From New England to Old England : Real Life Disney

Before coming abroad this semester, I struggled reading a map. I struggled with most navigation even fairly close to home on streets that should have been familiar to me. On my seventeenth birthday I had had my licence for about eight months and my parents gave me a GPS, which I named Ramona, because they thought I needed it in order to get most anywhere. They were correct; Ramona has been a lifesaver. Thus, I was extremely proud of myself when I made it to the apartment where we were staying in Prague. Not having an iphone, I did it the old fashioned way using a map. To get from the airport to the city I had to take a bus and then the metro to the centre, which is difficult when you don’t speak the language. I then got all my stuff and myself off the metro and found the apartment! I couldn’t believe how smoothly it went. My friends didn’t arrive until hours later so I hung out and was able to get internet so I could warn them about the lack of signage to let people know it was the right place.

That night we found a restaurant to eat dinner, pleasantly surprised by much lower prices than we have been used to. The Czech Republic uses Czech crowns as their currency, so we had to get used to yet another currency. We’d heard that Prague is like real life Disney. The architecture that surrounded us and Prague Castle nestled at the top of a nearby mountain proved this to be true. We would randomly look at one another and in a sing-songy way say “Real life Disney!”.

Knowing little about Prague we decided to take a 3 hour walking tour on our first day to learn a bit more about the city. We were taken to a few of the most famous parts of the city. One being the Astronomical Clock, which tells the date as well as the 24 hour time and the time of sunrise, sunset, and includes a clock which tells the Ancient Czech time. I don’t remember how to read it at all, there were simply too many things going on to keep it all straight; Although, it is gorgeous so people were flocked around it taking pictures.

We were also taken to Charles Bridge. The bridge is a pedestrian bridge and is lined with statues and during the day people hoping to sell their wares. Being a popular tourist attraction, it draws local artists to set up stands and sell their homemade items or portraits.

The tour also took us to the Old Town, Jewish Quarter and many other areas. We really covered a lot of ground during that 3 hours. One other bit of information we learned is that Czechs drink more alcohol than any people of any other country in the world. They drink approximately 156 pints of beer per capita annually.

We had heard only good things about the Prague castle, so we decided visiting was a must. We didn’t realize quite how long it would take and what was involved but luckily we set aside an entire day. We got an amazing view from the mountain that the castle was on and went into surrounding buildings that were part of the experience.