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Published: July 27th 2006
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st. vitus cathedral
sarah, rachel, maxine and katie today we didn't have class until 2:00, and so my posse and i decided it would be a perfect morning to visit the castle! although we planned to leave at 9, we ended up leaving around 9:30- plus we had to catch the metro to mustek (old town metro stop) which is 2 stops away from malostranska (the metro stop for the castle) because dionne needed to cash her traveler's checks at citibank which doesn't charge a commission-- so anyway, we didn't end up arriving there until close to 10. we were a little worried about the time, but ended up being absolutely fine and got to see everything we wanted to see!
we bought the B ticket, which grants access to st. vitus cathedral (the mondo site of the castle grounds), the tower in the cathedral, the old royal palace and golden lane (a street of shopping, essentially- we didn't spend much time there). this seemed like the perfect choice of ticket for us, and it was. plus because of our ISIC cards, we only paid 110 crowns instead of 220! good deal.
we decided to go visit the cathedral first. ABSOLUTELY STUNNING! it is "the largest and
st. vitus cathedral
the symbolic stained glass window most significant cathedral in the czech republic, and is reminiscent of the epoch of charles IV," says my brochure. we walked all around the cathedral, while dionne read to us about certain sights inside of it from the travel book. one site that was particular interesting was this stained glass window- each color and person it displays represents certain imagery and symbolism of the czech republic-- pretty cool.
we were basically done walking around the beautiful cathedral, and we saw this sign for the great south tower- which we miraculously could go to! the sign said it was 287 steps, which didn't really phase us- until we started our ascent. so the stairwell was winding, and it was ridiculously narrow- and people were coming up and down it at the same time. by the time we reached the top (it probably took a good 10 minutes to get to the top) we were all panting, sweaty and gross- plus many europeans do not believe in deodorant and they need to, if you get my drift.
but it was worth it because we saw some amazing views. we took a bunch of pictures, rested for a few moments, and
st. vitus cathedral
ughhh...after climbing all 287 stairs, this is me with the view then headed back down- which wasn't nearly as bad. when we reached the bottom- we were just happy to be finished. rachel turned to some guy and said "it's NOT worth it" which made us all laugh and we went on our merry way.
after the tower, we found old royal palace-- "the original seat of the czech rulers at prague castle- a significant architectural treasure." it was lovely too- not as much to explore around as the cathedral, but still nice. we took some photos and moved on.
we walked over to the golden lane- which wasn't too exciting because it was ridiculously crowded with tour groups in all different languages- so we left shortly after. we went back to mustek to grab some lunch (gyros again, baby!) and then went back to malostranka to meet the rest of our group.
when we met up with marketa, we all went to the kafka museum--- it's apparently an exhibit that has toured the world (even though kafka is from here). it was an interesting exhibit- i never knew much about him- he was kind of twisted, i guess. maybe someday i'll read something he wrote.
after
st. vitus cathedral
a picture of the amazing view from the top of the tower the museum, marketa took us around the area for a bit showing us a few sights around the little quarter, the highlight being the lennon wall-- it's this wall that is just completely covered in graffiti. when lennon was killed in 1980- people began to cover the wall with images of him, and each night the police would paint over it, even though each day it would reappear. until 1989 (independence) travelers, freedom-lovers, and local hippies gathered here (so says rick steves). "silly as it might seem, this wall is remembered as a place that gave hope to locals craving freedom." i thought it was pretty cool 😊
she then took us to a little coffee shop- where we hung out for a while, drinking coffee/milkshakes/lemonade and eating fake sacher tort (now that we've had the original, all others must be called "fake" lol) after a little while, some american students that marketa has also been teaching over the summer came to meet us- and they invited us to their goodbye (they're leaving this weekend) party tomorrow night. maybe we'll go-- it would give us a fun chance to dress up a little bit! we'll see i guess...
old royal palace
maxine, rachel, sarah and dionne by this time it was about 5, and we decided to shop around for a little bit (we ended up being right near the charles bridge). at one store and then on the bridge i bought myself a shirt (it's soooo cool- i haven't found any other shirt like it: it has a kind of map of the underground system and says "praha" instead of "prague") and a few gifts for friends--so i think i might be finished buying things for myself (i've gotten a shirt, a new bookbag, 2 pairs of earrings and postcards). 😊
now we're just chilling for the evening- posting more pics on facebook and such. it turns out though that people who aren't on facebook can actually view our photos! so if you're interested in viewing more than just the ones on my blog, you can check out this link:
http://missouri.facebook.com/photos.php?id=15901645&l=0554b
more tomorrow-- goodnight!
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rosanne
rosanne springer
fantastic day!
oops, i'm thinking i hit "close window" instead of submit comment, so all my fabulous comments might have bit the dust- if you get 2 comments...your lucky day! what a great day you all had! i love the pics- the stained glass, the views- and i LOVED the lennon wall with the story behind it! have another fantabulous day tomorrow! love you!