So Prague. Where to begin? We arrived in the evening, after the hottest train ride of the trip. Luckily we had a 6 seat cabin to ourselves, but the lack of airflow made it ridiculously uncomfortable. While Meghan and Rachel were able to sleep in the heat, I instead used the time to write 6-7 blog entries.( PS Apple - thank you for coming up with the 4.0 software upgrade for the iPhone with wireless keyboard support 3/4 of the way through my trip! My thumbs are uncannily strong now thanks to the massive amount of typing I've done on my phone.)
Anyhow, we arrive, grab a cab (who wanted way too much for the drive - luckily after being taken advantage of in Milan we knew better and talked him down to a way more reasonable price - and arrive at our hostel, the Downtown Hostel Prague. This is the first place I've been really disappointed with. The room was musty, construction started at 7am every morning (and since there was no ac it was a choice between breathing and not sleeping past 7 or suffocating slowly while you slept) and their towels for rent were the size of washcloths. I rather enjoyed watching Meghan and Rachel get creative with them, especially since we paid for an en suite bathroom and instead got exclusive use of a hall bath. For the price, I would not recommend this hostel at all.
After grabbing a snack and taking refreshing cold showers, everyones mood improved vastly and we headed out to watch the sunset over Charles bridge and grab my dinner. Prague is hedonistic in every way. The mix of gothic, baroque, classical and modern architecture creates an atmosphere that clashes to the point of blending. I was in love, quite possibly because it yet again appealed to my ADHD mind :-)
Sick of German food, we were on a mission for protein and veggies. We enjoyed a fah-bulous dinner right on the water, complete with homemade wine. Watching the sunset over te bridge and Prague castle was amazing!! We walked around for a bit longer, and then it was time for bed. I suggested a 6 hour tour by boat, bus and tram to the other girls, and although they were first opposed to the idea, they realized it was the best way to see the city for an amazingly reasonable price.
Prague Tours- our company of choice-meets in Wenceslas square every day at 10:30 am - just look for the yellow umbrellas. They have tours 2, 4 and 6 hours in length. They'll show you where the nearby ticket stand is - bring your brochure for 1/2 price tickets!! Led by locals, it was a really great experience. We started in the square, learning about the historical "velvet revolution" that freed the Czech Republic from communism. Our tour guide told us about her experience there. At age 8 she stood with her parents in that square at a rally, furiously waving two national flags. She didn't know why she was there, but she knew it was important. Sorta reminds me of another young woman, who accompanied her father to various political events and hammered yard signs supporting various political candidates. I didn't understand the reasoning behind it, only that this was part of being an American and that one day I'd be able to vote for people like those on the signs. I did know that my dad had very clear political values - I used to tell dinner guests I was going to grow up to be a "feminist environmentalist wacko" just to get a rise out of him. Little did he know I'd become a social worker - damn those McCuan genes :-) My dad loves women and the environment by the way - he just used terms like that to illustrate extremes and I knew how to chose my words well from a young age.
From there we walked through the new town, checking out the astronomical clock (amazeballs, as Meghan would say - I loved how it represents the approach to telling time from another point in history when we thought the sun revolved around the earth), a few different churches, and heading to our boat for the river cruise. It was here my camera battery died, and since I left the charger somewhere in Germany (sorry mom and dad!!) I was SOL. We saw Charles bridge, government houses, the former Stalin monument, (which also held the statue of Michael Jackson constructed for his first concert in Prague) . Now, a metronome stands in that place, but in general the Czech population still has negative feelings towards the monument location in general. From there, more walking, but with a purpose – lunch! We had traditional Czech food – meat and bread dumplings, before walking yet again. This time we toured the Jewish quarter where I found more stolpersteins (the plaques commemorating those taken away during the Holocaust), then we caught a tram to Prague Castle. The castle is….interesting. The sleek exterior clashes with the gothic churches enclosed in its middle – typical of Prague, but not quite blending as well as the rest of the city. That was the end of our tour, and we were definitely ready to go! We hiked back down the hill, back over Charles Bridge for some more shopping, and to our stuffy hostel room to take a load off before heading to dinner.
We ate at a great, modern café for dinner. Still craving veggies, we all had a salad with avocado and chicken on it. YUM! Then we went to check out a bar some people in Germany had told us about called Chapeau Rouge. Thank you google maps for getting me around Prague btw! It was a very eclectic place, with Vanilla Ice playing on the main floor as we entered and dark red walls decorated with random trinkets. We met some Americans who seemed pretty fun, hung with them for awhile, and then headed to another club – the famous five story dance club, apparently. I decided I was done for the night before we got there, and after working way too hard to convince Rachel that I would be fine walking home by myself, I headed back. Prague is pretty at night, if you can ignore the partiers from all over the world losing their cookies over the sides of fences and bridges. I did just that, and found a quiet spot on the river to enjoy some late night views. Mulling over the fact that this trip was drawing to a close soon, I realized it was time for me to relax. Taking the reins of planning for the past two and a half weeks (even though the class was planned, it was still up to oneself to take measures to get something out of it) was wearing on me. I vowed that when we got to Amsterdam tomorrow, my vacation would begin. In other words, I was no longer in charge of planning activities or figuring out how to get where.
Despite a brief wake up call at about 4:30am from Meghan and Rachel (RUDE! lol), I got a decent amount of sleep and was up ready to pack and head out the next morning. The other two, not so much! We had plenty of time that morning, and we visited the Lennon wall (amazing – got some GREAT pics with Meghan’s camera) and tried to get my camera battery charged at a local shop with no success. Then it was off to the airport for our first flight on easyjet. It was so nice to anticipate a 1 hour plane ride instead of an 8 hour train ride…except for the screaming baby on the plane part. The adventure continues….and boy was I ready for Amsterdam!
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