Arrival in Prague

Me and Amie: road trip to Chicago to catch our flights!

Mom and I, saying our goodbye's

So we're finally here... After months of planning and 24 hours of traveling, Kate and I finally arrived in Prague. Though we were exhausted and slightly delirious from a day of traveling, our flights went smoothly and were rather non-eventful. Once in Prague, an individual from the Language House was at the airport to pick us up and transfer us to our hotel. The hotel is nice, but not exactly what was advertised (the photos on the website had large, luxurious rooms, equipped with a jacuzzi and rose petals on the bed). Kate and I are luckily right next door to one another. Our rooms are small, and mine is much smaller than Kate's (though I have a phone and she doesn't, so we're not sure who got the better deal). They are clean and comfortable, however, so we can't complain...

Our first day here consisted of little more than sleeping and eating. We napped for most of the day and woke up in time to catch a late dinner. We went to a cute little restaurant down the street where we got a nice substantial meal. I got a trout dinner (equipped with full head, tail and eyes, welcome back to Europe!). It was refreshing to get a decent meal in us after a day of snacks and airplane food. We planned to wake up at a decent time the next day to explore the city, but both ended up sleeping most of the morning away. Once awake, we went to a small store for some groceries. We had trouble finding any meat that wasn't referred to as 'salam' so we opted for fruit and yogurt until we could find something that looked a little more familiar, and a little less frightening.

Kate and I eating our first Czech meal

Kate eating her yogurt with a banana: we forgot about lack of utensils

Later in the day we walked to the city center, which is only about a 15 minute walk from our hotel. Prague so far has lived up to all the hype. The city is absolutely beautiful! While walking through its clean, cobble-stone streets, you feel as though you are in a fairy tale of some sort. The city was surprisingly quiet for a Saturday, but the streets began to fill with people as we got further into the city. In the city square there was a Jazz festival going on and people were lining the streets, drinking and eating on the patios. Kate and I stopped at an Irish pub for a beer and met some people from England. After the drinks we decided to head back to our hotel and turn in early. We're both still havig troubles adjusting, however, and are now up at 3am unable to sleep. Hopefully we will be able to adjust before class beings on Monday!