Midgets?

Since I really wanted to do some sightseeing, on Monday a group of us went up to the Castle area after getting pizza after class. (Sidenote: people eat corn on their pizza here. Strange combination? I think so.) It’s a pretty steep hike up to the Castle and we were with a bunch of people so it took a while, but the view was amazing! The Castle area is huge and there is a cathedral and a beautiful park up there.

View from the Charles Bridge of the Cathedral/Castle area before hiking up

On the way to the castle with a view of Prague behind me

Castle entrance

Castle guard

View from the top of the cathedral

Me at the top of the cathedral

Gardens

The usual arch picture!

After such a productive day of sightseeing, we went home to get ready to go out. We hadn’t really had a chance to eat, so Meryl picked up a piece of pizza at the metro station, but no one could have guessed what she would have actually got. The lady gave her a pizza, but it was NOT a normal pizza. It was bread, cheese, and KETCHUP on top. Sick!

Meryl’s ketchup pizza and metro station wine

We met up with our friends from South Texas at a jazz club and the craziest thing happened on the way. We saw this guy on the metro, who goes to school with us in Prague. From the day I saw him, I knew I recognized him from somewhere and I just couldn’t place him. But he remembered me! Bobby and I worked in Yellowstone together and he lived across the hall from me and was good friends with my roommate Heather. It was so crazy and I just cannot believe what a crazy small world it is.

Ex-Xanterra employees!

After leaving the jazz club, we went to a sports bar where Meryl and I took more absinthe shots. This bartender showed us how to take them properly with sugar, which you can see in the video below.

When we were getting ready to leave the bar, the craziest guy came in with a teddy bear and started talking about midgets. It was so funny and I really can’t explain it, so I’m posting a video that we captured of him. He kept telling us to look for him on Youtube so we later did and it turns out, he is a promoter for a strip club. This guy was so insane so I hope you all enjoy this video.

Wednesday the 28th, we didn’t have class. Instead, we took a “field trip” to visit the High Court in Prague. We got a lecture on the court system in the Czech Republic. It was really hard to hear and to understand, but I did learn some interesting things. The CR just recently abolished the death penalty, but when they did have it, it was death by shooting. Also, apparently, over half of the judges/lawyers are women, which I was surprised about!

Meryl and I in the courtroom

Courtroom

High Court

Old Town Square(Dali musuem in the middle)

Me in Old Town Square

Building in old town square with horse and carriage!

After our trip to the High Court, Meryl, Harris and I decided to do some more sightseeing. First we went to see a Dali exhibit at the Alfonso Mucha Museum because we all really like Salvador Dali. It was really interesting because, having been to the Dali Museum several times and seeing his major works, it was neat to see some of his lesser known, smaller and older works. He did several paintings based on Dante’s Inferno and the rings of Hell. The exhibit also had much of his other type of works, like statues and ceramics.

Kafka statue

After the Dali Musuem, we went to see the Jewish quarter and bought tickets to see everything there. It was extremely eye-opening because there were several exhibits about Terezin, which is a Nazi run ghetto town that was essentially a stopover on the way to concentration camps such as Auschwitz. We saw pictures that the children of Terezin drew and learned about how many people died in this town or were sent to Aushwitz, which was essentially a death penalty. One thing I found so interesting is that the Jews were actually able to save much of their valuable artifacts in a Jewish museum. It’s weird to me that the Nazis would allow them to do that when they were persecuting the Jews…it seems so counterintuitive!