Praha

What an amazing time I had in Prague! 

As usual, the trip started out a bit rough due to the mysterious people that I seem to run into on the trains. We left at around 5 PM and took a train to Zurich. From there, the 7 of us caught our night train to Prague. 

I ended up staying with Christina because her roommate, Elsa, fell ill.  She and I thought that we lucked out and had the entire car of 6 beds to ourselves. We soon were told that this wasn't the case and that it would be full. We hurriedly prepared ourselves for bed, took the top bunks, shut the lights off, and pretended to be asleep when the other's arrived. 

We thought we we in the clear until the drunk German man that was apparently assigned to the bed Christina was sleeping woke us up by flickering the light on and off repeatedly. The sweaty man-scent and the booze seeping out of his pores made our noses cringe. As Christina took the sheets off of her bed and changed beds, the man continued to say "excuse me- This is life!" As she awkwardly maneuvered off of the top bunk and on to the middle shelf, we were reminded that "this is life" in the most ignorant tone imaginable. He then proceeded to tell us that Americans are fat and cannot possibly fit in one bed. A few minutes later we were put to sleep by his mocking of George W. Bush and Obama's "Yes we can!". 

After a very warm train ride, I was awakened by the mean, smelly German at 5 am when he decided to douse himself with after-shave and then lie in bed staring at me. I hugged my pocket book and sweat it out until we arrived in Prague at 10. 

The train arrived and we realized that we had no idea where our hostel was. I think I was in charge of that seeing that I booked the room, but I never looked that far into it. It was no biggie, though. We simply found the information booth and discovered that the hostel was only about a 5 minute walk from the train station. 

It happened to be located in the red light district. There were strip clubs lining the street with random sports bars placed methodically every few buildings. 

We checked in and were taken to our room. We apparently had the pent house suite in the hostel and it just so happened to be 126 steps up! It was a very long journey to our room, but I would argue that it was completely worth it. The room was beautiful- the most home-like hostel that we have stayed in thus far.

Our next journey was to exchange money. Right at the corner of the street was a Western Union- a trusted name, right?! Wrong! We I basically got robbed- and Linda seemingly did get robbed. I exchanged my money at 1Euro for 18 Franks. Everywhere else apparently gives you 27 Franks for a Euro... Linda exchanged 100 Euro and the man took it from her because he thought it was counter-fit. Her money is now in the hands of the Czech Republic under investigation.

We were all very irritated and hungry, so we went to the Greek restaurant located in the same building as our hostel. It was SO GOOD! It was "Autentick", as they would say.

Off we were to see Prague. The city had an amazing vibe- it kind of reminded me of Goteborg... We saw the Astronomical Clock, a Czech Easter market, street vendors, etc... All the streets were cobblestone and the entire city had an energy unlike any other. 

Christina actually made a connection with a lady from a pub crawl, and we happened to run into her at the market. They knew who we were, and they put us on the VIP list! They were really nice. It was neat running into someone that we kind of knew- we were already popular in Prague! 

After a lot of walking, site seeing, and shopping, we headed back to the hostel and prepared ourselves for the pub crawl. It started at "Bohemian Bagel", so we had dinner there and began the "crawling". It was unlimited wine and beer for an hour and a half at the first place. There were people from all over, but I partnered up with a guy from Rochester, NY. We were beer (wine) pong partners.  From there, all 35 of the "crawlers" went to 3 different bars. It was a very fun night.

The next day, we woke up early and went to see some more of the "must -see" sights. We went back to the clock and the Czech Easter Market, and then onto the Charles Bridge and Old Town. Our stroll on the Charles Bridge took longer than expected because it was lined with artists, musicians, and accompanied by an amazing view of Prague. 

Old town was very colorful and exciting as well. The walk up the long street to the castle gave us a good feel for the Old Town and the people. When we finally arrived at the castle, I was in awe. It is sort of on top of the city, if you will. We could see everything! The amazing energy continued as we sat and watched the changing of the guards and bobbed our heads to the sting quartet that was playing on the steps. 

We continued our walk around the castle city. What is so amazing about our group is the consistent laughter. My belly ache's from the jokes and the humor that is shared equally throughout the group. Christina and I even got this lady to take a picture of a plain old tree because we made it seem like it was the highlight of the castle. Silly tourists, they'll believe anything! After that, we went to see the "John Lennon Wall" which is a wall in Old Town where people write lyrics of John Lennon's and promote peace and unity among all people. 

I pondered the idea of bed, and then remembered that I was in a city known for its nightlife. So, Christina, Ashley and I got ready for what we thought was going to be a short night at a local pub. As we were leaving the room, we ran into a group of about 10 English people that were living across the hall. 

Of course, we latched on and ended up back in Old Town by the Astronomical Clock. The night ended up being even wilder than the previous night's pub crawl, and the group of us had an absolute blast! We even ran into some of the people that we met the first night! They were all from England, so we could understand each other. It was a great night.

Home at 3:30, and up again at 8 to catch our train home. I was SO TIRED!

Christina and I were alone together again with 2 random people. We had each other laughing so hard that our stomach's hurt and we were crying. The French lady sitting next to us must have thought we were ridiculous. Not to mention the fact that I had to buy an entire block of butter to accompany the bread that I was having for breakfast/lunch because they don't sell small amounts of butter in Europe. Furthermore, later on the 7-hour train ride, I bought a salami baguette which had no flavor that I put butter and potato chips on. Ya had to be there...she thought we were nuts!

The second train ride consisted of Christina and I attempting to ignore the couple that was sitting next to us due to their persistent making out and feeling of each other. Why must people do these things in public. Woof.

12 Hours later and we arrived back at DCT in Vitznau...Quite the long day