Our First Prague Adventure!

Today was a great day! We got poured on by rain not once, or even twice, but three times with no jackets or umbrellas, but even that didn't bother us because of all the other great things that came out of the day. I think that a big part of why the day was so exciting, was just because we were out exploring a completely unknown place on our own with unlimited time. I feel like the last few days before today had been a struggle between being a student living here and a tourist. I don't want to have a camera dangling from my neck all summer and be marked as an outsider automatically, because I am actually living here too. And doing all of the orientation stuff, it's been a lot more introduction to how to get around the city and what areas are located where, etc.-- it really wasn't about seeing the sights, even though we inevitably did see some great places. Today though, I was a full fledged tourist!

I spent my day with Katherine and Aly-- Aly is actually from New Hampshire, but goes to school in Chicago, so it's been fun making some connections with her. We met up early, when everyone else went to class at 9. We really didn't have a plan, but one of us suggested the Charles Bridge, so that is where we went! The Charles Bridge connects Old Town and the Little Quarter, modeling some classic gothic architecture. We were there early enough that there were no crowds and then there was some live music, so the environment was just really nice! We walked from Old Town over to the Little Quarter.

The Little Quarter is one of the most adorable places I have been! We stopped into a little cafe and had some crepes-- super good, but definitely not authentic Czech food (speaking of which, we did have "fried cheese" for dinner later on, which is authentic Czech!). . . We spent the afternoon wandering around the little cobblestone streets that make up the Little Quarter. It's really just so picturesque there, I finally really felt like I was in a foreign country! At one point we saw a group of people all walking out of a door within a huge city wall, so we decided to see what was on the other side. It really felt kind of magical-- as cheesy as that is-- but we found a labyrinth with peacocks and gardens throughout. Katherine and I later agreed it reminded us of Harry Potter! On the other end of the labyrinth, was the Czech Senate building! We had gone off on a whim to go explore what was on the other side of the door and ended up on finding somehting really great! The day and everything we did was really simple, but it was without a doubt the best day yet!

I really like it so far in Prague! Today definitely gave us a great taste as to what the city has to offer just by walking around. The Little Quarter is one of many areas within the city limits, so we'll have a lot more exploring like this to do, and definitely will be returning to visit the Little Quarter itself again!

I am going to post a link to some photos in the "photo" section, right next to the home page tab-- check them out!