Sights

Yesterday was our first big "sightseeing" adventure. The school set up a tour of the Prague Castle for the exchange students so we could get a small taste of Prague. I couldn't understand the person leading the tour, but we did see a lot of beautiful things.

Our first big surprise of the day...

You can't really tell from this picture, but in the background there were three people smoking weed. (WHAT?!) We were standing right in front of the Menza--the cafeteria--toking up! So I tried taking a a picture of them without making it look too obvious, but my lighting was all off, so I just got a really great shot of Ty.

Prague Castle

The castle was breathtaking. We didn't really catch the full scope of it's beauty until we were close up. The sculpture and artistry was evident in sometimes magical and sometimes dark ways.

 The gargoyles hanging over the edges of the building were a mix between man and beast.

The inside of the building was equally as stunning with ornate pillars, stain glass windows, and art hung about.

This was the view from the back of the castle. From the ground it seemed almost ominous.

We had a liiiiiittle too much fun imitating the rain spout that was shaped like a man.

This was probably my favorite sculpture I saw at the castle.

We spent about two hours at the castle--mostly outside, but we are definitely planning to go back on a warmer day. If any of you reading this know me well, you know I HATE the cold. The only thing I HATE more than being cold is being hungry. Well at around one I was both. So we left the castle and tried to seek out shelter from the cold. Quickly we came across this sign:

Yep, that's about a 20 foot tall naked man. I've never wanted to see someone naked in that much detail in that size, ever. So of course, Ty and I were intrigued.

We couldn't read the sign, so we entered the building. (Thank God, some warm air!) And discovered it was an art museum. "Anglitskey?" We asked. She shook her head. "Free?" We tried. She shook her head again, and pointed at a sign. It was only three dollars a piece. We laid the 120 crowns on the counter and entered the museum. It was one of the creepiest/weirdest displays of art I've seen--granted I haven't really seen a lot of art, so who am I to judge?

The whole display was people roughly shaped from clay. Most of the time the people were distorted and naked.

Of course we couldn't go 20 minutes without looking like silly yankees, and had to try impersonations.

There was, however, one really neat sculpture of a lion, which is kind of Czech's national symbol from what I'm gathering. It's the symbol of our college as well as the picture on many of the coins.

 Overall we had a great time discovering more of what Prague had to offer on our visit. I personally am looking forward to getting off the beaten path. (This will be difficult because I'm discovering MUCH fewer people speak English than what I expected.) I think it will all work out. Today in the pub the bartender spoke absolutely NO English. Somehow we ended up with a delicious pork roast--an omen of good meals to come I'm sure. :)

 Here's a couple of pictures overlooking the city. Beautiful.

Thanks for reading!