Prague

01/27/11

We woke up Thursday morning in disarray because we still had to pack and print out our tickets to Prague to be on a plane by 2 that afternoon! Luckily everyone got up in time and got all packed, but trying to fit clothes for three nights and four days into a backpack in addition to sheets, towels, and a hairdryer was difficult. We went over to the internet point two tram stops down to print our tickets. Someone told us it’d take 5 minutes, but it wound up taking us about 20 since we had six tickets to enter in and the internet was so slow. We missed the first bus over from Trastevere to the airport that the rest of our group caught, but luckily another one left twenty minutes later and we had left ourselves plenty of time to arrive at the airport. It was a very hectic first traveling experience because we thought we knew where the train station, but almost got off at the wrong tram stop! We had to ask a local where the “Stazione” was and they helped us out. The train pulled up just as we got up on the platform and we took about a half hour train ride over to the airport. One nice thing about Rome is that once I have a pass for public transportation, you can use it in all aspects of it so we traveled all the way to the airport free. When we arrived at the airport, the rest of the group was waiting. We sat around the airport for nearly two hours before we actually boarded the plane. We didn’t realize that it wasn’t an assigned seat plane and whoever boarded the plane first got first choice. Thank God we were still able to find seats next to one another. While it wasn’t a small plane, it was smaller than any plane I’d ever ridden in before. I fell asleep immediately after takeoff and before I knew it, I was woken up a short hour and a half later to find out we were landing. 

     Upon landing, we didn’t really know what to expect as far as how we were going to get to our hostel, but the boys were with us at the same place so that made us feel safer in our first traveling experience. First thing first, they don’t use Euros in the Czech Republic so we had to take money out of the ATM called Czech Crowns. Their money converts as $1 is equivalent to 18 Czech Crowns. Needless to say, converting was very difficult to comprehend. We would have bills that read 1,000 making me feel like I had way more money than I actually did. From the airport, we were supposed to hop on bus 119 that took us to a stop where we would take the underground train for four stops. Trying to buy tickets from a machine that didn’t have English on it in a country where we had no idea what we were supposed to buy was quite the experience. A man standing nearby was happy to help us and directed us back into the airport to purchase our tickets where we didn’t need change and they spoke English. Our timing couldn’t have been better, we walked back out and the bus pulled up. We got on a little nervous, but very excited. The underground train felt like a spaceship with how fast it went. We got off at the right stop, thankfully, and headed upstairs to the streets of Prague. 

     My first reaction was that it was much more modern than Rome. There were so many old buildings, but there were more lit signs with a couple modern buildings thrown in there. We started out walking not really sure where we were headed and after finally getting to the hostel, we noticed that we went the opposite direction of where we were originally supposed to. I didn’t care though because we were able to see some of Prague’s sites. Apparently, we got to our hostel, La Pension Tara, too late for actual check-in so they placed our key in a creepy hotel around the corner. We grabbed our keys and headed up. It was a little scary at first, but in general the place wasn’t all too bad. We checked out a room that was a six-bed dormitory and one bathroom, so all us were together with no strangers. However, one room had 3 beds, one had 2, and one had 1. No one wanted to be the one stuck in a room by themselves so we pushed the three beds together and had four of us sleep in them. It made the experience more comforting and we had to laugh. 

Four of us snuggled up at the hostel!

     We had made reservations at The Beer Factory at 8:30 and it was already 8:15 by the time we got settled in. We quickly changed, locked our stuff in our lockers, and headed out. It wasn’t too far of a walk and by the time we got there, the other girls were all already eating and the place. It was underground, much like many of the bars and clubs in Prague. Each table had a keg underneath the floor with four taps coming out. On screen shows the tables who have drank the most of their keg during their time there so we turned it into a competition. Our team (table 11) won! We ate chicken, French fries, and salad. This tasted fantastic as compared to all the pasta we’ve been eatingOur friend in the program, Danny Blinky, turned 21 at midnight so we celebrated that. Not too long after, everyone split up and headed back to our hostels to get a good night sleep before the next few days of exploring and going out.  

Table 11 at the Beer Factory

01/28/11

     We woke up at 10 the next morning after having full intentions to get up by 9, but we were exhausted after having so much traveling the day before. We had decided to go to this place called The Globe for breakfast because we had heard good things about it. By the time we got there, brunch was over because it stops at 10 on weekdays and only goes until 3:30 on weekends. Either way, the menu looked good and we had a quick bite to eat before catching our tour. I got the onion soup, a Panini, and salad. It really hit the spot! We headed back towards our hostel, which is close to Old Town Square, where our free tour started. We started in front of the Astronomical Clock Tower where we proceeded for two hours to sites such as: Church of Our Lady Before Tyn, Jan Hus Statue, Old New Synagogue, The Jewish area, Powder Tower, and much, much more. We took a break in the middle of the tour as a group for coffee because it was sooo cold! Not to mention, it was the best tasting thing I’ve had in awhile since Italy doesn’t seem to have regular American coffee and I normally have at least one cup a day. At the end of the tour, we watched the celebrated bell tower ringing on the hour from 9 am to 9 pm. 

Astronomical Clock Tower

Church of Our Lady Before Tyn

St. Nicholas Church

     Given we only had one shower, one mirror, and 6 girls, we headed back to our hostel after stopping at a couple souvenir shops where I bought a shot glass. I’ve decided to collect shot glasses at every place I go to. We ran into the boys coming back and we decided to all go to dinner together before going out. We asked the lady working the front desk at the hostel for suggestions of restaurants and she suggested U ‘Fleku. Once we found it, I noted on their menu that they have been in business since 1499, nearly 300 years before America was even founded. Here we were greeted by ginormous mugs of beer and a two men playing the accordion and tuba as entertainment. The restaurant looked very authentic and I was excited. Four girls, including myself, ordered the beer cheese with bread as an appetizer. Gina and I decided to split the sausage, potato, and sauerkraut meal and each ordered a side of onion soup (popular choice for me this trip!). All the food was delicious and so different! In the middle of the meal, a lady approached us with her film crew and asked us if she could take a shot with us all “cheers”ing with her. After talking to her for a bit, we realized she was the host of the Lebanese MTV and we took a couple different camera shots with her so who knows, maybe we’ll be MTV stars in Lebanon some day! 

Dinner at U'Fleku

     Prague is very known for its clubs and we wanted to make sure to experience as much as we could in the little time we had there so we decided to go to two that night. The first stop at 12:30 was a bar called U Sudu. It was several layers underground, each with a different theme. As we continued down to the various floors, I couldn’t help but notice how much cooler this was than any other bar I’d ever been to. At around 2 a.m., we decided to head to our next stop, Cross Club. This was another place that had four different stories, each with a different theme and type of music. By the time we left and got back to our hostel, it was already 5 a.m. and I had no troubles falling asleep!

At U'Sudu

01/29/11

     Once again, we slept until 10 after a late night, but started the day in a hurry. We got ready (no shower) in a half an hour and headed to Bohemian Bagel, an apparent famous chain in Prague. We chose the one just on the other side of the Charles Bridge because it was in route to our other destinations of the day. Walking over the Charles Bridge was breathtaking. It provided me with a panoramic view of the entire Prague Castle and the surrounding area. When we got to breakfast, it turned out to be my favorite meal since I’ve been in Europe. Not that I’m not enjoying the food over here, but I’m a big breakfast fan and in Italy, they don’t eat anything remotely similar to American style breakfast, but rather croissants and sweets. Therefore, I ordered a huge omelet with ham, cheese, onions, peppers and mushrooms that came with a side of hash browns and a bagel. Omelets have never tasted so good to me in my life. 

View of Prague Castle from the St. Charles Bridge

     Next stop, the John Lennon wall! We ran into it and it wasn’t as big as I was expecting, but an incredible sight nonetheless. My favorite location on the wall was where it said love love love, and to my dismay, the area that has the piece sign has been spray painted over. Right next door was the love locks where people go to “lock their love” with someone. 

Tridelts at the John Lennon Wall

Love Locks

     From here, we traveled up what wound up being a very steep hill towards the Prague Castle. Once we finally hiked all the way up, it made the cold and soreness worth it. We were able to see the entire city of Prague from the top! The city is one of the prettiest I’ve had the privilege to see. I could actually see myself enjoying studying abroad there because I like the architecture so much and the people are very friendly. We wandered around the top of the castle and stopped for awhile at St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague’s main attraction in my opinion. It was a site to see! The cathedral was massive and while we didn’t do the tour (it’s 3 hours long!), we just walked around as it was already getting late. Time truly flies when you’re trying to see as many sites as you can in a day! 

St. Vitus Cathedral

Another View

     We ventured to a coffee shop to warm up at the half way point considering I could not feel neither my hands nor my feet and then headed back to the hostel to get ready. Once we had all showered and dried our hair, we took the five minute walk over to the street vendors to purchase “street meat.” I got a footlong sausage with sauerkraut, ketchup, and mustard. This was my favorite “Czech” meal I had, plus it was very cheap! We all wanted to try it and it was quick which we needed. Our room and the boys room planned to go to a dark show at 8 that night. I didn’t really know what to expect, but we had heard good things and figured it was worth a shot! The show didn’t wind up being what I expected, but still really cool. It was dancers with shapes dressed in neon colors who did dances. In between outfit changes, their were comedian mime like characters whom I didn’t quite understand what they were doing, but some of the skits were pretty comical. The show lasted until 9:30 when we headed back to the hostel, changed, and got ready for our last night out in Prague! We were going to Karlovy Lazne, a five story club that is the largest club in Central Europe! This wound up being one of my favorite nights I’ve had in a long time. Each floor played different types of music. My favorite two floors were the disco floor and the 80s/90s music one. The 80s/90s floor looked like a parking garage with floors that lit up in green and red lights like in the Michael Jackson video. We all had a blast dancing the night away until 5 a.m. The fact that I stayed out this late is a testament to how much fun I was having!

01/30/11

     Sadly, we woke up Sunday morning only to face the facts that our mini-vacation to Prague had ended. However, not on a sad note, our vacation ended by going back to our four-month vacation in Rome. This day turned into a long day of traveling, testing us girls’ ability to travel on our own. The boys took the earlier flight, so we were responsible for getting back to the airport on our own. We left the hostel around 11 and didn’t ultimately get back to our apartment in Rome until 5. Talk about a long day! We went from bus to underground train to airport, then a flight followed by another train ride and tram ride back to our apartment! Once back at the apartment, we studied for our Italian quiz the following day and uploaded our pictures while reminiscing on how great our weekend was. I’ve never felt so fortunate to be able to see so many unique places in such a short period of time!