Entries about czechoslovakia

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

Today we entered Czechoslovakia, our penultimate new country of the trip. When we left this morning, we saw that the weather forecast for rain was really coming true and it was coming down pretty hard. After we packed our car we put on our coats and went over to look at the stores to spend the rest of our Polish currency. We bought food for lunch at the grocery store, as well as bread and treats at the bakery. Mom gave Hannah and I the leftover change to buy ourselves snacks for the road trip.

After we had spent all that we could we climbed into the car and started our journey over the border. We stopped at a gas station for our lunch of sandwiches and pizza, and we bought a toll sticker for our windshield.

We found our place quite easily and we were greeted by a very friendly and helpful host. We are staying at this house for three nights, but we are staying the country of Czechoslovakia for a week total. We are staying in a suite of a house, which has two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen and a living room. Everything is very spacious and clean, which is really nice too.

Last night we watched the Avengers for a change from our usual West Wing. Tomorrow we plan to take a rafting trip down the river in town and maybe even go for some mini golf.