First Impressions, Part II

I'm not sure how many hours it's been since we arrived in Prague, but I can say with certainty that each one has been filled with excitement, adventure, and various levels of exhaustion. Everywhere we've gone thus far has been absolutely amazing - I can't wait to explore more!

We started today with a trip to a nearby hypermarket, which is essentially like an American supermarket but smaller and more Czech. It took a while to find it in the winding streets of Holesovice, but the walk was quite nice. A good deal of people have dogs here, and we got to see a lot of them on the walk, as well as admire the multitude of old buildings. At the hypermarket, we picked up a few items, but had to squeeze everything in a tiny basket since carts cost Kč5. Aside from that, the biggest difference I noticed between Czech and American markets is the bread section. KC bought a baguette for breakfast, and it was just sitting on a shelf with oter baguettes, we did not have to put it in a bag, and the clerk just put it on the conveyor with everything else. The lack of germ-based paranoia was pretty refreshing, actually.

After breakfast and grocery shopping, we headed to KC's school in Vinohrady for his registration and such. It looks pretty far away on the map, but when we took the metro the commute wasn't bad at all. The neighborhood was pretty neat, and rather different from Holesovice and Old Town - there was a lot more Soviet-style architecture, and a few of the older buildings were being renovated. From the people on the streets and the storefronts, you could tell pretty easily that it was a student area. While KC was doing school things, I met up with Veronika for coffee in the school's cafe (turns out Sodexho does their food, too! Urgh...) It was really great to just sit and chat with her for a while; I learned a lot more about Czech culture and got to know her a bit better. She is an International Relations major and lives in a small town about an hour outside of Prague, which sounds like a pretty intense commute. I'm really impressed by her language s kills, too - in addition to very good English, she also speaks Czech (of course), Italian, German, and a bit of Russian. Veronika still seems a bit shy, but I really like her and hope we can be friends! The three of us went to lunch at a pizza place after, and according to KC Czech pizza is surprisingly delicious (I had to opt out and go for a quiche in order to avoid the glutenzz).

After lunch, KC and I explored Vinohrady a bit more, and found a really incredible train station from 1918 called Praha hlavní nádraží. It is an absolutely incredible place - the train depot is a sweeping building made of metal, glass, and exposed old-style industrial beams, and the inside of the station is very grandiose and majestic. It's currently undergoing renovation and was in quite the state of disrepair, but that made it more interesting. I would love to post some photos of this place (and everywhere else), but my computer decided to break and KC's can't connect to my camera, so no pictures for now. You'll just have to use your imagination, I guess.

We then went to buy metro passes, which was difficult because not a lot of the ticket people spoke English (and I still don't have one because I couldn't convince them to give me a student discount). This afternoon, however, I was able to complete a full transaction without using any English - I was quite proud. We're slowly picking up bits pof Czech, but it seems to be a rather difficult language. I'm hoping that by the end of the trip we'll at least have some "survival Czech" down, or perhaps even a basic understanding of the language (my hopes aren't high for that, though).

So far, this trip has been quite the adventure. We've had a few difficulties, like the lack of hot water on Sunday and perpetually sore feet, but I'm having a fantastic time. I can't wait to learn more about the culture and history of this place - it is so fascinating! We're also thinking of making some trips to the countryside (I hear the Moravian Karst is spectacular), as well as the surrounding countries. I've never been to a place where so few people speak a language I can understand, and it's both terrifying and fun. This is my first trip outside of the U.S., and thus far it seems like Prague was a great (albeit somewhat difficult) place to start. It is so gorgeous and amazing here, with something new around every corner, and I can't wait to explore it more.