Date: May 17th, 2023
Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Woke up today still not feeling that well, but I just took some medicine and waited for that to work. In the meantime, I got dressed, packed a bag, and got ready to grab some breakfast downstairs. Today, I made sure to dress a little nicer than usual. In Europe, it seems like everyone wears business casual daily so I was already dressing relatively nice every day. But today, we were going to visit the Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping, and Cadastre!
If you don’t know what that is (and don’t worry, I didn’t know what that was until we got there), the Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping, and Cadastre is basically like a government office in Czechia that’s in charge of things like creating maps of the country, region, cities, etc.; defining and maintaining boundaries of properties, states, etc.; registering land; and so much more! Anyways, we had to take the underground metro this time to get there since it was a little farther away and in a completely different part of Prague. But we managed to get there alright. And we were pretty lucky to be able to visit them too!
I’m pretty sure I heard the Czechia Land Surveying office doesn’t have visitors that often. But I imagine they heard that since our program was all about geography and geospatial data, they were happy to allow us to hear about what they do. So when we got there, all of the employees we interacted with were super kind. They put on a couple of presentations about what some of the different departments do and they shared with us some of the stuff they working on as well! We even got to visit a couple of people’s offices and hear them talk more personally about their work and what they do. Now admittedly, land surveying, mapping, and cadastre are not my thing. And whenever I do hear about those topics, it’s usually in a United States context and I understand a bit more of the technical terms like the datum being used and such. But it was still a pretty neat experience!
After our visit to the Czechia Land Surveying office, all the undergrad students and our teachers went to a restaurant to talk about the work that we would have to do during the fall semester for this experience. My voice was still pretty gone so I couldn’t really do much but listen, but the work for next fall seemed easy enough so I’m not worried! Anyways, the restaurant we went to had really good food for really good prices! I was able to order a steak for a bit cheaper than I would usually get in the US so I took that as a major win! And I knew everyone else enjoyed their meals too!
Once we were finished with our lunch, we all went back to the hotel to freshen up and change out of our fancy, office-visit clothes before heading back out. A friend and I decided that we wanted to get some souvenir shopping in and to get gelato so we met up in the lobby and took the tram down to Old Town Prague. We just wandered into the first gelato place we saw and we ended up scoring big time! I got a delicious mix of strawberries and mixed berries while my friend got her flavors. We went ahead and paid for our gelato and then wandered around until we found ourselves at the Astronomical Clock! A minute or so after we got there, the clock began to chime symbolizing it was the top of the hour so we got to see the little animatronics attached to the clock move. It wasn’t anything crazy, but it was nice to watch and very impressive considering how old the clock is.
After the clock finished chiming, my friend and I went on our way. First, we looked around the area and ended up in Jewish Quarter again. Though there was some serious police presence there and it seemed like something very big, but not very public had just happened so we didn’t stay in that area for too long. So, we went back to where a bunch of the souvenir shops were and picked up a few things for ourselves. I found a few keychains and a hoodie for myself. And I managed to score a trinket of the Astronomical Clock for my dad. I really wanted to get him something special from here because my dad used to work in Prague. He spent a good bit of time there and he always talked about the area with fond memories so I was excited to come here. And I’m really happy that I love it here too!
Eventually, we were all souvenir shopped out so my friend and I went to meet up with another guy in our program to grab dinner before heading back to the hotel. We went to a nearby Döner kebab and I ended up getting a sandwich that was way, way, way too long for me. It sucked that this hotel (and none of the hotels prior) had microwaves. It would have made a great lunch or a late-night snack but unfortunately, I had to toss the rest of it.
Once we were finished with dinner, we all went back to the hotel and we were our separate ways. My medicine was wearing off and I was feeling a bit tired so I decided to turn in for the night. I said goodnight to my friends and went back to my room. I wanted to get some proper rest since I wasn’t feeling well still and since tomorrow was our last full day in Prague. I really like this city (and I have a bit more shopping to do) so I want to make the most of it! So now it’s time for me to hit the hay!
Alright! That's all for today! Thank you so much for reading. Hope you enjoyed it! Until next time!
- DD
Picture Sources (in order of appearance):
Walking around Prague - My photo!
The City during Sunset - My photo!
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