Prague

Here's the blow by blow:

Sunday morning I flew out of Geneva and into Prague. Not a bad flight at all. The meeting started monday and I wanted a day to get to visit the city. Plus if I arived on monday, I would miss the first hours of the meeting.

When I got to the airport I took a bus to the metro station and then took the metro all the way to the hotel. About an hour's worth of travel and 30 min of waiting for bus/metro. The hotel wasn't too hard to find, once I saw the giant green sign on the roof. Nice hotel but a bit on the expensive side, but it was clean and the confrence center was in the hotel which was nice.

So I spent the rest of the day wandering through the city trying to get lost. Actually thats pretty easy to do in Prague since all of the streets are twisty, narrow, and walled in. But there are lots of high towers you can sort of see from a distance so you can use those to mark your way around.

I found this great 'shortcut' that turned into a walking only path between 5 story OLD buildings and there in the middle was a cafe and then pop I was back into the crowds. Prague has lots of crowds and lots of tourism, but still it nice to visit.

That night I took a guided walking tour that included dinner. So I had dinner in a pub from around 1400 which was burried 2 stories underground. Very cool, and good food. Food in general is half the price of what I'm used to, assuming you go to places not exactly on the tourist paths.

The next night I wandered out some more looking for a good place to eat dinner and to wander around. I really really like just walking through Prague, it was very peacefull even when it was full of people. So I walked through the jewish quarter, and after about 3 hours of walking, found this great little place in another basement. I had a good and very cheap dinner. And it was big too. I like this city.

After dinner I heard jazz rifts coming off of an accustic bass from another basement so I had to check it out. Ended up in a jazz club untill about midnight just relaxing. It was a Bass, piano, and drums and a vocalist for some of it. They were pretty good. and I only left when I did because I wanted to catch the last metro before it closed.

Next night was opera night. I had heard that the Prague opera company was world famous. Second to paris or something like that, and cheap. So for about $20 I got a front row seat on the second balcony. I could see and hear great. Oh and the theater was beautiful, lots of gold. I know I know, no pictures, but I was in a suit and all dressed up and didn't want to carrry my camera around, plus you weren't allowd to take any pictures anyways. Oh the opera was Tosca by puccini. The first real opera I've been to but it was fun. I don't know why I didn't go to ones in columbus since I like theater and classical music. I may have to make a habit of it.

Wed night I went out to dinner with one of the other professors I new from ohio state. Though we ended up somewhere on the beaten path and it was expensive (well $20 expensive but thats a lot for Prague). Afterwords I wandered around taking pictures at night which is always fun. And they shot off fireworks when I was at the top of the main hill in town. Perfect timing really. Only a few of those came out in pictures but it was pretty to watch.

Friday we had our confrence dinner right on the river in the heart of town. It was fun to mingle with people and I met a guy from Belgum who was there giving a talk. Afterwords I walked through town and back to the hotel (about 2 hours of walking in total).

Friday after the confrence I had a few hours to walk through town and take some last pictures before I had to get on a plane and go back to switzerland. And the next morning I got to pick Anna up at the airport. And those pictures are coming soon.