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Published: November 6th 2010
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Prague! I arrived with my parents on Thursday afternoon, and as we waited for my grandparents to arrive we did a lot of walking around. One of the first things we were surprised at was the number of pickpockets and other various types of unusual people. It was definitely a lot rougher than germany. But it was a beautiful day and we saw a lot of things even in the short time that we walked around. We met my grandparents that evening and went out for dinner to a very traditional Czech restaurant. They eat a lot of goulash with bread dumplings in Prague , and almost everything else is served with a heavy hand of potatoes. After dinner we casually walked around the river and thought about what we wanted to do the next day. On Friday, we saw a lot of the “top sites” of the Prague, like the astrological clock tower and the Charles bridge. Wenceslas Square, and the outside of many beautiful buildings (because unfortunately they don’t let you go in any theaters unless you buy a ticket to a concert) for example the Municipal House. While we were on the Charles bridge, we noticed that many
people were going up and rubbing one of the metal sculptures. My dad looked it up on his blackberry and found out that this was supposed to bring good luck. On Saturday, we got an early start. We went to the other side of the river and up to the top of a huge “hill” and started with the Prague Castle. This is a huge area that has a ton of some of the most famous buildings in Prague, such as Saint Vitus Cathedral, and includes many museums. We bought a ticket that included 4 important sites, and naturally lots of pictures were taken ☺ After that, we took our time walking down the hill because there are many beautiful buildings and parks along the way and of course it was an amazing view. While we were walking in one of the parks, I noticed that there were free peacocks running around! It was pretty unusual and we didn’t find out why they were there. As we got to the bottom we decided that we wanted to climb to the top of the astrological tower to get a good view of Prague. The climb up was kind of fun and
the view was beautiful, we weren’t disappointed! That night we took a boat trip along the river that runs through the middle of Prague, that was fun too. On Sunday we didn’t have much time before the train left, but we were able to squeeze in one more church, the Church of our Lady. We couldn’t go all the way inside since it was Sunday, but we could still see a lot and it was very beautiful. I was surprised how much black stone they used to decorate the inside.
Dresden! We didn’t get back too late on Sunday, so there was still some time to introduce my Grandparents around Dresden before it got dark. After having some of the best cake in Dresden, the first thing we saw was the Zwinger, which is a palace built by the king and known as the “Baroque Jewel” of Dresden (which is already famous for the baroque architecture). For dinner we went to a restaurant with very traditional German food, which was nice even if it was a bit touristy and we got to eat in the torture chamber, which was pretty exciting! The next day we walked around in the
Neustadt and I showed them where I lived and where my school was, that kind of thing. It was really nice to share all that, because I enjoy it so much here but my family and friends don’t know what its like so I want to share all of it. Now my parents and my grandparents have seen it ☺ After, me and my parents went to the top of the Rathaus (city hall) to get a great view of Dresden. The next day, I had school, but I recommended a couple great sites for my parents and grandparents to see and we met up after. We all went together to see the best exhibits in Dresden (I can get into all of them for free with my student card!) We didn’t get to see all of them, but we got to see all of the Turkish treasure and valuables, although unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures. It’s truly amazing how beautiful and how many treasures the king collected, and how much survived the war. Wednesday was our last day together, so we went out to a nice restaurant for lunch after I got back from school. I wish
they could have stayed longer, but I really enjoyed the time and I have a lot of German to learn!!
Today I went on a spontaneous excursion with the school to the Sächsische Schweiz, which are some beautiful cliffs here in Dresden that run along the Elbe river. I hadn’t signed up for it, but they said it would be okay if I came along. This morning it was raining which wasn’t so nice, but it wasn’t cold either and I decided it might still be worth it to go along. A lot of people from the school went which was fun, and I’ve met some more people that are also staying until February. We took a train and a bus to Königstein, which is a town at the base of the cliffs. It was an hour long hike to the top and we stopped many many times to take pictures. Unfortunately, as soon as I got there my camera battery quit on me! I probably wouldn’t have been to happy to use it anyways, because there was so much water my camera probably would have been damaged if I used it. So hopefully I can get the pictures
from my friends soon to post. The hike up was very beautiful, and all of the fog actually made the view even more interesting in a way because it made the colorful trees and all of the green grass stand out even more. At the top there was a huge fort with small exhibitions and a restaurant, so we stopped there to have coffee. We saw the exhibitions and walked around the fort for awhile, trying to understand the historical explanations in german and taking pictures. It started getting colder so we started walking back down. We accidentally took the longer way down, but it was interesting to see different things and we walked past pastures with cows and sheep. It was pretty exhausting when we finally got back, but definitely worth it.
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Fabulous pictures and travel blog Mia!! We had such a great time. One of the best trips ever:) Your excursion to Sachsiche Schweiz sounds fun too. Can't wait to see the pics.