Don't think that's nice morning fog you're seeing. It is, in fact, the ever-looming smog, a nice reminder of Prague's industrialist (read: communist) past. Nevertheless, the view from Prague Castle, where this picture was taken, is wonderful. I think I truly appreciated the city for the first time today as we toured around the castle and were able to see all of the city. There are lots of interesting things to see in Prague aside from the really old architectural structures. There is a mini model of the Eiffel tower, for instance. There is also a "Dancing House" that looks like a building the mad hatter from Alice in Wonderland would live in. My favorite, however, is the giant radio antenna built by the Soviets. In 2000, an artist made giant baby statues (seriously the size of cars) and had them placed crawling up the tower. He took them down a year later but the people of Prague apparently were very sad about this and they were soon reinstated for a trial run of 9 more years. They are the creepiest thing I have ever seen. I have sadly not taken a photo yet but no worries, I definitely will do so.

On another note, I am starting to make progress with the Czech language. I can ask one's name, number, nationality, etc. and can talk a bit about colors and food. Far from fluent and my American accent is still a hindrance. My Czech roommate still laughs at me every time I try to say something.

I started taking more photos today. Unfortunately the weather here isn't much of an improvement from the dreariness that is London. I think I will have to take a sweep of the city when the sun finally peaks through the smog (perchance it ever, ever lifts).

To the left is the sweet office/residency of the Cardinal of Prague which he gets despite a depressingly low number of actual Catholics in Czech Republic. To the right is the main entrance to Prague Castle. 3 interesting notes about PC is that it (a) does not look like a castle at all (b) has a huge church in the center and (c) has guys in furry hats that stand outside with rifles and don't move just like at Buckingham in Britain.

So I have a thing for statues. I just love them and there are hundreds in Prague which is my favorite thing about the city thus far. That being said, this statue is easily the saddest I've seen. Story behind Edgar: He became 2nd president of Czech Republic (Czechoslovakia at the time) and was pretty much ballin' but then in 1938, the Sudatenland was given to Hitler and soon after Edgar fled to America. However, he returned to England when all of CR was taken and formed an exile government. Pretty sweet. So he finally gets CR back and is president again and everyone loves him because he kept the republic going and stayed true to his country. But, in 1948 the Communists held a coup that overthrew the government and they locked Edgar in Prague Castle. They then forced him to sign over his country to them despite him hating communism, etc. And so, Edgar felt he betrayed his country and was so bummed about losing his country for the second time that he went mentally insane while still held in the castle and subsequently died from the effects of his insanity. Poor guy could seriously not catch a break.

*I was going to add more pictures to the blog but I think I may have taken enough of your attention for today with that story. More to come.