Prague - Day Two

We spent the entire day up in the Prague Castle today. That was definitely cool. The thing that really struck me as crazy is just the sheer age of Prague. The city was founded in the 700s, and the castle (the largest castle in the world, I might add) was built in the late 800s. The most impressive thing is that the castle is still the seat of the modern Czech head-of-state. That makes it almost ten-times as old as the White House. And to think just last summer they had wireless Internet and internal plumbing installed at the same time.....

[Editor's Note: That was a joke.]

I decided to buy a ticket for the "short tour" (which got me into a lot of the buildings for a self-guided tour), and an audio-guide, just for fun (it actually turned out to be very useful). The first building that I toured in the castle (which is more of a walled complex than anything else) was the old Palace. I will admit that I got overly excited during this tour when the audio-guide informed me that I was now looking out of the famous "Defenestration Window" which was the portal utilized during the Second Defenestration of Prague (not to be confused with the First Defenestration of Prague). This was the famous flying-man attempt that sparked the Thirty Years' War. It was just as cool as I had always imagined, and way more dramatic. Yeah, I definitely got way too excited about that one.

The castle was really intriguing, even more so for its architecture than its history. Due to a couple of fires, several wars (including the time when the Prussians put over 750 cannon balls through the central cathedral), and more crazy rulers than necessary, the complex as a whole, and even individual buildings, is a random mix of building styles that stretch across it's thousand year history. It is definitely a sight to behold, but none so much as the giant cathedral that sits in the center of the complex (which, just as a side note, is the largest building of its kind). It's a really beautiful building, and even more so with it's stained-glass interiors. The line to go in was crazy, especially sense it was Sunday and it wasn't open for tours until noon. Luckily, if you picked up an audio-guide, you got to walk right in through the exit, much to the glares of the people who had been waiting for forty minutes. But even without the audio-guide, the interior of the cathedral is definitely a must see.

We took a 6 PM night train home. Another direct train, but we ended up with seats this time. Oh well, you get what you pay for (it was 5€). We got back to Karlsruhe at around 5:40 AM and I diligently tromped to work only a couple later hours later, albeit, a couple hours late.

So with that said, "How many times can I use the words 'definitely' and 'cool'?".