Everyone has already said it, but I'll say it again: Prague is a fantastic city, and my favorite we've visited so far. The only real inconvenience is that trying to get food in the immediate vicinity of our hostel has turned out to be a problem. There is an awesome bakery (if you've read Hannah E.'s posts, you surely are more than familiar with this lovely stop), but all the hearty breakfast places are either not open, or not open to us at 9:30am. One place had no change for our relatively low bills, one wouldn't let us in because we weren't "hotel customers," and many told us to come back at 11 for lunch. So, we ended up at McDonald's. It was an odd sort of culture shock to walk into a Czech McDonald's and 1) seeing a separate counter for coffee and real pastries and cake and 2) ordering off a menu board in Czech, because asking for a "mcmuffin" just feels like some sort of birthright Americans ought to have anytime and anywhere. It was certainly better tasting than McDonald's breakfasts in the States, but does that really surprise anyone?
After breakfast, Dr. Powell led a group of us to the John Lennon Wall, a site of protest for students during the Cold War which continues to be a graffiti landmark in Prague and a reminder of Eastern Europe's recent past. Hannah D. found an orange highlighter on the ground, and we took turns using it to write on the wall. I wrote "Meridian" and then ran along the wall while dragging the marker along it, creating an endless line. This will have special significance for those of you who were in PLU's wind ensemble, Choral, or Choir of the West during the 2010/2011 school year and performed a particular piece by one Ola Gjeilo. My life is now complete.
At 11:00, we met our guide for the day, Mirka, who was a wealth of information on Prague. Most of our tour took place in the Prague Castle, which is really more of a giant complex of cool buildings on a hill, and the Jewish Quarters. I'm overwhelmed just remembering all we did on the tour, so I'm just going to hope someone else expands upon it or shares pictures. Basically, giant cathedral + coronation room + armor and weapons museum + the oldest synagogue in Europe + ancient Jewish cemetery = phenomenal.
After the tour, I went to a Belgian chocolate shop where I ate the best chocolate covered strawberries I've ever had. I could live happily forever with that taste in my mouth.
For dinner, a group of us found a restaurant called "At the Black Eagle's." Boy, did we find the right place. I ordered a delicious goulash with bacon dumplings, Hannah got beef cheeks, and Caleb and Eric got pork sirloin with bacon and the best mashed potatoes ever. Then there was Kai, who had been looking for pork knuckle for the past couple days, and excitedly ordered it tonight. I wish someone would have taken a picture of our faces when that was carried out. Both ends of the giant hunk of meat were clamped by a metal contraption so that you could successfully cut the pork off, and it came on what looked like a cutting board, as if the pig had just died and was ready to be chopped up. It was extremely impressive. It was also extremely impressive that Kai ate it all.
Tonight, we attended the Prague Symphony Orchestra in Smetena Hall. The oboe concerto was performed by a very talented but exceedingly odd oboist. I couldn't watch her play because she moved to a distracting degree; we're not talking a little bobbing, but full on hip circling, back bends, and what I'm dubbing "imitation rooster power stances." Also, her red dress/flowing pants suit? was just very odd. But, like I said, an excellent oboist!
The Dvorak pieces were longer than I expected, but awesome. I started nodding off during the first one after intermission, and I woke up to a cellist staring right at me (one of the drawbacks of being in the third row) with an amused smile. I was embarrassed and was determined not to get caught again, so when he checked in on me during the second movement, I made sure to smile real big with wide eyes when he looked at me to prove that I was very much awake and enjoying the performance.
Great day, great city! Can't wait for tomorrow!
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