Catching up- Prague!

It’s been a long time since my last post and we’ve been so busy since then.. So this may be a long make-up. Last Thursday was my favorite musical experience since I’ve been in Vienna. Four friends and I got tickets in the balcony to see the Barber of Seville opera in the Staatsoper, the main opera house of Vienna. Not only was the building a world-class venue, the performance was amazingly entertaining. Going into opera, I knew I would appreciate the talent of the performers (accompanied by the Vienna Phil), but I had no idea how engaging and funny the show would be. We had great cheap seats on the first row of the balcony and each seat comes with a small screen that displays the translations of the opera in English. It was great to follow along and enjoy the show. I’m hoping to make it to another opera before we leave–I was very impressed. 



Friday morning, our whole Flow House group plus professors left for Prague on the train. We were pleasantly surprised by some warm weather while we were there! The first item on our agenda was (of course) food! I am pretty sure I ate my body weight in dumplings that weekend, but it was well worth it. Czech food is very heavy with potatoes, dark meats, dumplings and beer (which is actually cheaper than water). 



We took a tour of the city in the afternoon with Günter, who know a lot about Prague! 

Inside the “half-built” church.



The “half-built” church- They had to stop building at this point because of insufficient funds. 



A view of the defense structure that was partially burnt down by a powder keg accidentally igniting. The outside of the cubist museum. Another example of the different style of Prague architecture. This building has a unicorn on it haha!

We saw some of the festivities from the local Chinese New Year celebration.

The Astronomical ClockInside the church with the astronomical clock. 



Got some great views from the Charles Bridge. 



After the tour we stumbled upon a great Prague pastry called a Trdlenik. It’s a rolled dough that is slowly roasted over coals and has this carmalized sugar taste. Some of them had almonds sprinkled on top and others were cinnamon sugar. 



We explored the city at night and had another great, heavy Czech dinner. I had goulash soup with bacon dumplings and it was great!



On Saturday morning, we took a tour of the magnificent Prague Castle. It’s hard to grasp how big it is from the picture because it really is more like a village. 





The inside of the cathedral was very gothic and filled with bright stained-glass windows. 





The organ of this cathedral has an entertaining reason for why it’s now situated on the side of the hall. One of the rulers wanted the original cathedral to be much bigger. So, they essentially “pushed” the organ out to the side and extended the church past that. 

We were able to climb up to the top of the towers and caught some great views back on the city. 



We also visited the John Lennon wall, featuring a lot of really fun murals and bright colors. 





We spent the afternoon in their old town area shopping around some of their antique shops. I was surprised at the amount of tourists while we were there; for some reason, I expected Prague to feel less touristy. I really enjoyed the newer and younger vibe of Prague as compared to Vienna. It was great to experience another very distinct culture, especially after Munich was so similar to Vienna. On Saturday night we ate a “Budweiser” restaurant. No, not the cheap Budweiser you’re thinking of from America. But the thousand year old company from Prague that brews out of Budweis, Czech Republic. 

Sunday morning was a tour of the Jewish museums and synagogues around the city. There was a lot of beautiful Spanish-style architecture, but we weren’t allowed to photograph the area. We then grabbed a lighter lunch after our weekend of indulging and got back on the train to Vienna. 

On Monday, as if we were in need of more beer, our professors took us on a tour of the Ottakringer Brauerei where they make all of their own lagers. It was really fun to see the process and, of course, there was a generous tasting at the end with our professors and tour guide. What a nice way to start off our week! 

The rest of the week included a lot of studying (yes, we do actually take class here) for our history midterm last Wednesday. Then it was time to prep for our big trip to Zurich! I’ll put that up in a couple days when I have some more time. Until then, happy spring!