Wow. I live here now.

And I don´t speak a word of Czech.

The train from Amsterdam was great. My neck started hurting (from straining to look out the window in the same direction all day) about Bavaria. Apparently all of Northern Europe looks like the Willamette Valley, but the houses are more gingerbread than whitebread.

In Wolfsburg, Germany the train went by the Volkswagen plant and I got to see the car elevator towers that I used as a precedent in a studio project. In Berlin the train passed the Reichstag and a score of other interesting buildings that I didn´t know. The Dresden Hauptbahnhof (train station) is an old iron-framed structure with a new fabric roof, a perfect use if ever there was one.

From Berlin to Prague, I shared a cabin with a middle-aged Dutch couple on their way to spend four days in a rented apartment. Today, I saw them again inside St. Vitus Cathedral up at Prague Castle. (That site has information. This one has pictures, including a not great one of the Mucha window, my favorite part.) We kept bumping into each other all over the complex.

For 175 krowns (about 7.50 dollars), the student rate, I had full access to everything: St. Vitus´south tower and crypt, the old royal palace, St. George;s Basilica, the Powder Tower, the National Gallery, and Golden Lane, which would have been my favorite if one of the little houses had been furnished as a house instead of their all being shops.

At breakfast this morning, I accidently ran into D., the program coordinator for NC State;s Prague Institute. As it turns out all of the contact information I had been given was wrong, so this was lucky. P., my studio professor is here as well. So now I´ve seen the studio space and it;s quite nice. It will double in size at some point over the next year, too, as we take over the other side of the building. The best feature of its location is the serious tea room downstairs. And I was worried about not finding good tea in Prague. Silly me.

And lastly, the joke about beer being cheaper than water isn´t a joke. Last night I had a full half liter from Tesco (grocery store) for 11 cents US. 11 cents. I don´t like beer, but so far everything here has been drinkable. Strong and drinkable. My first night I had a glass of wine, sitting outside on the street at a tapas bar, for 16 krowns (68 cents). I will get used to this.