Prague!

Goodness, where to start?? There's so much that's been going on since my last post! Which is my not-so-veiled excuse for not posting more often (she says with chagrin). Well, two and a half weeks ago I went with my school group to Prague! I was really excited about going, because everyone always says what a beautiful city it is, aaaaand because a good chunk of my family heritage is centered around the Czech Republic/bohemian/slavic area. We took a chartered bus in to the country, and when we got in to Prague my first reaction was not what I had expected. While there were plenty of pretty, old, buildings, the city also looked run down, graffiti-filled, and, frankly, dirty. The contrast between the wonderful historic buildings and the buildings circa the Iron Curtain was astounding; needless to say, I was a bit disappointed with my first impression of the city. But within about 2 hours of arriving, we went in to the heart of the old city, and I VERY quickly realized what everyone had been talking about! The city was absolutely AMAZING. Amazingly wonderful architecture, wonderfully rich history, and amazing museums! We celebrated the first night of our first trip to a country outside of Germany by going on a ....get ready for it....Pub Crawl. I, of all people, voluntarily went on a Pub Crawl, and had a blast! Our second day there we took a guided tour of the city, which included (of course!) the Charles Bridge! If you're like me and had no idea what that was prior to setting foot on it, it's this incredibly INCREDIBLY beautiful, pretty darn old (1357. 1357!) bridge that connects the old city and the new city (ha! new. it was founded before the people living there knew my continent existed), and it's considered the most beautiful site in a city lousy with beautiful sites; and for good reason! I ended up buying an etching of the bridge to hang in my apartment when I get back to Texas, so I can look at its beautifulness when I walk in the door from the Lubbock dust and dirt! We also saw the 'new' town hall, a bunch of cathedrals, the palace, the president's house, the opera house where Mozart debuted Don Giovanni, and all sorts of other ridiculously amazing things! Prague actually has some pretty juicy history, too. See, there was this thing, called the Protestant Reformation, and some crazy stuff went down. Like in Prague, for instance. Where they threw people out of windows. Three times! Seriously, there was the first, second, and third Defenestration of Prague. All years apart. People apparently just thought it was a good idea. One night we went to the Prague State Opera, where I saw my first ever Opera, Tosca! I really REALLY enjoyed it, and now I'm afraid it's going to become a habit...I've been listening to random arias on YouTube (classy, I know) ever since. I got to go to some pretty darn awesome museums while I was there too, which always makes me happy! We went to the Museum of Contemporary Art, and though I've always been a modern art hater, the stuff is starting to grow on me! (Well, to a point. I still don't think a canvas with the top half painted gray and the bottom half painted yellow, entitled 'I don't know what to paint' is art. But that Picasso guy has some pretty awesome stuff!) Plus they had a bunch of Monets, which made me smile :) . We also went to a museum that housed medieval church art, which was amazingly beautiful. Think altars, saints, pietas, wooden painted statues, the works. Creepy and gruesome at times (they were really in to the whole suffering of Jesus and the Saints thing), but still incredibly beautiful. One day I got to go on my own (I know! so grown up!) to the Prague National Museum. The building alone was worth it! Quite possibly one of the most detailed, ornate, elaborate, beautiful interiors I've ever seen. The museum itself was really old school- I'm talking Hall of Mammals, Hall of Reptiles, Hall of Geology- they had this immensely huge paleontology collection too- and a really neat archaeology/anthropology exhibit on the prehistory of the people living in Bohemia! But like I said, the museum was really old school- mostly presentation, not a lot of interpretation. In the words of one of my professors, it was like a museum of a museum, which was really awesome to get to experience from a future museum-ist's point of view! There were tons of souvenir shops, and since the Euro to Krone exchange rate is really good (from the Euro end, at least) it was a pretty cheap city to experience. And it was really neat to visit the country/geographical area/ethnic community from which a large part of my heritage stems! Apparently I look Czech enough to pass for a local...and cause some confusion. At one of the souvenir shops, the man working the shop struck up a conversation with us (in English), asking where we were from, our names, etc. He was first confused because we were switching between German and English (it's become a habit none of us can break- automatically wanting to speak in German in a foreign country, regardless of whether or not anyone there actually speaks German); he was then confused because I apparently look very Czech, despite the fact that we come from Texas; and to top it off I have an Arabic name (Sarah). Poor guy stood there scratching his head for a good while before he just decided I was odd! All in all, I absolutely LOVED my time in Prague, and I'd recommend it to anyone traveling in Europe...as long as you take me with you, I want to go back!! 

Next blog, German Unity Day and Copenhagen!