This weekend we are going to Prague! My mom wanted us to learn about Prague before we go so this week I will add onto this blog everyday, and study a new thing each day! Then when we get back from Prague I'll blog about our experience there! So if your interested in Prague then read this blog!
Monday, February 11:
Today I'm going to be answering FAQ about Prague! I'll write the question (Q) then underneath is the answer (A).
Q1. What currency do they use in Prague?
A1. I looked this up and found out that they use Czech Crowns/Koruna which is converted into 100 heller. They are part of the EU (European Union) so they have to change to using €uro, but that hasn't happened yet. It was supposed to happen many times but they decided against it. Just last year, 2012, they were going to switch to using €uro but dropped the plans. There is a lot of arguing about when it will happen.
Q2. Where is Prague?
A2. In the Czech Republic, Above Vienna.
Q3. What sights are there that we should see?
A2. I'm sure there is a lot to see im Prague! When I looked this up I found a few really cool places! I'm going to list the places then when we get back I'm going to put a star next to all the places we went to then put our experience next to it.
Place 1: The Petrin hill observatory, a big tower to look over Prague! -----we didn't get to go there
Place 2: the Dancing Building aka Fred and Ginger. This building looks really cool! It is a bent building that looks connected with another building but is all one big building! It really looks like it's dancing!!! ------this is probably the thing I am most sad that we did not actually see
Place 3: Jerusalem synagogue. A few jewish synagogues! ------we saw all of them. they were awesome!
Place 4: Charles bridge. This is a bridge decorated with statues that connects old town and new town prague! -----we went on this bridge many times! I loved it!
Place 5: Prague castle on castle hill, an amazing castle where people can enjoy artwork, architecture, and much more! -----we had a whole day touring this astounding castle!
Place 6: The Astronomical Clock in Old Town Square. This is one of Prague's most popular sights! The original parts of the clock date back to the 1400s, but the clock has been updated throughout the centuries. Figures emerge from the clock upon the hour! -----I loved this clock but watching the figures wasn't very impressive at all.
Q4. What will the weather be like?
A4. The first day we are there will be 1degree celsius then the next two days will be 2 degrees!
Q5. What is the timezone?
A5. Same as Vienna, 6 hours ahead of North Carolina.
Q6. How many questions are you doing on Prague today?
A6.That's all for monday! Make sure to read this post tomorrow because I'll add more onto it everyday!
Tuesday, February 12:
Today I'm supposed to research on Charles the Fourth, who the Charles bridge was named after. He was the king of Bohemia, when he built the st.Vitus church. St.Vitus is who people with nervous disorders pray to and Charles the fourth made a church called St.Vitus. Charles soon became a Holy Roman Emperor. His reign was known as the 'golden age' of Bohemia.
He married Blanche of Valois and had a daughter named Catherine. When Catherine was EIGHT years old she married Rudolf the fourth, Duke of Austria to make peace between the Holy Roman Empire, and Austria. He soon died and when Catherine was 24 she married Otto the fifth, Duke of Bavaria. But that is getting off topic. Charles the fourth made Prague the imperial capital, and he did a lot of archetecture in Prague, hence the Charles bridge was named after him!
Well that's all for today!
Check my blog tomorrow, I add onto this post everyday until the weekend!
wednesday,february 13
today my entry will be short,since we are packing and making the most of vienna! im supposed to reasearch about what people would dress like, and where bohemia was.
Q1. What is traditional clothing in the Czech republic?
A1. This is a hard question because there are many different things they would wear. If you have ever been to old Salem they dress kind-of like that. It is hard to explain them but you a few names are the Doublesko or the Blata.
Q2. Where WAS Bohemia?
A2. Bohemia was in mid Europe, north of Austria until the Hapsburg's took over. Some people refer to Bohemia since it was there for so long, but Bohemia doesn't actually exist anymore.
More on Prague tomorrow!
Monday, February 18:
Sorry that I didn't blog on Thursday, we were busy packing. Well I also wanted to blog on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday but the hotel had no WiFi! So todays blog will be packed with what we did. Also if you go way back up to my blog from Monday the 11 then you will see I added onto to some of the places that we went to!
On Friday: we got up at 5 a.m. and got onto a four hour long train ride to Prague. A lot of us skipped breakfast because Gunter told us that the train would have a food cart. They had nothing. We looked everywhere on the train, we didn't even find coffee or water. So I slept the whole time. We settled into our hotel, then we took Brooke (the RA) out to lunch with us to an amazing restuarant called Lokal. I had chicken schnitzel, with super buttery mashed potatoes! It was wonderful! At 1:30 we met back at the hotel and Gunter took us on a city walk. We saw the astronomical clock! It was really cool. We walked around the square and Gunter told us about a writer w2ho lived there called Franz Kafka. We saw a few cool stores*( I'll mention one of them later on!), and we soon ended up at the Charles bridge. We ended up coming to Charles bridge everyday and never ended up seeing all of the amazing statues! It was really big and the statues were so amazing! There were so many.
On Saturday: We ate breakfast in the hotel, then had to get train tickets and get on the train to go to castle hill. We spent half the day looking around the castle and all the things up on castle hill! My favorite part was one of the churches we went to called the St.Vitus cathedral. It was a gothic style building, with amazing stained glass windows and a super tall ceiling. We spent a while just staring at the windows, and longer looking at all the architecture! The castle was also really amazing with cool architecture, but something about the St.Vitus cathedral was just so appealing to me! When the tour was over, we went to a nice place for lunch and I ate rabbit for the first time! We saw these weird statues of giant baby's with messed up faces, I posted a picture of them. Then we went to a cafe that had fur chairs, 3 big heaters, and a water wheel outside. After we all had a hot drink, my dad found the Lennon Wall! It had lots of quotes and pictures of John Lennon. Sarah (one of the students) and I wanted a picture next to paintings of the Beatles,so we leaned up against the wall only to hear a group of girls shout," the purple is wet!" Sure enough when we got up we both had purple paint on the back of our jackets. Luckily my coat was already purple, and it was water proof so it easily washed off, but ySarah had a gray wool coat on. That dayit snowed we ran over to a pile of snow and the others washed our coats. We got most of it off, but some of the snow was stained purple. After the wall left a mark on us, we took some of the purple paint from the jar those girls were using and started writing on it! Now the Lennon wall has our initials, and WF for Wake Forest!
Soon we met Gunter on the Charles bridge, and started our tour of the Kafka museum! It was really interesting. They showed a movie in a room full of mirrors, so we could watch the movie on 10 different screens by looking into one mirror. The only problem was, we didn't really pay attention to the movie, but it was just a guy walking in black and white. The rest of the museum was full of facts about Kafka!
That night we went to a Lebanese restaurant called El Emir! I was excited because Emir is pronounced Amir which is my cat's name! They had good food there, I got Calamari which was delicious!
On Sunday: we ate breakfast in the hotel again then set out on our Jewish-kafka tour. We went to a Jewish museum, wich was amazing! It was filled with things like menorah's and Torah's. The walls were covered in beautiful intricate designs all hand painted! I was amazed!
We talked about Kafka and all the places he was in around where we were walking. Then we went into a memorial place for Czech Jews who perished in the Holocaust. Every wall was covered in names. There was an estimate of 88, 600 names. In an upstairs section there were pictures that kids drew in concentration camps. After leaving the building no-one really said anything for about five minutes. We then went to a Jewish cemetery. There were tons of headstones, it reminded me of the inside of a geode, with tons of rocks jutting up from the earth. I thought it was pretty.
For the rest of the evening we were free! That day was September 17 which is my Grandads birthday♥ and it was also the birthday of Kimberly (another student) so we took her and Sarah out to lunch! We went to a vegetarian place called Maitrea. It was really amazing! My brother and Sarah got awesome burritos, Kimberly and my mom got delicious eggplant, my dad had amazing sushi then Satan, and I got creamy pesto fettuchini pasta! I loved it! Other students came with us but sat at a different table. They had a carrot cake for dessert and it looked delicious.
Then we went to the communism museum and I thought that was really cool. We watched a video of pictures, and short clips of the communists in the Czech republic.
Afterwards, my mom went to a Mucha museum,but we decided not to. I really wanted that marionette monkey, so we went back to that store so I could get it! Sarah came with us, and she was the only one who knew where the shop was. We returned back to the hotel, and relaxed in the lounge for an hour, until we had to leave. Now we are back in Vienna, satisfied with our trip, and we now have a marionette monkey named Spoons!
Here are some pictures of spoons, and Prague pictures will be on a separate blog, because I didn't have enough space on this one!
