Prague-Day 1

So... Prague is awesome. But to start at the beginning...

Train is definitely the way to travel around Europe. The 5 hour train ride from Berlin to Prague had absolutely incredible scenery. For most of the ride we went along a big river, and there were all these little picturesque villages nestled in the mountain sides. So, so cool. It really felt like a movie. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the villages but here's one of some mountains. The color is a little off because it was taken through the train window.

View from train:

So yeah the train ride was fantastic and I really enjoyed it. I got to Prague in time to meet Alex and Dustin for the free tour (they took an earlier train this morning because they're only here til tomorrow night), so I dropped my stuff off at the hostel then went to the tour starting point, which was in Old Town Square, the center of the city. So cool. There was a huge Easter market going on with all kinds of food stalls and tons of people (these markets were all over the city) and the atmospohere was just incredible.

Easter market:

We did the free tour which showed us all the highlights so that was nice. I didn't take many pictures because the skies were grey, so I'm going to go back and take pictures on a nicer day (I'm here til Wednesday afternoon). But near the end the sun came out and the clouds looked really cool so here are a few pictures I took then.




The city is absolutely gorgeous. I really, really like it. It's just so cool.

The tour ended at 5 so we went right over to St. Nicholas Cathedral for an Easter concert. The interior of the cathedral is stunning and it was really awesome to see a concert (orchestra and choir) perform there. They did works by Mozart and 2 composers from Prague. It was a great thing to do on Easter, and pretty cheap. I think I'm going to try to go to concerts the next 2 nights too. Here are some pictures of the cathedral where we saw the concert:



After the concert we got dinner, and we all got traditional Czech dishes. Mine was some kind of roast beef thing with a sauce and dumplings. Then we wandered around the city for a bit, enjoying the awesome atmosphere. The city is really pretty at night.

View of the castle from the Charles Bridge at dusk:

We each bought a traditional Czech dessert called trdelink, and they were delicious. They're kind of a bread-y dough cooked over a fire then rolled in a topping. I got walnut but there were also coconut, peanut, cinnamon, and almond options. Delicious.

Trdelink:

We wandered while we ate those (there were still lots of people out enjoying the evening and the remaining stalls at the Easter markets), then found a restaraunt in Old Town Square where we could sit outside with drinks. We sat there for about an hour and a half drinking the local specialty and talking. We saw a girl from Wash U who is studying in London. I really can't emphasize enough how awesome the atmosphere around the city is. It was a great night.

Tomorrow we're going to the castle and doing other stuff that Alex and Dustin want to do before they leave. On Tuesday the weather is supposed to be nice so I'm going hiking in the area called the "Bohemian Paradise" which will be awesome, then I'll spend Wednesday doing more stuff in the city.