Our visit to Prague, Czech Republic

Kyle and I went to Prague, Czech Republic this weekend. We ended up having an interesting experience. Due to traffic jams, and road construction we ended up on dirt roads for about 22 km (20 on the way there and 2 on the way home)of our trip. I was surprised our GPS even knew that these roads existed. The roads in the Czech Republic were bad enough on the highway; huge pot holes, bumpy, and just awful, so you can only imagine what these dirt roads were like. I was not sure that our car was going to survive the trip. However, while I always tell Kyle what a horrible driver he is, I can tell his time in Iraq and Afghanistan helped in bad road conditions. He was very good at dodging those pot holes, however, I am pretty sure he was on the lookout for IEDs too! I can't say to much, as I was positive some big Czech guys with guns were going to come out of the the trees and rob us.
Upon arriving in Prague Friday night, we had the exciting test of finding our hotel. We knew it would nothing to fancy, but it was pretty close to awful. We had to put our beds back together before we could even lay on them and breakfast was served in a dirty little bar in the basement of the hotel. The neighborhood was very scary (at least for me), everything is so close together and so run down, I guess that is what happens from a war torn country that is recovering from years of communism. On the positive note, there were no hookers around the hotel that we saw. They were hitchhiking all throughout the city and highways. We had been warned about all the hookers and theft in the Czech, we couldn't even rent a car to take, because of the auto theft rates in Prague.
Also, upon arriving in the country we started seeing villages of homes that are about the size of our bedroom. We thought the might be abandoned, but there was lots of laundry hanging outside, so I assume people are still living in them. I found this very sad and interesting, I wish I had been able to take a picture of them. However, I doubt they really would appreciate a tourist taking pictures of their home.
While Prague is a beautiful town with a lot of interesting sites, and history, I can't say it is a place I would ever go back to. I am thankful for the experience, and am reminded of how thankful I am to be an American.
Here are a few pictures of our trip for your enjoyment

-Part of the dirt road our GPS took us down.

-Beth with castle in background

-The world's largest inhabited castle

-Totally Europe. People kissing everywhere.

-Kyle standing with the church of St. Peter and Paul in background

-View of Prague Castle and Charles Bridge

-Kyle standing with a foggy Prague behind him.

-Beth standing in front of the Prague Castle

-Old Town Hall and astronomical clock

-Jewish Cemetery. Over 200,000 Jews were buried here, the oldest stone dating 1439. Hitler was going to put a museum in Prague about the extinct race of the Jews.