Views from the Petřínská Rozhledna

The Petřínská Rozhledna is a steel tower that I've noticed since the first time I walked across Charles bridge. To the right when coming towards the castle I would see the tip of it rising above the park's forested area in the Mala Strana area. This structure looks like a mini Effel Tower and is gray in color. It was 50 korunas ($3.50 USD) to get to the top, I was balling at the top of my game threw down a 1,000 koruna bill. I had gone to the ATM earlier to withdrawn a g and I was expecting lots of bills, but much to my disappointment it turns out it was a single.







A series of winding stairs lead up to two levels of the structure. The first balcony area is open and has plenty of room for people to walk around. At the very top, it is much smaller and is enclosed by windows. They prevented pictures from being taken. However there were some panels that are left open to let the breeze in. There is a three hundred sixty degree view of Prague below. It was pretty interesting listening to all the different languages that were spoken in the top compartment. It was definitely a touristy thing to do.





On my way down I realized that there are actually two sets of staircases separating the up and down traffic. It was noticeable that the structure actually shifts slightly with the blowing of the wind, kind of scary when walking down a flight of stairs that you can see through.

Prague Tour

Prague is walkable meaning I can pretty much walk to any point of interest. From the local hostel I walked towards some of the main squares of the village. Because Euro 2008 is still going on there are a lot of big screen TV setup in most of the squares for the night games. During the day there's a lot of food being grilled and beer being consumed.

Instead of taking a structured tour I decided to just get a tourist map, which has most of the touristy attractions mapped out. I basically made my own route from the hostel through as many points of interest as possible. I did this for about two days and I feel that I was able to see everything that was worth seeing.

The old city square has several interesting buildings. One of which is a old city hall building with an extravagant astronomical clock called the Orloj. Every hour there is animated show of the Apostle sculptures peering out of the window and crowds of tourist all gather to watch. The skeleton sculpture on the side rings the bells and the Apostles each take a turn looking out of the middle top window.



After the square, I walk towards the Vltava River which splits the city from east and west. I first take the Charles Bridge and on the way back taking the Manesvus Most. I would take take the southern-most bridge Most Legii on my second trek around town because it is closer to the Mala Strana, a structure looks like a smaller version of the Effel Tower.

Charles Bridge is a happening place. From most of my photos it will be apparent by the number of people walking on it. There are many stands along either side of the bridge where artists are showcasing and selling their work. From crafts to photography there is a wide variety of artwork. There is only pedestrian traffic, motor vehicles are not allowed. From the bridge there is beautiful view over the Vltava River as well as on and upwards towards the castle. Below there is much water activity as there boats of all sizes traveling along the water. A small hot air balloon rises up and down along my right side.





There is a castle at the top of the hill. It is massive and contains several building. One of them is a church. Pictures are much harder to take on top because everything is so close together. The inside of the church area is free and I was able to catch one of the last tours of it. I wandered around the Castle and found a different route down. I took a different bridge over and was able to get better views of the area.

Jayhawks in Prague

I arrived at the Golden Sickle Hostel around dinner time. Mark and I quickly exchanged some euros for Czech koruna, the local currency here. One US dollar equals 15 Korunas. Beers are about 50 Korunas and a good sit-down restaurant is around 200 korunas. After dinner I start showering and Mark jumps on the computer for some late night poker. I started talking to a guy at our hostel who turned out to be from Kansas City and it happens that there is a whole group of Jayhawks staying at that hostel. They tell me that they are going on a pub crawl and quickly jump aboard.







The pub crawl's price was kind of steep, but it included a t-shirt so I guess that balanced it out. I met Kyle, Jarrod, Becca, Nicki, and Meagan. As it turns out Kyle will starting at Cerner (my former company) soon and was also part of the internship program. We made it several bars before calling it quits.



We met a group girls from University of Illinois as well. Mark taught Nancy how to ruin her life with the game of poker and it was great conversation from there on out. Too bad we were going the opposite direction as it seems like everyone was headed toward Amsterdam.




Nightlife in Prague is very affordable. It seems like all the places we went too were underground. For example we always went down a flight of stairs to get to the place. Same goes for restaurants as well. One of the nightclubs we went to on the last night was pretty entertaining. It was oldies night and they played a lot of classics. For example Wham! - Wake Me Up, Will Smith - Miami, Kris Kross - Jump, Sir Mix A Lot - I Like Big Butts just to name a few. Sadly they did not play any MC Hammer. The entire time the locals were really getting into it and most of them were dressed specifically for this occasion.