Christmas in Prague.

There's an open air modern art exhibit around Prague, we found this sculpture at the market down the street from our hostel. We can't figure out what it is. The girls, looking quizzical, from left to right are: Emili, Natalie, Colleen, and Vicki.



This is a view of a portion of the Christmas market in Prague's Old Town Square from the top of the Astronomical Clock Tower. We ate hot wine, trldo (smoked cinnamon sugar dough), sausage, and candied almonds.



This is the Charles Bridge. Prague is a super popular place for movie sets because it's probably the oldest European city untouched by war so it's absolutely beautiful and intact. This bridge has been in a ton of movies, such as Mission Impossible, Underworld, etc.



This is me posing for my high school portraits with the Charles Bridge as the background. I was freezing cold sitting on that concrete.


The first night we got into Prague, all we did was unpack and go out for dinner. Our hostel is AMAZING. We have this huge room with a great view and wooden floors and the best shower I've used in all of Europe. Yesterday we wandered around Prague's two main squares which currently have huge Christmas markets in them, saw the Astronomical Clock, and wandered around on Charles Bridge. We pretty much just got acquainted with the town, took photos of the gorgeous architecture, and ate ate ate everything we saw at the markets. Our hostel also had a free Christmas Eve dinner for all guests of the hostel, so we ate mashed potatoes and turkey and stuffing and pie for dinner then watched National Lampoons Christmas Vacation before bed.

Today, the only stuff open was the Jewish sites, so we had a Jewish siteseeing morning. The only reason Prague didn't get demolished during WWII was because the Nazis wanted to use part of the town as a historical site/monument to a so-called "extinquished inferior race." The part of the town the Nazis designated as such has now been turned into a sort of Jewish heritage center, displaying the history of Jews in Prague throughout all of history and especially WWII. It was amazing to go through and see what all was saved and learn about the history, not to mention visit centuries old synagogues. Afterwards, we decided to have an authentic Czech meal, so we found a restaurant serving goulash, dumplings and Pilsner beer and went right in. It was probably the best meal I've eaten in a month.