Intro to Life in Prague

These first days have been an absolute whirlwind. This is literally the first time since I arrived that I have spent more than an hour in my dorm (during the day, at least), and I am trying to rest up so I can do more insanely fun things for the rest of the week.  I have to say that I absolutely adore this city.  I don't think I ever want to leave! Every little thing I see makes me fall more and more in love; the food is fantastic, the transportation system is top-notch, the people are generally nice, and the architecture is to DIE FOR. I haven't been anywhere else in Europe yet, but I'm starting to think that nothing will even compare to Prague.  They say you never forget your first love, and I am falling head over heels.

Prague Castle, some of Charles Bridge, and something that says Tacet

Saturday was the first day, and the majority of it was spent trying to get our metro passes.  This was only supposed to take 45 mins tops, and it ended up being 2 hours. It was a nightmare, and this is the major reason why:

We needed to get pics for the card, and we had 14 people. Each person's picture taking process took 10 mins. It was absolute frustration nation, but it was worth it in the end, I've noticed most things are over here.

Of course, I was the second to the last to get my pictures, and as soon as they printed, I went over to the booth to get my card printed, and the person right before me got the last one. They ran out right before me. Naturally this would happen to me of all people! I had even let some people go before me!! I learned my lesson about being nice, and it didn't even take a one-armed man.  So I had to go to another station, which added 30 mins onto my waiting time.  Once it was all figured out, we met the others for lunch, then headed towards the Charles Bridge.

Construction on the Charles Bridge began in 1357, and it wasn't finished until the beginning of the 15th century.  This thing has withheld against tons of floods over the years compared to the others on the river, and most people attribute that to they egg yolks they used to make the mortar. Weird.  There are also about 30 statues of different martyred saints along the entire bridge on both sides, and each one is unique and has a really cool story behind it.  I'm planning on going back on a sunny day to get better pictures, because of the ones I took, I only really like a few. 

One of the Towers of the Charles Bridge

Myself before crossing the bridge

When we got to the other side, we took a little trip to this really cool alleyway that has a wall that is covered in graffiti.  It's called Lennon wall and it is filled with Beatles lyrics, peace signs, paintings of John Lennon himself, and lots of other random things. It was really cool, and for those of you who know me, you know that is right up my alley.  I took so many pictures there that it got to the point of ridiculous, so here are a few of my favs:

Dark Wall

Oh, I will. I'll start by imagining I live here

The Legend Himself

This one pretty much expresses how I feel about the city. 

This isn't the only place in the city with graffiti, in fact it is everywhere.  I asked someone if it was illegal, or if there were any consequences for doing it, and she said that it is absolutely not illegal, and everyone encourages it.  This is because only 20 years ago, these people were under communist rule and were completely repressed.  Now they have freedom to wear what they want, write what they want, say what they want, and this is their way of trying on their newfound freedom of expression. It's really cool when you think about it that way, as opposed to thinking about it as just being ghetto and trashy.

Well, it took me about 2 days to finally finish this post, but I did it.. and I am leaving it with a big TO BE CONTINUED... because there is even more from this one day that I haven't gotten to.. not to mention the days since. 

Peace and Love,

Harley Kat