It all began with a 12 hour overnight bus ride with no window to lean on, so I was curled up in my seat with my pillow and eye mask. Unfortunately I had forgotten my ear plugs - never forget those. The bus driver played techno music all through the night and even Benedryl couldn't help me.
Finally we arrived in Prague and we dropped our stuff off at the Czech Inn. This hostel was really nice and we four had a room to ourselves that included towels, a sink, two bunks, and storage. We had 30 minutes to change, eat breakfast, and be outside for the walking tour. Breakfast was the best part of everyday. There were two different kinds of scrambled eggs, toasts, coffee, tea, yoghurt with honey, dried fruit, granola, orange juice, milk, cereal, and a meat and cheese platter. Such a good hot breakfast. Then it was off to meet Isaac for our tour of Prague.
This is how we first met Isaac, "So, guys, I no english speak very good". And we all just stared at him. Then he broke out in a smile and laugher, reassured us that he was just joking and proceeded to power-walk us around Prague. We saw the Charles Bridge, the oldest clock tower, Mozart's flat, the Lenin Wall, King Wenceslas Square, the Museum of Natural History, Kafka's old house, markets, Old Town Square, the Jewish quarter and the oldest Synagogue in Prague, the old Jewish Cemetery, and the Castle - oldest palace still used as a government building. Isaac made our tour so interesting I didn't even realize I had hiked clear across Prague by the end of it.
Funniest moments of Isaac's tour:
We're stopped at the clock tower: "pfhhh! You're home, did you flim the thing!?" "Wake the kids, it's starting!" "I don't know what happened after the third guy came out...I passed out from sheer excitement"
Gaston: "So there was this sea lion named Gaston, and the floods of 2002 came up to the zoo. He stood there and just looked at the rising water, and without looking away said to his friends,'get, get my ball'. When the waters came, he escaped and swam all the way up the river to Germany, then they caught him, brought him back and then he died from stress, no I'm just kidding he's fine. But really he's dead."
Evidently the Czechs have a thing with cows and use it often like "That girl is hot like a cow" or "Where my Heifers at?" "Stop being such a cow, man".
Lunch was at this little sit-down restaurant that looked very fancy but was reasonably priced. We had first some hot spiced wine (yum!) and then some creme of broccoli soup, some goulash with bread dumplings (I had never had this, but its like very doughy pieces of bread), and finally a berry crepe with whipped cream. So delicious and warm - perfect for four cold and weary tourists.
Day two was the zoo! I love the zoo. Evidently Prague's Zoo is 9th in Europe, but not many animals were out because of the cold weather. It was cold, but a comfortable cold if you had a scarf and gloves. Also, there was no wind so there was not biting breeze to battle. We wandered the zoo for around 4 hours and finally found our way to a warm lunch at an Irish pub. The football match was on, so that was nice to watch. We were so hungry that we ordered cheeseburgers and fries. We reveled in the glory of normal Heinz Ketchup. We used almost the whole bottle between the four of us and our sandwiches and fries. You should have seen the look on the waitress' face when she picked up that bottle noticing how light it was. I laughed.
Later that night after our much needed nap, we had a round of drinks at the bar in the hostel (evidently they serve every type of beer in Prague at this bar). My favorite was this dark amost chocolatey beer called Kozel. It cost less than a euro for both beers! Later that night after a long time of running around town looking at the beautiful lit-up city, we found some dinner, and headed to the famous 5-story club that is evidently the biggest club in Eastern Europe. We danced a little there and met a boy from Leasburg! Such a small world in Europe as a student.
We woke up very early the next morning to squeeze every last bit out of Prague. We went to the old radio tower that used to jam European radio during the days of Communist rule. Some crazy artist had attached large black babies crawling all over the tower to make some political statement (I forget what). Then we made it all the way back to Wenceslas square to wander our last few minutes.
was so proud that we could navigate Prague after only 3 days there. It is very well organized and the public transportation is very cheap. This city was so amazing and historic. It was the only city in Europe not to be bombed in WWII so the buildings are different architectual styles even right next to each other. It was so magical here in winter, I wonder what it's like in fall or spring. I'm going back. Definitely. But it's a big day tomorrow, and I'll write you all about it when I get back. A Domani!
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