Občan Havel

Today we had a kind of open class to take photography for our first project. David, Scott (our instructor), Ashley, Rich, Stewart, Mark and I went to the Prague Castle. We took the tram most of the way to the Castle and then walked up through the neighborhoods where Franz Kafka grew up. They were absolutely beautiful (the pictures were posted earlier). It was nice to see a less tourist-y side of Prague, even though the Castle itself is like...crazy tourist-y.

We got to the Castle and I couldn't believe the amounts of people that were there. It was insane - and everyone was just staring at the castle, not even going inside. There also was a quartet (flute, bass, violin, and the acordian. They were playing some traditional Czech songs which were really beautiful. I feel like the more I find out about traditional Czech music, the more I like it, particularly the classic songs and lullabies (one was played at the jazz club).

The view from the Castle was amazing - you could see all of the landmarks in Prague - but almost no one was looking at it.

At around 12:30 we left the Castle and walked back to the Institute. Worst. Idea. Ever. But we did cross over the Charles Bridge, which I found a little overwhelming. There were soooo many people and vendors (half of the bridge was closed for construction) it was hard just to keep up with the group. I noticed that most of the street artist really seem to like Angelina Jolie - every stall had a drawing of her.

After we got back to the Institute David and I went back to the Pension and took a nap. I was sooo beat from staying up the night before and from walking 4013013 miles back to the Institute.

At about 7 David and I went to Country Life for dinner. It's a buffet-style vegetarian restaurant very close to the Pension. It was really good; I couldn't identify the foods but I guess that doesn't really matter.

After dinner the entire group went to a movie theater to see a documentary on Vaclav Havel's presidency called Občan Havel. I have read part of To The Castle And Back (Havel's autobiography), so it was pretty interesting to me...just really, really long. The movie lasted over 2 1/2 hours.