Today we went on the free walking tour in Prague. As we were walking to find the tour, we came to a big group of people all looking up at a clock. So, since it was only about 5 minutes before 10 we stopped and watched and on the hour the clock kind of became a cuckcoo clock and some doors opened and little men moved in a circle and a skeleton on the side of the clock raised and lowered its arm to ring a bell. It was cool to find just my mistake. When we were done watching the clock we walked around the town center to find our tour. We found it without any problems. In the town center there was a little festival going on at the time. We found out from our tour guide that this market and festival only happened twice a year, once at Christmas and then at Easter. They had lots of little shopping venders and had a stage with kids performing on it and even had a small petting zoo with sheep, goats and rabbits. It was really cool to be able to see.
We started our tour and were shown a lot of different old building and were told about a LOT of fires that had happened in Prague’s history. We were also shown what use to be and still kind of is the Jewish part of town and some grave yard that was popular for some reason that I cannot remember. One thing that was interesting in Prague was that there were a lot of buildings that had these paintings on the outside of them and some were really old to. They were really neat. After that we went across the Charles Bridge and on to a manmade island, if you were not paying attention you not even notice that it was an island but it is. It was one of those rich places in Prague where lot of famous and rich people owned property. We were show a really old wooden water wheel that is no longer in use but still turns. Then right by the water wheel there was a fence that it is said if you and your significant other place a lock on that you will be together forever. We then walked past a wall that had a bunch of graffiti on it. I can’t remember the story but somebody painted something on it that became famous and now the people who own the wall just let it be painted and they don’t care.
One thing that is also kind of unique to Prague is how they use to label there building. They did not use numbers and letters since most people could not read so they would use pictures, some were basic things like a wood worker would have a saw or something on that idea. Then there were also some that were just goofy like the green lobster or the red lion. On some of the old builds these are still kept up just for their historical value.
The next thing that we did on the tour was to walk pass the US Embassy and up to the castle. We were told about how some of the castle came to be and how it was still used today. We ended the tour just outside the castle where Amanda and I had walked the night before. Toward the end of the tour, we had been signing a lot of big trucks moving about and men putting up what looked like stages just outside of the castle. Our tour guide told us that there was a big summit of several of the big countries leaders coming in on the weekend including President Obama.
After the tour, our tour guide gave us a recommendation on a place to eat some good traditional food and we went and ate lunch. It was in this restaurant that was also a small brewery and the rooms were really cool. They were all in arches and it was really neat. Hard to explain. After lunch we went back to the hostel for just a little bit and then went to see the city at night. We walked along the river and back up to the castle and then down to the city square. In the markets at the city square there were these pastries. “The pastry is made by wrapping a slice of sweet dough around a metal cylinder, which is then used to flatten the dough, like a rolling pin. Still wrapped around the cylinder, the dough is then rolled in sugar and cinnamon and nuts and placed over an open flames or glowing coals, where it is heated until brown. Then it’s sprinkled with more sugar or cinnamon and such and served hot. It kind of looks like an edible brown beer mug with the bottom missing.” Ok so that was description I got off the internet. We had one of them and then went back to the hostel for the night. 
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