defenestrations

8512 we started with a brief history of the Czech lands on this day, with discussion on how classes will go an whatnot, then we broke for lunch, me and a few other guys, Chris the TA included, wandered our way into a restaurant, i had Elk Goulash with Potato Dumplings, it was fantastic. I have never had elk before, it tasted like lamb, it was cooked to hell in the goulash so it wasnt tough or anything like other game meats i have had, with the dinner i had a from the tap pilsner urquell which was significantly better than the bottles in the States, or the bottles here. we had a cultural misshap at this restaurant, we were told by one of our local guides not to tip very much, as in round up to the nearest hundred and that is good, so we payed like 1210, for a 1700 CZK meal, and she chased after us claiming we didnt pay enough...so i gave her an additional 200, and we left confused, i dunno if she though she could get more our of us due to our being american, i mean she clearly did get more money, of if we underpaid, or what, but whatever, a 70USD lunch for 5 people including drinks isnt that bad. we then went on a walking tour with another local guide. these are my notes from the tour, along with some addendum and pictures.

this is the current German Embassy, in sept of 89, east germans were coming to prague, to request political asylum at the west german embassy. This was one of the precipitating events leading to the november protests by czech students. this was in the embassy area, which we wandered through on our way to the top of the hill The area on top of the hill, used to be a normal portion of the village, however there was a conflagration in the late 1500s, and a series of aristocratic families kicked the poor people out and built their palaces.

Prague castle is the longest continuously operating seat of government in central europe, the kings of bohemia, various holy roman and austro-hungarian emperors, the czechoslovak republic of 1918 president, communist, modern czech presidents, all of them have ruled from this castle The hapsburgs were primarily responsible for the enlarging of the castle to what it is today, prior to this, the castle looked the same from its first conversion over to aristo homes in the 9th century, Front of cathedral is neogothic, as it was started in the 1300s, and not completed till the 1920s

i love it is big and imposing and catholic Windows of the cathedral: designed by 20th century artist, because there are no original windows, one of which designed by a famous modern czech artist, depicts early christiantiy in bohemia, including the patron-saint of the czech republic. And Cyril and Mathodius who brought christianity to moravia. Defenstration window!!!

really the only time you get to talk about defenestration is in prague, the famous one is when the protestant bohemians were upset with their newly appointed Catholic king, so they threw his advisers out the window, they landed in a pile of shit, and survived, but its the thought that counts right?

we saw some other stuff on the tour, but it wasnt quite as interesting, and im short on time, so Ill talk about the rest of the day, we had a light dinner at a place near our dorm, and me and my roomate got a litre (yup a litre) of local beer for 60CZK or 3USD, it was awesome, i think we will make this place our local quick spot as the food and beer was cheap, and for the oral history bit we will need to get done later. eventually we went to a bar with a group (in my opinion which was too large) and then wandered around to another one, we ent up at a tourist trap irish pub, overall an ok night.