July 15, 1998

Caption: Georg, the driver of the instrument truck, and Andreas, our head tour guide.

After settling all our long distance accounts this morning (yikes!), we boarded the bus to Prague. Our tour guide, Andreas, is an ex-English and history teacher and is really quite knowledgeable about Eastern European politics over the past century. Hearing his views on capitalism and socialism gave the students a perspective that was quite unique.

Crossing the border into the Czech Republic was an experience! An official boarded the bus and checked everyone's passport and then we had lunch. Students could pay with either Cronin (the Czech currency) or Schillings. There are so many Cronins to the dollar that we all felt rich after lunch money was distributed. I don't think I ever envisioned myself eating Chinese food at the Czech border. Is that strange or what?

The beautiful Bohemian countryside and all the quaint Czech villages made the bus ride (about 6 and a half hours) pass quickly. I thought one large village was Prague. I felt a little silly when we actually got to Prague--it's huge!

We passed so many fields of sunflowers and poppies. The houses are not nearly so decorated with window boxes as in Germany. Bohemia and Moravia comprise the Czech Republic. We had a 20-minute walk from the bus to our dinner in Prague (Praha in Czech). All the walkways are cobblestone and the Moldau River flows beneath the Charles Bridge. Prague has over a million inhabitants. We had a great dinner with chicken (topped with ham, cheese, and a peach) rice AND French fries and a banana split for dessert. All plates were cleaned after the dessert for the first time. It was a little cool but pleasant after a few raindrops. We get to shop and tour tomorrow so we're eagerly anticipating that.

We're headed into our hotel now--it doesn't look like much from the outside, but the Minnesota Choir group, who stayed in the same hotel before coming to Vienna, told us it is fairly nice inside.

Until tomorrow... more information once we've had a chance to explore.

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