Prague

Our trip to Prague was highly anticipated, and didn't disappoint. Our art teacher, "Dr. O", gave us a city tour shortly after we arrived, and we had a full weekend of sightseeing and exploring.

It is thought that Prague gets its name from the word for "steps", as the river has several places (as shown above) where the water cascades over a sort of "step".









What to see in Prague:

1. hotel evropa - we stayed in this lovely hotel in wenceslas square (named after the same king as in the christmas carol!), it's affordable and absolutely beautiful. original art nouveau style, although if they renovate it i'm sure rates will go up. it's a little dark and mysterious inside, but i loved it. the dining room served as the model for the dining room of the titanic! there's also a stained glass piece inside just above the entrance to the dining room, and i have a theory it's an original Mucha. speaking of which...

2. Mucha Museum - i'm absolutely obsessed with alphonse mucha and his art nouveau lithographs. his museum is 80 k's (about 3 euros) for students and is definitely worth a visit.

3. st vitus cathedral (of course)! half gothic, half neo-gothic cathedral of prague; tongue and tomb of st john of nepomuk, stained glass windows (one is by mucha), and of course st vitus. so much to see in this church!

4. there's a communist museum in prague that's supposed to be really interesting, but i was embittered by the 140 kronig student price so we walked the city instead.

5. the local beer is quite good, so definitely try the pilsner urquell

6. jewish museum and cemetery - the history of jews in prague is really fascinating. there's a beautiful memorial to the czech and moravian jews who were murdered in the holocaust that you really have to see. the cemetery has over 12,000 tombstones on a small plot of land, and there are an estimated 70-100,000 actual graves (several layers, as there were few places in europe that jews were allowed to bury their dead).

7. climbing the clock tower in the old rathaus (which has a fascinating and complex astrological clock) will give you a great view of the city!

8. st charles bridge - famous for its statues, go and rub the statue of st john of nepomuk for good luck! legend has it that king wenceslas threw him in the river for not telling him what the queen said in confession. 5 stars appeared around where he fell into the water (thus he is always depicted with 5 stars around his head). when they retrieved his body, everything was decaying except for his tongue. when st vitus got boring, they popularized st john of nepomuk to attract more pilgrims to prague.

9. the city square by the rathaus has a lot of street vendors offering wurstel, soups, and hot wine. if you're traveling in cold weather, some potato soup and hot wine is absolutely wonderful!