DAY ONE: February 10th, 2008; Uhelny Trh

This was the neighborhood Ellen and I stayed in while in Praha. This particular area was called Uhelny Trh (I'm not sure what the Uhelny means...maybe a person's name but I'm quite sure the Trh mean "triangle" or something of the sort since this area/park was in the shape of a triangle. I didn't get a picture of it but to the left in this picture there are two set of staircases going down into the ground (I thought at first it was like NYC and it led down to the metro which is their version of a subway) but in fact it was just bathrooms that were closed up at night. Our apartment is on the other side and to the right of that red building (we were off a side street). Great location...walking distance to pretty much everything!

This is a daily open-air market just off another side street from Uhelny Trh called Havelska. They sold everything from fruits and vegetables to clothes to souvenirs and novelty items. After 10pm at night this is one of the streets that became part of the red-light district as it had several "Cabaret" shows and of course red-lights. If you continue down this street and toward the left you would end up in Old Town Square which is the hub of the city.





This is a church that was tucked away in a back alley just up the street from our apartment. We found it as we were walking trying to find Tesco (a supermarket). This church in retrospect in not nearly as grand as the ones I'll show you later but it was pretty and quaint and I liked that it was kind of hidden in the alley.



Tesco is kind of like a Fred Meyer. It has five floors...the 4th floor is all electronics, the 3rd is women's' fashion, 2nd is Men's, ground floor was cosmetics, toiletries, cleaning supplies etc... and negative 1 floor was all food and only food. Ellen and I picked up some supplies for breakfast since we have the lovely kitchenette. Now the Czech Crown (Koruna; Kc) to the American dollar exchange rate was about $1 to 17Kc. So a 100Kc was worth about $6, the 200Kc about $12. It was weird cause when I pulled money out of the "Bankomat" (ATM) I would pull out 3000Kc which was worth about $350. Not counting my plane ticket I spent about a total of $936 (but this included the week long stay at the apartment), so all the food, travel, museums, souvenirs, tours plus our apartment all cost less than $1000! It would have been far more expensive if they were on the Euro as our Dollar is only worth 65cents to 1Euro.

Down this street which is Rytirska you can reach Wenceslas Square (which is not a square but a big fat wide and long street) on the right or if you continue straight you can reach Old Town Square (which is a square) on the left...but directly at the end of this street is the Estates Theatre (I have more pictures of it for later) which is where Mozart himself premiered the opera Don Giovanni. The theatre looks rather small for something that grand and amazing...but it's still amazing! I stood where Mozart had been!