National Museum (II) and Christmas Market!

Tuesday, 11/23, I had what I could call a busy day - but what I should really just call a normal day. I might as well get used to it by now that my next three and a half weeks (yikes! Am I leaving that soon?!?!) is going to be absolutely jammed pack if I want to do everything I'd like to before saying good bye to Praha.

For my history class, instead of the usual in class lecture we went to the National Museum. Remember that place from an October blog post? I wasn't too impressed with the taxidermy there then, but we were going to see the new exhibit on St. Wenceslas, the patron saint of the Czech lands, and although I wasn't setting my expectations too high, I was in for a pleasant surprise. The information was interesting and informative, as were the displays of ancient manuscripts, paintings, and sets typical of the age.

 Part of the exhibit

After that and my sociology class, I headed off to do some errands around Old Town and then took the metro to Namesti Miru ("Peace Square"). The Christmas market had been set up here over the weekend, and although not as grandiose as the market that will be up in Old Town Square this weekend, it was still fun to walk around in and be mesmerized by the lights and decorated tree.

The Christmas market and tree!

Back to Machova and more mundane chores such as homework and laundry, I took a study break later with Brandy and Bonnie when we went to a local Czech eatery, U Draka, for a quick snack. I tried out the side dish of potato croquettes, and I think I have a new favorite Czech food (not like there is much competition on that list anyway...) Basically a deep fried version of a gnocchi ball, they were a good pick me up in the midst of catching up on readings, research, editing, oh and blog entries...

The National Museum

...is quite boring.

The first Thursday of every month is free admission at Prague's National Museum. Conveniently located near the Muzeum metro stop at the end of Wenceslas Square, Brandy and I decided to go there after class on Thursday, 10/7. We were expecting exhibits on Prague's history. Instead, we got exhibits on zoology and paleontology. The exhibits were cool to see, but nothing next to the size and variety of the historical museums in NYC.

Some of the exhibits were kinda freaky...

Some of the exhibits were kinda cool...

But the whole museum building was pretty!

Although the building seems large on the outside, the interior exhibits (all 2 of them) are comparatively small. I was also surprised that they called this the 'national museum' since the place only had zoology and paleontology exhibits, but it was still a productive afternoon. And I'm not complaining about the free admission.