Prague

One of the most beautiful places that I have ever been in my entire life is Prague in the Czech Republic. I did not have very high expectations for this place because I had never heard much about it until I actually came abroad. I was actually expecting something more along the lines of something you would find maybe in the middle east? But what I came across instead was a mixture of Scotland, Germany, and Barcelona all in one. Not only was the landscape absolutely breathtaking but the ancient architecture of a time before the Romans was fascinating. I have never seen anything like the huge gate that separated the "old town" from the "new town" and the huge palace that sat at the top of a long vertical hill. It was definitely a place that I could find myself exploring for much longer than the short weekend that I had a chance to stay there.

Courtney and I flew in on a Thursday night and were more than anxious to get to our hostel and get some quality sleep. The only problem was, we had no idea how to get to our hostel, and silly me, forgot to look up the address thinking that the Mosaic House Hostel was pretty well known. Boy could I have not been any more wrong. We asked 2 taxi drivers who had no idea what we were saying, despite the huge language barrier, and neither did the person at the information desk at the airport. Luckily, we came across two other girls that had no idea where they were going either, but they did have an address, and they happened to be staying at the same hostel as us! These two girls actually happened to be americans as well studying abroad in London for the semester, and one of them even knew some of my friends from high school! It blows my mind what a small world it is. So the four of us shared a cab to the hostel which was about 15 minutes away into the center of town.

One of my favorite things about Prague, besides the fact that it was stunningly beautiful, is that their currency was so cheap! For every 100 czech crowns, it was only 5 dollars. Needless to say, that is where I spent the majority of my money out of all the places that I have traveled so far. After visiting the John Lennon Wall which is a gigantic wall in tribute to one of the beatles singers and pretty much signifies peace, union, and freedom of speech (or song in this case) throughout the world, I had to buy some sort of souvenir from it. On the Charles Bridge that connects the "touristy land" from the "political land" are a ton of vendors selling everything from water color paintings of prague, to photographs of the John Lennon Wall, to hand made jewelry made right there in Prague, and so much more. I found one stand that was selling pictures of the John Lennon Wall "buy 2 get 1 free" and of course I wasn't going to pass up that offer. I found one picture that had the song "We all live in a yellow submarine" which is very special to my dad because one of his best friends, and long-time business partner, died of cancer a few years ago, and that was his favorite song. So I decided to buy that, another one that had a great quote sketched into the shape of a heart, and then one more that had 3 pictures in one that I plan on putting in my dorm room when I get back to High Point.

The John Lennon wall is amazing with all of the cool drawings and sayings that were decorated all over this wall. It was a little smaller than I had expected, but it was definitely far from a let down. One of my favorite quotes that I found on the wall was "Courage is Contagious". It pretty much sums up a lot of what I have taken away from this time abroad and what I plan on bringing back with me to the states. I feel as though I could've stayed there for hours and hours just looking at everything that was written on that wall. It absolutely blows my mind that it is still there and not just a giant paint blob after so many years.

The next day was definitely my favorite day there. It was the day of the Christmas tree Lighting and the opening of the Christmas Markets, which were actually the main reason that we were in Prague in the first place. We walked all around Prague that day trying to follow the only map that we could find in English that we happened to find in Starbucks. We went and saw the famous clock tower, went on a boat ride right underneath the Charles Bridge, which was really cool because we got to see the entire outer banks of Prague and listen to a tour guide tell us about how Prague actually is where many films are made because there are so many places that look like other places around the world and it is a lot cheaper to film here than to go to the original ones. For example, scenes from Harry Potter were filmed at the castle, even though it was said that Harry Potter was a completely "british film", and scenes from other movies that are said to take place in Venice were actually filmed in the canals of Prague because they resemble them so dramatically. It was really cool to see where the 5 star Hotels were that all of the celebrities stay in, as well as where the embassy was where the Presidents, Royals, Prime Ministers, and other people of higher authority stay when they come to Prague.

The food was very interesting here. I think I talked a little bit about it in my last blog, but the sausages weren't exactly the best I've ever had...seeing as they didn't sit too well in my stomach the rest of the day. The hot chocolate was very good, and the beer tasted very similar to something I could have found in Germany. We went to a thai restaurant on our last night called Zebra, and I have never tasted pad thai so delicious in my entire life. Courtney and I split a plate of it, but I can guarantee you that I probably could have finished the entire thing by myself, whether I would admit to actually being hungry enough for it or not.

The Christmas Markets were absolutely amazing. Although we were squished like giant sardines, it was definitely worth it to see the huge tree get illuminated and light up the entire center of the city. When the crowd finally cleared out after the tree lighting, we were able to do a bit of shopping around and looking at the cool knick knacks and things that all the stands had to offer. There were hand made clocks, hand made jewelry, gingerbread men, christmas ornaments, roasted chestnuts, and so much more. It was fridgid outside and I was starting to lose the feeling in my face, fingers, and toes, so I tried to convince Allison and Courtney to come with me back to the Hostel, and right as we were about to leave we spotted a horse and carriage ride. Their way of convincing me to go on it with them was "it's only about 10 dollars each, you're never going to be in Prague again, and there's a blanket on board." So of course, we hopped right on into the horse and buggy and were off exploring the streets of Prague. The one thing that could have made this trip even better was if right at that moment on the sleigh ride, it started to snow. 

Leaving Prague was actually a bit sad, because it was the last trip for the three people studying in Florence that we were there with. It made me think of what little time I have left in Europe and all of the good times that I have had while being abroad. It's such an eye opener going to all of these different places and experiencing the cultures of each one of them individually. Prague, or how the Czech Republicans say it "Praha", was probably my third favorite place that I went in Europe, and I would recommend anyone that comes over to Europe in the future to make it a point to visit it.