State Department Sponsored Internet

The Internet is ours, the Internet is ours. Great day in the morning people, the Internet is ours.

After a fairly comfortable flight to Frankfurt (that I more or less passed out on) we took a much faster flight to Prague (that I did pass out on). Have no fear, I did manage a bretzel in between.

Our hotel is only around 25 minutes from the airport, so we were able to arrive and check in around 3:00, with our walking tour of Prague scheduled to begin at 3:15. Just enough time to drop our bags and hit the streets.

On the tour, we saw the Old Town Square, a large section of what used to be Prague's Jewish ghetto, and the Charles Bridge (which had a lovely view of the castle, which I'll describe in greater detail in a later post). We made it back to the square by 5:00, so that we could see the astronomical clock hit five, which is when several things happen. First, the clock chimes. Then, twelve saints parade past the windows above the clock, followed by a rooster. Finally, several people at the top of the clock tower play trumpets. I'll try to get video of this sometime in the next few days.

During the tour, it had started raining, so we headed back to the hotel after the clock. We also stopped at an ATM ($1 = 17.2 Czech Crowns). We got something like six minutes in our hotel room before it was time to head back down for the welcome reception. This is when I met my roommate, Erika. Erika is Hungarian, and just graduated from law school. She's in the tolerance and diversity dialogue.

The welcome reception was interesting. Joseph Pennington, the Charge d'Affaires from the US Embassy in Prague was our opening speaker. We did a brief question and answer period, and then devoured the hors d'oeuvres. I talked to Pennington afterward and asked what he considered to be the greatest environmental challenges facing the Czech Republic. He said that energy was the biggest issue. Right now the Czech Republic has large stores of coal, and is heavily dependent on Russian oil and gas. Their efforts to diversify into solar power were unsuccessful, partially due to very high subsidies leading to too many firms in the market. When the subsidies were removed, the whole thing began to collapse, leaving a "sour renewables" taste in peoples mouths.

Finally, after the reception (and my brief trip to Starbucks for the Internet) it was time for bed. I am such a big fan of bed.