Prague

Today was our first day in Prague, so we decided not to make a plan of things to see, but rather just take in more of the town. We started off quite early, and after one metro trip we were already in the city. We walked towards the river at first, looking at the shops as well as the buskers. Along the streets and bridges there were people selling art, as well as a variety of different music being played. One group consisted of three men in overalls playing the washboard, a guitar, a horn, the cymbals, and a few other instruments. Lots of the singers that we heard were singing English songs, such as Hound Dog and Folsom Prison Blues. Another man was playing various songs on a group of crystal glasses with different amounts of water in them. He was selling some of his CD's nearby as well, but they weren't selling too fast.

After we finished walking to the bridge with went to a nearby square to look for something to eat. It took us a while, but 45 minutes later we had located the local snack we were looking for. Smažený sýr, which literally translates into "fried cheese", is a Czech version of our grilled cheese sandwich. It is cheese that is breaded and fried, and then put in a bun with mayo. I added ketchup as well, to make it a little more like the version I was used to, but we all enjoyed them despite the differences.

After lunch we wandered over to the gardens of Prague Senate for a little rest. While we were there we were visited by a peahen (female peacock) which gave off a little bit of a show in the middle of the shrubbery. Right beside the garden is a famous wall called The Grotto/Dripstone Wall. It is a wall of odd looking rocks, which have animals and faces carved in between them. It was a very odd but interesting thing to look at. Back in the gardens we were able to have a look at the paintings on the Czech Senate building, which were scenes depicting the Trojan War, painted by an unknown artist. We wandered around the maze of hedged for a little while, stopping at a fountain will a statue of Hercules slaying a dragon in the middle. The little pond was crowded with giant fish, and we were able to see a large amount of them come up to the surface when a young boy started throwing bits of his bread of the edge of the pool.

This was our last stop though, and we walked back the metro station and then back to our car. We had a picnic dinner of sandwiches and soup on our front lawn, and had a little chat with the husband of our host. We finished the evening off with an emotional West Wing before bed, to rest up for our next day in Prague.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sma%C5%BEen%C3%BD_s%C3%BDr