World Cup Semis

So my second day in Prague is coming to an end and I have just left my second night at the Old Town Square. Last night we watched Holland beat Uruguay. I thought that was unbelievable until I watched the Spaniards beat Germany tonight. Beers there are 50 crowns which works out to be about $2.50. Nothing like $1 PBR’s from Big Al’s in Blacksburg but it’ll do. The atmosphere there is unbelievable. I talked with Jimmy from Scotland last night (quite the character) and tonight I met a few graduate students from Texas. I’ve had more fun talking with English speaking students just because it’s easy to communicate. Here’s a picture to help describe the atmosphere. Amazing.

Yesterday we got a chance to cruise around the Charles Bridge. Apparently it is named after the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV. It was built in 1172 and was ruined by a flood in 1342. The bridge was rebuilt shortly thereafter and has been able to withstand all of the floods since. Here's one of many gorgeous pictures that I took of the bridge.

Today we walked around Prague and I learned a lot about the metro system and the trams. The trams are fairly easy to use and everyone takes advantage of that. The university is a 20 minute tram ride away – it still beats the heck out of 66 at 6:00 in the morning. I plugged in my alarm clock and burnt the power adapter. I’ll have to wait until I get back to the states to see if it works. Real bummed about that one. We went to lunch at a restaurant right outside of a park in downtown Prague. It was pretty cool. The meal was goulash which was described to me as beef and dumplings. The dumplings are slices of bread. Weird. Service in Prague is mediocre at best. You have to wait at least an hour to get your food and then you have to request the check before they bring it to you. It may be because their lifestyle is a bit more relaxed than us Americans. Oh well, more time for beer drinking! To the right is a picture of our table at lunch.

On a side note, I learned that the graffiti is a part of the Czech culture. When the government was Communist back in the 80s, the Czech’s used graffiti as a form of expression. The police never really cracked down on them and it has continued on as a tradition of sorts. It’s funny how us Americans associate graffiti with crime and slums – not the case here.

I got a chance to jog this morning and passed the Prague planetarium. I’ll be meeting one of the Army ROTC guys for a jog tomorrow morning. Wish me luck. Thanks for following my blog!

Czech Pilsner <>

Luke