Caitlyn Reports on Prague!

Sorry I haven't posted sooner...the computer service in Prague was costly and not very good. So...here is everything that has happened since I last posted.

Friday: We spent the morning at the school in Bietigheim, where the jazz band held a concert for the students there. In the afternoon, my host family took us to an indoor water park in Bietigheim that had a whirlpool and a water slide. Then we had our concert in Freudental, which seemed to go very well.

Saturday: Yay for long bus rides! We made a stop in Pilzen, whose main feature is a giant brewery that makes one of the more famous beers in the world. We had lunch there, went on a tour, and I bought my dad a present for Father's day. Then we went to Prague, and went to a restaurant called Koliba. I had sauerkraut and LIKED IT! Our hotel was very nice, because we all had separate beds and an AWESOME view of the city from our window.

Sunday: Today was mainly a touring day...we started out by going to Vysoka, the town where composer Antonin Dvorak used to stay. It was SO PRETTY, especially the Rusalka (Mermaid) Lake! Afterwards, we made a stop in Prague's Old Town, where we had lunch. My group found a restaurant that sold chicken gyros for a pretty cheap price...which was helpful, because I then had to buy a disposable camera for 500 Czech crowns. In the afternoon, we went to Prague Castle, and go to visit Saint Vitus Cathedral. I really wish that I'd been able to take more pictures, because the cathedral was so beautiful! There were so many intricate stained glass windows and side rooms and...I wish that we'd had more time there, since the visiting time ended while we were still in there. Afterwards, we walked down a very large hill and went down to the Jewish Quarter, where we saw a lot of old synagogues and a Jewish cemetery that was so small, the citizens used to bury their dead in layers of ground and build the head stones up from underneath! Then we had dinner at Kolliba again -- fairly uneventful, except that the restaurant accidentally served liquor in our desert. (I think the liquor was cooked, though, so there was no alcohol in it.)

Monday: We made a quick stop at a Mozart museum in the city. The exhibition hall was small, but it had beautiful vintage instruments and there was a nice garden in the back. We went to the English International School -- I think it was for British children -- and had a concert there. Afterwards, one of the administrators told us about how the school had been thinking about adding its own music program, and that our concert had showed them how important such a program would be. SWEET! We then drove back to the Old Town to do some souvenir shopping. I bought this tan pashminka (Indian-made cashmere scarf) from a shop, and some new earrings. We had Kolliba for dinner again, but took take-out instead. I think it was some kind of fried pork sandwich, but I didn't eat that much of it because my group had gone to a Subway earlier in the day.

Today: Sadly, the tour guide we've traveled with in Prague had to stay behind and work with another group...our new tour guide came with us to Terezin, a Czech town that was used as a concentration camp in World War II. The main attraction was a cemetery where the people who died at the concentration camp were buried...it was very reverent, and beautiful. We went to Dresden for lunch and a walking tour. The group I went with for lunch found a hot dog stand where the food was good and extremely cheap! After Dresden, it was a long drive here to our hotel in Berlin. We have bunk beds at this hotel, and eight people (in two bedrooms) have to share two bathrooms...okaaay. However, the buffet dinner they served us was superb!

I hope that's everything...it was a lengthy time away from the computer! I can't wait to start touring in Berlin tomorrow!