Back
Well, the first thing to adress would be my reasons for coming here. As some of you may know, I was not planning on going to any of the eastern european countries at all. However, I met so many people that told me that Prague was a must see, that I am taking a little detour. Ok, a long detour.
I caught a train in Stockholm at 10 Monday morning. That train took me down to Malmo, a city in the south of Sweden that is a connection point for many trains headed out of Sweden. After spending an hour walking around, I caught another train. This one went down to the southern Swedish coast and then was loaded onto a ferry. Four hours later, I was in Germany and putting together my couchette. Now, for those of you who have heard that the train is a wonderful place to sleep, obviously haven't been on this paritcular train. The motion of the train car isn't bad, in fact can be somewhat soothing. However, any time that the train slows, stops, or passes another train, you are woken up by the change in momentum or the noise. If that isn't enough, the four times that your passport is checked might top it off. That plus finding out, too late, that my eurail pass wasn't accepted in the Czeck Republic (I had to pay an aditional $12) made this a rather unpleasant trip. In spite of all this, I felt surprisingly rested at 7 in the morning when the train pulled into Prague.
After finding accomodations for two nights, I headed off to see the sights. Everyone I had talked to was right, this is a Beautiful city, well worth the effort to see it. Today I went to the 'old town square' where I was surrounded by both ancient and new buildings that seemed to be fighting eachother for the sunlight. I decided to sign up for a tour of the castle and cathedral. They are both amazing. There has been a castle here from the 9th century! You are only able to see a small part of the ruined foundations from that first building, but it is there. The actual castle and church grounds have been improved upon and expanded from ancient times to the present. The cathedral wasn't actually completed until the 1920's, more than 500 years after it was begun. I understand that as time passed, almost every king has added at least some, and often quite a lot, to the castle. In this sense it is a living, growing palace, the likes of which I have never seen anywhere. There is arcitecture from the 11th century right next to arcitecture from the 14th c. And next to that, structures built in the 1920's! And all in the same building! Needless to say, I am very glad that I decided to take this detour.
Well, it seems that I am finally caught up with events. I'm sure that I have left things out, but oh, well. If I were to write everything I wouldn't have time to do anything else. As it is I've spent too much time on the computer, and my stomach is growling. Hope all is well with you!
Scott
Home