Flights and the first day!


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Europe » Czech Republic » Prague
June 22nd 2009
Published: June 22nd 2009
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Here's my bed in the dormitory. I have a few pictures of the room, I'll have to show everybody when I get home.
I just got my internet working today, so I need to post my entry from the weekend covering my flights and first day. Here goes!

Today is my first full day in Prague. I woke up at five (after going to bed around one last night when we got back from the museum, but I’ll talk about that later) with the sun absolutely beaming through the windows. I immediately thought my alarm didn’t go off and it was around 8:30 or 9. I had no idea the sun rises so early here! I went back to sleep and woke up again around seven, then finally got out of bed when my alarm woke me up at eight. I went through my normal morning routine, brushing teeth, etc. While doing this I made the discovery that my toilet doesn’t flush. It was kind of weird last night, but I attributed that to the fact that it’s, well, it’s a weird toilet. But today I pulled the cord (yes, cord…like the one from the Addam’s Family that they signal Lurch with) and absolutely nothing happened. So I messed around with that a bit until I discovered that the back bowl wasn’t refilling
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Czech flag in the entrance hall of the National Museum.
with water, so I filled a bucket and dumped it in. Well, that worked great until I realized that the bottom part still wasn’t going down… So now I have a few pieces of toilet paper floating around and no idea how to get rid of them.
At nine we had breakfast and then headed into town for a walking tour. We split into two groups, and somehow managed to get ourselves segregated by school again. So OSU and Mizzou have yet to really interact, but oh well I guess. On our tour we went to Prague Castle, walked across Charles Bridge, walked by the National Library, and went to Wenceslas Square. Prague is a beautiful city, but it’s not quite as big as I thought. Everything we saw today was within walking distance, so that makes it nice for wandering around and sightseeing.
While we were on Charles Bridge I ran into a guy from Pittsburgh. I thought it was kind of funny that I’d be in Prague and find someone from back home! He was wearing a Pens shirt, so I commented on it and we had a nice little conversation. He and his friend had
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Woolly Mammoth!
just flown in from visiting friends in London and were in the city for vacation. He was pretty friendly, so I thought the whole experience was pretty cool.
Now, to explain a bit about last night: When I got in (I’ll have to write about my flights later), we waited on the group from Missouri, then everyone got on a bus to the University. We had lunch and an orientation tour of the University (which is interesting…), then we were free for a few hours until dinner. I used that time to unpack and take a quick nap (read: fall into a coma). I woke up for dinner, which was at a local Pizzeria a little walk away. The food was very good, as was the conversation. While we were there, Petra (one of the Czech students) told us that the museums were open that night for free. The group of us from OSU decided to go, so we spent a few hours at the National Museum. It was pretty nice, but a bit smaller than I’m used to. It was even smaller than Carnegie. They had some interesting exhibits in the Zoology section, including a wooly mammoth head!
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Guard at Prague Castle. Involved in some OHIO.
It was a replica, of course, but very very cool nonetheless. There was also an entire whale skeleton suspended from the ceiling, and aisles of stuffed animals (they even had a Tasmanian Tiger!). We left the museum at about 11:30 and caught the metro back, then took the bus to the university. After a shower, I got to bed around 12:45-1:00. It’s been busy so far, and classes haven’t even started yet!

Flights
I started out in Pittsburgh, which is almost always nice. I love the T-Rex that stands between the escalators. My flight to Philly was at 3:20, on time and great. We actually made it in early, the flight only took 38 minutes. Once I got to Philly I had to go to the opposite side of the airport from where we landed, which was a bit of an adventure, but not too bad. There was a family of three walking in front of me and the mother commented on my hoodie (which was Penguins, of course) and her little boy turned around and started gushing about the Penguins and how much he loved them, then asked where I was from, where I was going, why,
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Cathedral at Prague Castle. I have about 20 photos just of the gargoyles on here.
etc. It was kind of cute. They were going to Amsterdam, so they ended up going to a different gate than me. I sat in Philly’s airport for about two hours, so I decided to get out my computer and start a bit on the travelblog, but the wireless service was terrible and refused to work with my laptop. So I played solitaire instead.
The flight from Philly to Zurich wasn’t bad. The plane I flew to London in was a bit bigger, and quite a bit nicer. This plane had two people on either side, and three in the middle, so it wasn’t huge. My seat was on the edge of the middle column, and I was the first one to sit down in the row. I think I scared the poor Swiss man who sat beside me. He came back looking somewhat confused, then motioned that he was seated in the row with me. So I jumped up and said “Oh, you must be in the middle, then.” He kind of jumped back, looked at me, and said something to the effect of “Ok, I sit in the middle,” like I was forcing him into it. I felt a little bad about that, but I really didn’t do anything, so oh well. He was very nice though, he even made sure they gave me a breakfast roll when I was asleep. Oh, and that must have been the whole two hours I managed to sleep on the plane. Every time I’d even begin to nod off, the kid behind me would start kicking my seat. I was not pleased by the time we landed.
The first thought I had when landing in Zurich was “I wonder what kind of dairy cattle they have here.” I have no idea why. I’m not involved in the dairy industry…so I have no idea where that came from. I also thought it was funny that they had mowed the fields around the landing strips and baled it. Zurich’s airport was an adventure. That’s really the best way I can phrase it. I had to get a boarding pass for my flight to Prague, which left half an hour after we got off the first plane. But before I could to that I had to go through Passport Control, which was sort of like customs only much less involved. I asked the man there if he knew where I could go, but he was quite unhelpful and just said “Not here. Try upstairs. This is Passport Control, you cannot get a boarding pass here.” That’s an answer I can deal with, but he was not friendly at all and was actually a bit insulting in his tone. So I went upstairs, tried at three different places to get a boarding pass, until a lady at the help desk told me that I could get it at the gate. At this point the flight was leaving in 10 minutes. So we (I met up with Nick here) ran through security, but he got pulled aside because they thought his comb was a knife. Yes, a knife. Even after he demonstrated that it was, in fact, a comb. Flight leaving in seven minutes. Ran to the gate, and managed to get our boarding passes right as the flight was being announced. Amazing timing.
Czech Air is actually a very good airline, based on my experience and everything I’ve been hearing from others who have flown with them. The flight attendants were very friendly. I can’t comment on the food, because I was about half sick so I didn’t eat anything. This last leg was pretty uneventful, so there’s not much of it for me to write about.



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22nd June 2009

From home!
This sounds like you are having a great time! We really like the pictures and updates, keep them coming. I am going to send this website to everyone in the family! Love!!!
22nd June 2009

Verrrrrry In-Ter-Est-ing
Dear Teddi, So glad you arrived safe and are having a good time so far. Who is Nick? Love, Grandma
25th June 2009

O-H-I-O
Loved the "OHIO" picture with the guard at the castle! That was pretty funny. Glad you made it safely. Have fun!
25th June 2009

Hi Gradma! Nick is one of the OSU students on the trip, he's actually a grad student, but I met up with him at Zurich's airport when we were flying in.
26th June 2009

our furry friend
So that wolly mammoth looks like carey when he doesnt shave for two weeks. lol.
27th June 2009

Only You
Wow..there were so many times while reading this that I said to myself "Only Teddi would..." 1. Wear a pens shirt in Phili 2. Scare a poor old man who was trying to get to his seat 3. Let her first thought be "I wonder what type of dairy cattle they have here" when landing in another country 4. Break the toilet 5. Run into someone in another country that was from Pittsburgh and identify him by his Pens shirt 6. Be most impressed by the Mammoth and Tasmanian Tiger in the museum 7. Like a child, for once, because he was greatly interested in your pens shirt at the airport Love ya and I'm so glad you're having a great time Nan

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