I'm writing this message from my laptop, in my room, at the____ Hotel in Prague. We got in yesterday at around 3:30 local time; walked around for a little bit, ate some sausage.
What is it like? First of all it is pretty chilly. Maybe 64 degrees in the sun (its even rather sunny right now) I understand that this is somewhat cooler than normal but not by a great deal.
The city sort of surprised me. I knew that the architecture was beautiful pictures are forthcoming. It has a sort of Hapsburg vibe to it the family that ruled Austria and Spain and what was the Austro-Hungarian Empire (the empire of my ancestors left similarly-styled buildings all throughout their holdings). Theres a similar vibe here and in Salzburg and Vienna.
Here its a bit moreohgothic, maybe? More spires on the tops of buildings and old copper roofs with an aqua-green patina. I dont know what the local stone is what historically people quarried. It looks like limestone, but also sandstone maybe its just a sandier limestone (edit: I'm right - sandy limestone). Whatever the case its gorgeous BUT the thing that surprised me was all the SPACE that there is. In most of Europe or, old Europe In most old cities built before the industrial age, modern urban planning, etc. the streets are laid out organically in the way that peoples lifestyles grew them over the course of hundreds of years winding around each other like narrow capillaries barely big enough for an ox-cart or, even sometimes, a bicycle; but, in Prague the streets are quite wide and there is plenty of space between individual buildings. Im not quite sure why.
Most of the city is actually quite original Prague was actually spared almost completely any combat/bombing in both of the world wars. Nothing is *missing* here it seems like it was always this way. I dont know. That surprised me.
What else
I had the Japanese Breakfast miso soup broiled salmon spinach tofu poached egg rice it was really quite excellent. There are a lot of Japanese tourists here, I guess.
What is it like? First of all it is pretty chilly. Maybe 64 degrees in the sun (its even rather sunny right now) I understand that this is somewhat cooler than normal but not by a great deal.
The city sort of surprised me. I knew that the architecture was beautiful pictures are forthcoming. It has a sort of Hapsburg vibe to it the family that ruled Austria and Spain and what was the Austro-Hungarian Empire (the empire of my ancestors left similarly-styled buildings all throughout their holdings). Theres a similar vibe here and in Salzburg and Vienna.
Here its a bit moreohgothic, maybe? More spires on the tops of buildings and old copper roofs with an aqua-green patina. I dont know what the local stone is what historically people quarried. It looks like limestone, but also sandstone maybe its just a sandier limestone (edit: I'm right - sandy limestone). Whatever the case its gorgeous BUT the thing that surprised me was all the SPACE that there is. In most of Europe or, old Europe In most old cities built before the industrial age, modern urban planning, etc. the streets are laid out organically in the way that peoples lifestyles grew them over the course of hundreds of years winding around each other like narrow capillaries barely big enough for an ox-cart or, even sometimes, a bicycle; but, in Prague the streets are quite wide and there is plenty of space between individual buildings. Im not quite sure why.
Most of the city is actually quite original Prague was actually spared almost completely any combat/bombing in both of the world wars. Nothing is *missing* here it seems like it was always this way. I dont know. That surprised me.
What else
I had the Japanese Breakfast miso soup broiled salmon spinach tofu poached egg rice it was really quite excellent. There are a lot of Japanese tourists here, I guess.