Inside the Castle Walls

At Prague Castle

 Dobre Den!

It is officially the last week of my study abroad trip to Prague, Czech Republic. It is insane to believe that in just a few days, I will be home! This was the fastest month of my life and the fastest classes ever! (Which is true because we basically only had 3 and a half weeks of class, with two classes for 2-2 1/2 hours each every week day.)

While most people chose to explore other parts of Europe such as Budapest or Amsterdam, I chose to soak up as much of Prague as I possibly could! I will not be traveling after my program ends, so I felt as though I need to enjoy my last weekend with a few last minute explorations.

On Saturday, I went to the Prague Castle. Although I had already visited it once, I wanted to go again and walk the entire castle and buy the ticket to see Golden Lane and the rest of St. Vitus Cathedral and a few other buildings within the castle walls.

St. Vitus

Rose Window 

Inside the castle, a few classmates and I bought student tickets for only 125 cks. This is only about $6.25, which is not bad for a huge tourist site! We walked through all of St. Vitus, a beautiful Gothic styled cathedral that started construction in the Middle Ages. We saw the stained glass designed by Alfons Mucha-- the famous Czech Art Nouveau artist, along with the tomb of St. Jan Nemopak which is a large baroque silver tomb. He is the figure always has five stars around his head.

It was incredible how high the ceilings are and how much there was to look at. The rose window is absolutely breath-taking too! I made sure to light a candle while I was in there and say a short prayer. I was truly amazed with how much I was able to see inside this cathedral.

The Tomb

Mucha Stained Glass

We moved on to the Old Royal Palace. It was really cool to see where the scene of the second defenestration had taken place-- defenestration is when someone is thrown out a window to their death, a common occurrence in Czech history. We also visited the Basilica of St. George, and made our way to Golden Lane.

Golden Lane had once housed all the workers of the Prague Castle and lies on the edge of the complex.  Franz Kafka, the famous Czech writer, once lived there! We walked through the Medieval Armory Museum and explored the little shops and houses along the way.

On Golden Lane

We ended our trip to the castle by looking over at the beautiful view of Prague. It was a beautiful day filled with a lot of exploring! I definitely had learned and seen a lot.

Picture with the Castle Guard

I hope everyone else is enjoying their summer whether they have classes or midterms or work or actual summer break! Over here it has been a strong 87-90 degrees every day... we were told this never happens, but it has been this way all month!

Stay tuned for my last few blog posts.
Victoria