Blue sky? Sunlight? How I have missed thee...

Yesterday was a lovely day. I decided to go to the Castle [I can't believe that I hadn't been there yet...] and it turned out to be the prettiest day that we've had since I got here. Blue sky, not a single cloud, but still freezing. Oh well, you can't have it all. I took the metro to the Lesser Quarter stop even though my guidebook told me to take the tram... I figured how bad can it be? Answer: 200 wide, sloping, steep steps to the Castle entrance. It was quite the workout, but the view was worth it. The Castle is on the only hill in Prague so I could see the entire city from the top: the Vltava, Tyn Cathedral, even out to my neighborhood in the suburbs. Most buildings have red tile roofs so the entire city looks perfectly picturesque.

I went to Vitus's Cathedral first. It is the recognizable landmark that you see all around Prague. It is a huge Neo-Gothic church, but with older architectural elements that are a thousand years old. The stained glass is spectacular. The windows vary from Renaissance designs to a twentieth century Mucha design. The crowning element is the Rose window over the entrance. The sun hit it perfectly while I was inside so the colored light flickered over the entire sanctuary. Charles IV [the Czech's fav Czech] is buried here, along with centuries of other Czech nobles. St. Wenceslas is said to have died here. There is a St. Wenceslas Chapel  that is incredible. The walls are decorated with huge precious stones like wall paper. There is a hutch [...type thing] that holds the wine and wafers made of solid gold. It was a sight to see. The outside of the Cathedral was even more beautiful than the inside. There are ginormous flying buttresses and unusual  architecture  that made the Cathedral seem to be straight out of a fairy tale.

After the majesty of the Cathedral, I went to a very boring exhibit about the history of the Castle. They tried to make it as interesting as possible, but how interesting can ninth-century clay pots be? Anyway, after the boring museum, I went to St. George's Basilica, a name that makes it seem much grander than it actually is. It is the oldest Romanesque building in Prague, built in the eighth [or ninth...my memory isn't perfect] century. Then I went to Golden Lane, a small little street where the craftsmen of the castle lived. It was private homes for a while and now it contains cute little shops. Franz Kafka lived  there for a while, so I had my picture taken with his house. I got some gifts and headed back to the stairs of death.

I wandered around Lesser Town since I've only been over there a few times. A few days ago, I went to the Franz Kafka Museum over there. If you have read Kafka, you have to go to this museum. So cool. But I digress. Yesterday, I found an English bookstore near the Kafka museum!! I have started to read more since my computer died [one positive outcome] and I was getting desperate for reading material. I bought Midsummer's Night Dream. The fashion people are designing costumes for it and I realized that while I have seen the play and the movie, I have never read it. I'm remedying that now.

Once I saw the view of Prague from the Castle, I decided to walk all the way back to Old Town across Lesser Town and the Charles Bridge. The Charles Bridge is lovely on the weekends. Of course, it's full of tourists, but tourists here are good natured and friendly. The bridge is lined with artists with their wares. There are photos of the bridge in the snow, water colors of Old Town Square, wood carvings, clocks and other pretty things that aren't super touristy. The Bridge itself is gorgeous. There are statues that line each side and huge towers at each end. You may remember it from Mission Impossible...at the very beginning it is the bridge that Tom Cruise jumps off.

I walked back though Old Town to get to the Metro stop. On the way, I stopped at the market near the Institute. The market is very near Wenceslas Square, so the streets on either side are full of the touristy mini-Wings stores full of shirts that say "Czech me out" and "Prague Drinking Team". Class act. Anyway, the market, while catering to tourists, is delightfully empty of these cheap trinkets. Instead, it has cute Czech crafts like marionettes, wooden carvings, blown glass, and handmade jewelry. It really is charming. I wandered down the street buying nothing at all and headed back on the Metro to go home.

Last night, we were craving Mexican food. I'm usually not the biggest fan, but since it's rare here, it makes me want it more. We found a delish Mexican place near the penzione. I've never had a better quesadilla. Who'd a thought I'd find good Mexican food ...in Prague. After the movie, some people ran to go see an Imax movie about whales and dolphins, while the rest of us wandered around until our movie started. We wanted to see the epic "He's Just Not that Into You", clearly an Oscar contender already. While we wandered, we ran into the dolphin movie people. Turns out, it was only 40 minutes long...and in Czech!! We had a good laugh about that. See, most movies here are in English with Czech subtitles. It was a fun movie, but the best part is that the movie theatre is exactly like American movie theatres!! I found that oddly comforting.

I'm at studio now, about to make dinner. Daddy, my roommate Eleanor is playing the Stan Getz CD that you have in your car and it makes me think of you.

Tomorrow, we are going the opera! We are seeing Smetana's "The Bartered Bride". I've never heard of it, but I'm sure it'll be great.

I'll write soon!