Prague, Praha; tomato, tomahto.

I woke up this morning really resenting that I had to go to work at 8:45AM on a Saturday morning, but the day turned out well and I had a lot of fun with customers and coworkers. I'm pretty exhausted from Prague and having visitors, but I've had a pretty good 3-week stretch leading into this final week of Michaelmas term. I really can't complain.

You can see my Prague pictures here. Without the trip to Prague, I think I would've felt like I hadn't taken advantage of my London location. Dublin was good, but it was a very "safe" place to visit since it's virtually London, Jr.

A few short thoughts about Prague before I head to sleep. Walking around Prague, I couldn't believe I was in the Czech Republic. Before coming to London, I had only been to France and Switzerland (barely) and within the bubble of a high school trip. And now, I was in the Czech Republic?? A place once occupied by Nazis and then Communists? I was almost surprised that Prague could be normal after so much has happened in the past century. I also realized how fortunate I am to be an English-speaker in a world that caters to my language. Looking out the window of the taxi from the airport to our hostel, I started to doubt that getting around would be so easy. But a lot of people in Prague spoke or understand just enough English to communicate or give directions. If I only spoke Spanish, I doubt I would find it so easy to get around, order at restaurants, etc.

Things we saw. Old Town, New Town, Prague Castle, St. Vitus, the astronomical clock, the metronome, etc. I'm a bit too tired to recount everything, but the pictures tell a thousand words, right? The beer was great, dark and tasting like lager. There was also a delicious cinnamon-y drink they poured in shots. Mmm. Mulled wine was even better. In my version of heaven, there will be abundant mulled wine all the time. Also, I realized that I really like horseradish.

This is quite the unintelligent-sounding reflection on Prague but due to my limited knowledge of European history (besides basic WWI and WWII info), my observations will have to settle on simple. Jared, my travel buddy, was a great guy to visit Prague with because I could just turn to him and ask, "Hey Jared, what happened in CZ during WWII?" and he'll give me an abridged wikipedia entry. He also took the lead in navigating, which allowed me to sit back and relax.