Prague is Different

Its taken the better part of the day for me to get use to Prauge. I’m starting to feel comfortable now. Our Hotel is much better than the last as you can see from the pictures.



Yes there is Air-conditioning though Its not to hot here so we would probably survive well without it. Right now I have my window opening and I’m listening to the cars drive by below. The picture from my last post was taken from my hotel window.

Prague has a bit more edge and spunk to it than Munich. It’s a very old city and almost all of the buildings are original. The people are harder in spirit and the energy is less friendly that that of Munich. These things aren’t negative though… I’m learning that they are just characteristics of an Eastern European City that has come a long way.



We haven’t taken the city tour yet so I still have much to learn, but I do know that the Czech Republic used to be a part of Czechoslovakia until the early 90s. Communism was done away with and subsequently, the Country broke into two parts… The Czech Republic and Slovakia. Prague is the capital of the Czech Republic. Though both countries have since joined the European Union, neither one has yet to adopt usage of the Euro. We had to convert our currency to koruny (singular, koruna) aka crowns. Currently the exchange rate is around 17.5 Crowns per US dollar. Its confusing to try to calculate how much money I have and how much I’m spending… I’m carrying around a calculator. I probably look silly but at least I know what I’m spending!

Our first activity was a trip to Ruckl Crystal which is about an hour outside of the city.










This crystal plant has gone from private owner ship to state ownership (under communist law) and back to its current state of private ownership. The Glass is absolutely beautiful and is completely hand made. Even the designs are hand cut. Unfortunately the company struggles to keep up with rising energy costs and larger (machine made) competition. It exports to various countries all over the world and though its business seems to be healthy, its workers make the equivalent of 700 Euro/month.

Its time for our evening walking tour of Prague and our dinner cruise on the river. In the mean time, check out the newest pictures of Prague on the Flickr Page.