Is Prague a Country?

In encase you were wondering, Prague is not a country but rather a city in the Czech Republic. Thank you google. So if you don't know yet, this past four days I traveled to Prague and Munich and man...was that crazy! (in a good way of course).
I will say that I feel like every time I travel, the groups I have been apart of are extremely blessed with travel. Praise God, we have always made it safely everywhere we go without much trouble! Even at 4am, he took care of us traveling to Prague saturday morning. Thats right...NO NIGHT TRAINS! (P.s if your one of my weekly readers, I edited the "Train stations" blog. It now makes more sense and grammar is more of a priority). Anyways, like I was saying, NO NIGHT TRAINS! Hurray! What a beautiful thing! But, in its place, I was up bright and early with the sun instead to catch a four hour train to Prague. Once we arrived in Prague, I was alittle skeptical. I had become too accustom to German that having to adjust to another language almost put me in "panic" mode. I didn't even know how to say hello in "czech" let alone do anything else like read train maps, order food, or find a restroom. Little did I know, God would take care. The bed and breakfast we stayed in is probably one of the best things, if not the best thing about prague. That may sound strange but hear me out: Located only a few stops from the main city square is a little family run bed and breakfast called "Lida Guest House" and it is heaven sent. As soon as we arrived, the owner (Jan pronounced "Yawn") met us at the door with our room all ready and coffee/tea and dessert waiting for us once we were finished getting settled in. Soft beds, private bath, and a beautiful view of Prague from afar? We were in European hotel heaven and if you've ever traveled in Europe on a budget and without your parents, you'd understand where I'm coming from. Europe just isn't the same when it comes to so many little things in life like shower curtains, free refills, and public bathrooms. Besides that, this place was great. We finally got cleaned up and once we got down stairs, Jan was there waiting with drinks and snacks and what looked like a book worth of brochures and maps, ready to be torn apart. It was like we had our own personal Rick Steves in Czech form right in front of us. He knew everything about the city from history to tram stops, to even the best places to eat. He even could book us tickets to a concert or show. This was great. God was completely in control, and I loved every minute of it. By the time our orientation was over, we headed out for our first day adventure. (if you havent noticed, this post is a long one!)

First priority was to eat and then relax. We ended up going to one of Jan's recommendations for some traditional Czech food which ended up being delicious despite the fact that we all ordered blindly. Next we traveled off the beaten path to a little park near our hotel with directional help that we got from a very nice local who say our map out-stretched and the confusion in our voices. We sat along the main river of Prague and enjoyed the beautiful day God provided us with. The only down side was that a swan almost attacked us which gave the group a good excuse to go travel to the city. This picture on the right was one I took on my phone on the main town square of Prague. Its alittle hard to tell but during our visit, a giant "alcohol fest" as my friends put it, was happening in the main square, unfortunately blocking some of the buildings in the far left corner. I really enjoyed walking around this city. You could very much tell it was once a giant center for "old medieval" Europe of the 1300's. Beautiful tall towers, large stone bridges filled with monuments to kings and religious figures, every road made of cobblestone...this town was breath-taking just to walk around. A cool thing we did see that evening was an old astronomical clock built in the 1280's, when it chimes on the hour, the whole thing moves revealing moving skeletons, cuckoo clock rotations of famous priest, and a trumpet player in the tower above at the end was a whole site to watch all in 60 seconds. And the night continued just walking around the city, enjoying the famous sites like Charles Bridge and sunsets of the Prague castle. It was magical almost and I couldn't wait for the next day!

Day two in Prague was just as good if not better. Starting the morning off right with a big breakfast included with our stay, we headed out to a lesser known site of Prague called Vyšehrad. This was once a castle ground and city for the first rulers of the Czech Lands including the oldest buildings in Prague and the burial ground of the first king of the Hapsburgs! This place very unique and completely clear almost of busy tourist. The main thing to see here was the cathedral located in the middle next to the famous grave yard. I had never seen a more beautiful church. Almost every inch of wall or ceiling or pillar was covered in old paintings with styles from the gothic to renaissance to neo-gothic styles. I had only seen remanents of churches being painted in this manner at Westminster and Michaelskirche with small sections shown, three or four layers deep underneath. It was really nifty to see an entire church in this manner: painted walls in all. Once we closed our mouths from sheer awe, we moved on to the graveyard to see the grave of the first ruler which ended up being a small reminder of how much I dislike cemetery's. Thankfully we would quickly move on to the next item on the agenda such as shopping and eating! It was quite delightful walking around the "new" and "old" towns of Prague. Each one was different but very much the same crowded with lots of people. We didn't spend too much time there because we really wanted to make sure we had enough time for the Prague Castle. I wish I could say more about this place but honestly, it kind of was a let down. The "castle" is not really a castle like we think of today but rather only a "castle fortress town" that had pretty buildings, an old church, and a really cool looking gate at the front. The "castle" is located on a small mountain that overlooks Prague and it supposably is the largest castle in Europe. It wasn't that it wasn't pretty or didn't have cool rooms inside showing rooms that were used for court or jousting, because it really did have exquisite rooms/churches that really did exemplify as castle, but more the fact that it really wasn't the castle we we're expecting. I felt so bad because one of the girls in our group was so excited about this site and until we got there...Thankfully, to make the day end nicely, Jan had booked us seats to a classical concert at the national history museum in Prague which no longer was open to the public and was only accessible if you had tickets to one of its weekly evening concerts. The concert was performed by the Czech Strings Chamber Orchestra. The set up was, we sat on the steps leading to the 2nd floor while they played on a platform that connected the four main stairs together. This truly will be something I will never forget. It was so mesmerizing listening to music of Mozart, Dvořák, Bach, and so many more in a building that reflected the time that music was being written. I couldn't have asked for a better evening or time in Prague!

If your still reading: The next day and a half was Munich. I don't have as much to say about this place. Don't get me wrong, it was an experience ha but probably somewhere I won't visit again. The big things we did there and had time for was the Olympic Park of 1972, the BMW museum, main square, and the English Gardens. The Olympic Park was pretty cool since I have actually never seen one, even though atlanta hosted the Olympics in 96'. You could tell it was built in the 70's by the "futuristic" attempts of trying to make the area look special and grand. We couldn't actually go into park stadium which was a huge bummer because I really would have liked to walk into that but we still got to look around the rest of the park. Right next to the park was the BMW museum...this place was really cool...but we didn't stay very long. Either it was lack of proper nutrients or the fact that we actually couldn't find the museums itself inside the big building. So with a quick few snaps of the camera, we were off to the main square. This part of town was where the main buildings resided and where we found a authentic Bavarian restaurant to try some food at. Once again, ordering blindly, we hit the jackpot with some what appeared to be beef stews, meatloaf, and mash potatoes...but who really knows. And to top it off, we finished dinner with pretzels which are apparently something Munich is very known for. The rest of that evening was spent just the same as prague, walking around and admiring the city. Day two ended up being similar except this time we went to the English Gardens. This place is over 922 acres of trees, rivers, open fields, and people enjoying the sunshine. It was like a much better version of central park, minus the big rocks and perfectly planned pathways. This "garden" was more rustic and made by those who walked it. Munich wasn't much more then that from our views. The lesson we learned there though was move fast on the U-banh. At one point, one of the girls on our group got stuck on the U-banh to where we had to got to the next stop and get her. The doors move fast and once they close, your there for another stop. All in all Munich was munich and that is all.

So should I say length-y? Yes...I know, but thanks for reading if you made it this far. My four days traveling was fantastic and I'm thankful I went but its nice to be back in Vienna for a week before we go to Italy. Two more weeks and my study trip is over but after that its still another 3 weeks in Austria. So crazy...this summer in Europe is moving faster then i ever thought!