Note to self:

Never forget your transportation pass while riding the tram in Prague. I thought I could – I had never heard of anyone getting caught. Well, I had given mine to someone to hold it in their purse the other night, and I didn’t get it back until today..after I got a 700 CZK ($35) fine. Oh well.

I had kind of a chill day today, recovering from an exhausting weekend. I met a friend for lunch at a place called Paneria, which is a little like the American version of Panera Bread except with more paninis and baguettes. I missed the broccoli and cheddar soup. Then, I walked around in Malastranska taking some photos for a bit, but didn’t really end up with anything I was crazy about. It was around 1:00 PM, so the light was a little harsh for what I was looking for.

I came home with my tail between my legs after I got my ticket, and looked through photos and helped a friend edit his photos.

Here are some from the first week we were here that I never got around to posting:

Mackenzie and her owl..they were letting people hold them at the Prague Castle.

Me and my falcon!

Lake/Landscape

As promised..

I have a big, fat, giant post to make up for my lack of posts this weekend. I’ve been really busy lately with class, assignment planning, eating amazing food, and editing photos. So far, I’ve taken 961 photos – that’s a lot of editing. Luckily, the sun rises at 5:30 AM every day and it doesn’t get completely dark until 11:00, so I have many hours of the day to work with.

I had a really great time this weekend. The advanced photo class (my class) and the beginner photo class combined, along with our teacher Jan and our other teacher Miro. We drove 2.5 hours to Brno, where we walked to to an artist’s house. There, we were joined by another young photographer. They both showed us their work and answered any questions that we had.

From there, we continued to Lednice. Lednice is a beautiful town just north of the border of Austria and the Czech Republic. It has two beautiful castles, a minaret, and a very natural lake area with bike paths and giant trees. We got there around 7 PM, and listened to two artists lecture about their work. I was very impressed with the first artist, Jindřich Štreit. He’s had over 800 exhibitions, 23 books published, and countless catalogs. He’s one of the Czech Republic’s leading documentary photographers, and his work is truly amazing. As he told us, he didn’t even own a digital camera until a few years ago when he visited Brazil. You can see some of his work here.

The next day, we all had breakfast together and then parted ways to go to the castles or just wander around and take pictures. The first place I went was the greenhouse at the palace. It was so beautiful; I got a lot of really great shots here. The early afternoon light was a bit harsh, but filtered through the glass of the greenhouse, it made for some really great shots. It made me wish I had a macro lens, especially for the orchids.

I can’t decide if I like the black and white versions, or the color versions of some photos. Feel free to leave input.

After the greenhouse, we wandered around the lake and visited the minaret. I actually didn’t take any pictures of it because there were tons of tourists there. I got a lot of really great pictures at and around the lake, which you can see in this post.

After that, we had lunch and then visited a wine cellar next to our hotel. I bought two bottles of white from a vineyard owner himself. I don’t usually like white wine, but we had been eating this with lunch and I really, really liked it. I think that vineyard owner must have sold 20 bottles of his wine that day.

After we bought all our wine, we went back to our bus and wandered the countryside and stopped in different scenic places to take photos. The vineyards everywhere were gorgeous, and the views were unlike anything I had ever seen. Pictures don’t do it justice at all. You can see the gallery for those photos here.

After that, we headed back home.

Trip to Moravia

Tomorrow morning, I’m headed to several cities in Moravia. Moravia is the southern region of the Czech Republic, and is known as the wine region.

I had a really long day today and will have an even longer one tomorrow, so I’m headed to bed now. I’ll post a big fat post on Monday to make up for it.

Busy day yesterday

I know I said I would update every night, but I was wiped out when I got home yesterday..I had been gone from 11:30 AM until 10:30 PM.

Yesterday was my first day of class! It went really well..the weather finally cooperated, and wasn’t unbearably hot or rainy. I went out to lunch at Cafe Colonial with two girls aiding with teaching in the program, Tyler and Heather. Then I met my photo class for the first time in front of the main building. I was surprised to learn that there are only six of us (not including me). We took the tram to further out than I had ever been, out to Žižkov which is in the district of Praha 3. Žižkov boasts the really creepy TV tower, which looks weird on its own (it kinda looks like a launchpad or something) but to make it even weirder, it has sculptures of crawling babies on it. I didn’t get a chance to get any pictures of it, but I definitely will..it’s the weirdest thing ever. Here’s a picture from the wikipedia article on the tower:

Anyway, we went to the studio of the artist who was teaching us today. He showed us some of his work and we messed around with back lighting for a bit.

The class was four and a half hours long, so that took up most of the day. After that, I went out to dinner at a well-known French restaurant. I had filet mignon with a creamy white sauce, asparagus, and mozzarella. It was delish.

I don’t think I posted any photos from our apartment that we stayed in last week. I miss that area a lot..I actually think I’m headed over there in a bit to grab some coffee. Here’s our apartment – a big upgrade from the dorm that I’m staying in now.

The living room area.

Me and Mackenzie’s room

View into the courtyard. There was a little restaurant at the bottom that always smelled so good in the evening.

Our apartment from the outside.

an adventurous day

Not really, but compared to what I’ve been doing (sitting in my dorm and editing photos), today was pretty adventurous.

I set my alarm for 9 AM, which didn’t happen. So, after I woke up around 11:00, I set out on a journey via tram and foot to do laundry at “Andy’s Laundromat” near Náměstí Míru, which is a square further south than where we stayed last week. Turns out European laundromats are a haven for American student backpackers! After that, I came back home because it was raining. The weather has been extremely sporadic lately, getting very cold at night and deceivingly sunny during the day. Walking around has been a hassle because of the random rain/wind storms that have been coming through.

Anyway, I got bored here, so after a while I wandered myself back across the river to the area where I didn’t have to look like a tourist clutching a map. I love knowing my way around the area. I stopped to eat at one of the first restaurants we ate at last week, and got fettuccine with a creamy totato sauce, garlic, and Parmesan cheese. Mmmm. This is the restaurant, from last week. They have great beer! (Side note: I’m of legal drinking age here.)

A random school building nearby where my dorm is.

Another picture taken from the top of the New Town Hall. People gathered on the hour to see the disciples come out and do their thang.

Mackenzie, Mama, and Me at the restaurant above the Cubism museum. This was the hottest day of the whole time I’ve been here..luckily, the restaurant didn’t have air conditioning.)

Another rainy day

It’s still being rainy and cold here, so I’m not really sure what to do. I was thinking about settling in with a good book, except that the only book I have is a Czech to English/English to Czech dictionary. I did explore the area a little bit this morning just to try and get acquainted with where I am now. I took the tram to the end of the line on my side of the river, then back one stop past my dorm. I stopped in what I’m pretty sure was the outskirts of Malostranská and wandered around there for a little bit before stopping in a patisserie and grabbing a baguette sandwich. After that, I walked around a little bit more and was treated to a wonderful view (I didn’t bring my camera, sorry..it’s cloudy out anyways). The clouds started getting really dark, though, and I didn’t have an umbrella so I waited by Brahe and Kepler for my 22 tram to return for me.

(This is from last week, but it’s the same statue.)

My first day of class is Tuesday, so that gives me a day to hope that my instructor emails me back about how to get to his studio. I also need to figure out where I can do laundry…

This is what the tram looks like that I’ll pretty much be taking everywhere.

The area where we stayed last week. I miss it there