First Time in Eastern Europe (Prague)

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Prague was an interesting trip and time for me. It was a necessary escape from London, and an important intoduction to Eastern Europe. I thought that the city itself was beautiful. It had the landscape of San Francisco (hills, water, etc...) and the architecture/history of Paris (churches, bridges, castles, etc...). To me, that's an amazing combination. You'll see alot of that in these pictures.

What you won't see in the pictures are any Czech people. Probably the thing I noticed most about visiting Prague (after traveling around the US, South America and Spain) is the difficulty I had engaging with locals. I expect it was a language issues, and maybe I was too timid about the languague barrier. But if I am timid about that, then I expect others would be as well. This has a huge impact on the travel experience because, while Marc and Sandy are two of my best friends over here, the adventure and exploration aspects of the trip never quite materialized for me because those usually involve getting integrated into the culture through experiences with locals. I think that was a critical discovery for me, and I expect I won't visit Eastern Europe too often without more local contacts or a trip that is more concentrated on the people I'm traveling with (i.e. a romantic getaway).

Big thanks to Marc and Sandy for getting out of town with me when I desperately needed it. You guys have been great friends to me in London, and I can't thank you enough.

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