Prague

I should be having my art history class right now but my teacher is late so I figured I would write some stuff about the last few days while I wait. But first a little complaining about today. The internet at the school is being repaired so I can go online unless I go to an internet café which I might do because I have important things to do online today and tomorrow!! So Prague, or Praha in Czech, was quite a wonderful city. Meg and I stayed at the Boathouse Hostel, which was outside the city center but not hard to access because the public transportation is good, even at night. It was a very cool place but I had the same problem with it that I did with the whole country. You can still smoke indoors in the Czech Republic so not only is that always strange to see but fucks me all up especially when my allergies are bothering me, which they were. So basically there was no “fresh air” not even outside because half the places that I went to see were gardens. As “Lets Go: Europe on a Budget 2008” says, most things of interest to a tourist are conveniently located in a compact area. So to summarize the sights I saw… the Prague Castle, which has an AMAZING cathedral, other churches: Tyn Church, St. Nicholas, Old Town Square and clock tower, National Theatre, blah blah blah lists are boring. One evening Meg and I saw The Taming of the Shrew at the Estates Theatre, which is where Mozart played Don Giovanni when he was in Prague. We also ate at very nice restaurants each night. This cost both of us a lot of money. I also spent a lot of money on clothes, which was incredibly stupid of me but whatever. I’m still not 100% sure how much everything cost… From now on I plan to get ripped off only in my own currency. I have just completed my lesson with my teacher, ten hours after I began writing this. In other words I am exhausted. You can use your imagination to fill in the rest with the following visual aides which include a few pictures from Italy as well.

*** very sorry that the pictures had to be in a link. i will try to get it on the same page asap but my internet availability is becoming limited so in the coming weeks posts may be infrequent :(... also without photos because they are a pain to upload***

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2118902&l=c89ed&id=8115847

During the week before I went to Prague I went to the Armenian monastery here in Venice, which is on Isola di San Lazzero. It was very interesting. The monk/guide meets the visitors at the vaporetto stop. He gives one tour a day. The day I went there were Italians, Argentineans, French, Germans, English and Armenians. He gave the six languages! This sect of the Catholic Church is renowned for its intellectual practices. Therefore there were many cool and interesting artifacts on their libraries including what is said to be the best preserved mummy in Europe. Side note- Lord Byron stayed on this island with the monks for an extended period of time while he was visiting Venice.