10 Days Part I: Prague

The Czech Republic is SO cool. Especially for a place with such a depressing history, but maybe that's why I'm drawn to it. After all they've been through, the country is finally on the upswing. It seems like such a together culture, united by its unfortunate past.

Among all the other things we crammed into the one full day plus the previous afternoon we were actually in Prague, we visited the Alfons Mucha Museum near Wenceslas Square, which was fairly small but really interesting. They had not only some of his most famous posters on display, but also sketches and test plates, which I loved. We also went to the Museum of Communism (more accurately, of Anti-Communism). That was also quite interesting, but very heavy, especially compared with Mucha's dreamy, idealized Art Nouveau - which, by the way, they have a lot of over there, especially in the architecture. (In my opinion, the USA is downright ugly compared to pretty much all of Europe, although a friend pointed out to me that we do have some lovely wilderness.) Allow me to illustrate (You can see the rest of my photos here):

Cathedral at Prague CastleStatue of Saint Wenceslas at Wenceslas SquareA building decorated in art nouveau style next to a beautiful towerEven their train station is art nouveau, even if they don't use this part anymore...And here's a sketch by Mucha for good measure.