After the nap.. Part Dos

To continue...

(left-right: Allison, Michael, and Paul)

I arrived at the apartment and was left trying to interpret what my driver was asking me in Czech (which happened to be "how do we get inside the door?"). I had no clue, but someone came and let us in, thankfully. Then I had to haul my luggage upstairs, got a whirlwind talk of some very basic things from the apartment manager, and then was left to settle in, i.e. crash for a LONG nap. Eight hours later, around 5:30, I was wakened by knocking on my door. After fighting with the door, I finally got it open (stupid key) and met two of my fellow students, Sandy (VPA) and Allison (BA). They let me get ready to go and then I met a small group of people (Sandy, Allison, Nylece, Michael and Paul) downstairs for some dinner and sightseeing.

We wandered down to Wenceslas Square in search of some identifiable food. Not speaking Czech, our first goal was just to find a menu that had English on it. Everyone got something different to eat (although none of it was Czech food) and we just sat around and sort of got to know each other. Our group was a little VPA heavy (4:2) but it was nice to know that everyone was experiencing a little bit of culture shock and trying to figure out how to adjust. The biggest barrier for us was the language, because no one came here knowing anything. Everything was so makeshift to start out because we had no real prior knowledge of the language, though I did learn a few phrases before I came. So I became the "interpreter" of our little group as best I could, hahaha. (above, left-right: Nylece and Sandy)

After dinner, we meandered up the square and headed toward Old Town. Stopped and tried to take some pictures, but it was dark enough by that point in time that most of them didn't come out too well. I did get a nice shot of the church towers against the evening sky. The city is amazing and full of stunningly beautiful architecture, both inside and out. It's no wonder that Americans love to travel overseas... they have so many things here that our country won't ever have. The art here spans so many centuries

that the average person probably can't imagine how much they can see just within the city, let alone anywhere else in the country. (St. Nicholas Church, Old Town Square)

It was too late to see inside, as they frequently hold evening concerts in the church, so we kept trekking. We wound up on Charles Bridge, which is one of 3 bridges that cross the Vltava River (which runs directly through the city). The Vltava is better known to many people as the Moldau, which is also the title of a very famous piece of music written by the Czech composer Bedrich Smetana. More on him, later... Charles Bridge offers a very scenic view of the river in both directions, and looking northeast, the beautifully situated Prazsky Hrad (Prague Castle). The shot isn't so great (I have no idea how to work the night setting on my new camera, as of yet) but you can see how nice the view is from pretty much any side of the river.

Everyone was tired of walking and some needed to use the restroom, so we opted to head back to the apartments (as it costs to use the public WCs here). Just around the corner from our front door is a little bar, and ironically enough, it's what they refer to as an "American" bar. A little tiny place, but they have live music some nights and on our entrance they had VH1's Greatest Guitar Riffs showing on the tv. It was pretty funny to have drinks and feel like we were sitting in a bar back at home. However, it was a nice relaxing end to a long day and very interesting to hear what everyone had to say about their own impressions of Prague. Tomorrow I will go to the store and stock up on some food, as I am told that groceries here are very inexpensive and it will be easier to eat breakfast and lunch here at the apartment before heading to class every day. It's also worthy to note that the most expensive drink to buy here (not including alcohol) is water, as it comes bottled. There are no refills either... One is served a glass and a bottle of the beverage of choice, so if you want more you have to get another bottle (and pay). Crazy for us Americans, we are so used to having the immediacy of a drink refill, but I guess that $0.35 Coke bottles make up for the difference. :)