Prague; the pride of the Czech Republic.

I arrived in Prague yesterday afternoon. By the time I picked-up the car and found my way to the hotel it was already close to dinner time. The hotel I'm staying in is called the University Hotel. I expected it to be close to a university, but I had not expected it to be in the VSE University actual campus.

It's actually pretty cool. Young people all around, a great many of whom are foreigners studying Economics (that's the specialty of this university). There are plenty of good shops and restaurants in the neighborhood, however it is pretty far from the center of town.

This morning I opted to leave the car parked at the campus and caught the number 9 tram which took about 30 minutes to take me fairly close to Prague's most iconic attraction, the Charles Bridge.

To walk to the bridge I had to reach the Vitava river, then I walked along it for some length and immediately I was awe-struck by the beauty of this city.

The Czech flag flying near the Charles Bridge

This diving duck was too funny. The carnation flowing in the river next to it made it impossible not to capture it.

The Charles Bridge

As expected, the Charles Bridge was awash with tourists from all over the world, making it all but impossible to get any good shots. The statues along it are all wonderful.

After lunch I walked and walked around old town and marveled at how far this country has come since breaking free of the Soviet Union. There are so many beautiful sites, interesting shops, ritzy restaurants, and so much more. I took so many pictures of building facades, which I will not bore you with, but look forward to include in this trip's photo book.

Don't be fooled. It's a man pretending to be a plant on the river walk. He'll jump out and scare the daylights out of you.

If you smoke weed, you'll like it here. It's legal and there are dispensaries all over

Although it was a sunny day, the temperature difference between Prague and Rome is close to 30 degrees. Whereas in Italy I sweated every single day, with temperatures in the high 80s and low 90s, most of today was a sweater-requiring day with temps in the low 60s. I'm not complaining.

I continued my sight-seeing visiting the Jewish Quarter, which was interesting from its historical point of view, but also extremely elegant in some of its tree-lined streets, dotted with expensive shops like Cartier, Bulgary, Prada and so on.

Prague's old synagogue

Stately buildings in the Jewish Quarter

When my legs started hurting from all the walking, I caught tram number 9 back to the university, looking forward to some rest and planning tomorrow's travel to Ostrava, Czechia's third largest city. An interesting fact: I find that, unexpectedly, there are a very large number of Orientals living in this city. Tomorrow I'd like to find out why.

I leave you with a couple more pictures, and I thank you for tagging along. It's nice having company. Thanks.

Czech currency. The Koruna.