have found online. Inside the museum the walls are completely covered in writing. It is the names of all the Jewish people who were taken to concentration camps. The massive number of names is mind boggling. The image below is merely an extract, but you can get an idea of how small the font is. Now picture that covering entire walls floor to ceiling.

(taken from http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJGIqu3Ue9iEMnd0ew9-vWste1hzxJZR3-ftfQ1CMugc-ZHJdFCqBH-sgc-kzGv-MT_3q8Gf-DVu_YsSHrMXAQ9gvUYpeCXKXAQJPvCYgVk7aFbJLMOsxR30ah9oYAjMNU_Eriemaph50/s400/Jewish_Town_and_Synagogues-Prague%255B1%255D.jpg&imgrefurl=http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/11/jewish-prague.html&usg=__YUk2cOdMgfDl8AZoiSQ76inDYvk=&h=300&w=400&sz=41&hl=en&start=0&sig2=0CO0j33RH4hmKH9sAzCXNA&zoom=1&tbnid=2iBIRkiPuGtjgM:&tbnh=147&tbnw=205&ei=Dyg6TbeKNNTQ4gaVs6iyCg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Djewish%2Bmuseum%2Bprague%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D585%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=276&vpy=250&dur=503&hovh=154&hovw=205&tx=158&ty=87&oei=9Sc6TaP2L5GWOtrSkIEL&esq=5&page=1&ndsp=19&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:0 )

And here is a picture of the cemetery. It is insane the amount of headstones and bodies they managed to cram in there.

(taken from http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.vareen.com/Travels/Prague/IMG_1496.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www.vareen.com/Travels/Prague.htm&usg=__xCsYSKZcOUKKI54ZW16Mx_-uyfg=&h=480&w=640&sz=186&hl=en&start=108&sig2=9be5CcCxAQLust570Jo7FQ&zoom=1&tbnid=tcU9ehNGWHXCjM:&tbnh=132&tbnw=176&ei=Qyg6TcG6FIzp4waSnKWdCg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Djewish%2Bcemetery%2Bprague%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D585%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C2850&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=976&vpy=78&dur=244&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=201&ty=119&oei=oyY6TbnENMObOorF_P4K&esq=8&page=7&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:108&biw=1280&bih=585 )

But back to our tour - this guy is definitely a crowd favorite.

Now this man was a very important figure in world history. This is the man who started it all, the man who.......played chess?? That's right folks, this is the man who started the INK WARS!!!!!! Wilhelm Steinitz was an Austrian chess player who became a world champion. He apparently revolutionized the way that chess was played and wrote a book about it. His rival wrote a book in response. Wilhelm wrote a book back. His rival wrote another book...and so on. National hero.

We ended our tour on the river, and Holly and I explored Charles Bridge.

 Tell me that hood isn't awesome???!

Back in Norwich!

 So for those of you who don't know, I have been on an epic journey for the past two weeks, hitting up Prague, Bratislava, Vienna and Salzburg. UEA gives its students a month long winter break (and a month long spring break!! - jealous yet?) so my good friend Holly and I decided to use that time to travel. Holly's friend Rebecca, who is currently studying in Malaga, Spain, also joined our adventures.
Here's a map of our route:

 

We began our journey in London. From Stansted Airport, we flew to Prague in the Czech Republic. A few days later we traveled by bus to Bratislava, Slovakia. Another bus took us to Vienna in Austria. And finally we took a train to Salzburg, also in Austria. 

The next few posts will chronicle my adventures across Europe, dutifully recorded in my handy-dandy notebook (thanks for the journal Mom!). And of course, there will be pictures along the way!

So let's begin with day one in Prague, January 3rd.

Holly and I wake up at the crack of dawn to catch the bus that will take us to the Norwich train station (where we will then catch a train to London Stansted Airport). HOWEVER - England neglected to inform its American visitors that January 3rd happens to be a bank holiday. Grrr. The next twenty or so minutes involves a lot of swearing, jumping up and down, cursing the British, and finally a phone call to the local cab company. Great start. Luckily, our fortunes seemed to change for the better, and we had no more trouble with transportation. 

Sadly, by the time we arrived in Prague it was dark and we were all exhausted. Rebecca was sick and continued to be sick throughout our entire journey. She chose to sleep in the hostel while Holly and I went to U Bulinos, the traditional Czech restaurant down the street. On the recommendation of the Czech Inn staff we tried the garlic soup (now a personal favorite) and a platter of different meats. It was all delicious.

Here's a map of Prague itself to give you a bit of an idea of the city. 

(image found on Google)

 Our hostel, the Czech Inn (pun intended), is located near the main train station. It was a quick tram ride into the Old Town. Once there, you could pretty much walk anywhere.

 (Don't worry, I will post actual pictures in the next entry.)