Fall Break, Part IV: Prague/Praha. October 29th, 30th, and 31st.
We had breakfast at our hostel and tried to plan out what we wanted to do for the day. We were essentially lost because for the other two cities we had had the guidebooks that Megan was able to check out from the SUL library. Someone had gotten the Prague one before she could though, so we were at a loss for where to start!
We decided to head down to the Old Town Square to find the Free Tour. Free Tour is this really cool initiative that college students started to give Tip-Only tours in major cities around the world. It’s really a great thing. So, we met up with our tour guide, Justin, and then made our way around Prague. The history of the city is INCREDIBLE. The poor Czechs have got the shaft end of everything and only been a free people for 20 years now. In fact, I think it was 20 years ago last week. Read up on the Czech Republic if you don’t know much about it.
Our tour took us through the Old Town, New Town, Wenceslaus Square, the Astrological Clock, the Jewish Quarter, examples of Kubism architecture, St. James’s Church (which I will explain in more detail later) and then showed us across the Charles Bridge to the Prague Castle. While we were in Wenceslaus Square, I heard someone shout out, “Emily, over here!” It was Viviana. Her, Kelsey and Julia were in Prague too! It was so funny. We kept running into them for the rest of the day too!
We also saw them at Bohemia Bagel while we were getting lunch. Bohemia Bagel is by far one of the best bagel places on the planet. Although, it may only seem that way to me because I haven’t had bagel since I left the States…Yikes.
Once the tour was done, we went back to the Jewish Quarter to do the museums and see the Synagogues there. The Jewish cemetery is incredible. You need to really Google this. I can’t even describe it. Especially you, Dad, you’ll really enjoy it. It was a historical afternoon and was really worth it.
After that we stopped at this place called the Bake Shop and treated ourselves to cookies, cupcakes, and hot chocolate. It was delicious! Trying to find our way back to the hostel, we walked in a circle even though our hostel was almost right next door to where we were. Super funny!
Once we finally made it back to the hostel, everyone showered and got ourselves together for the fun night ahead. We had decided to go to the traditional Czech restaurant right next door to the hostel. They really didn’t speak any English and didn’t have an English menu. We tried communicating to the waitress that we wanted tap water and she immediately went and got her manager who spoke really broken English. She was super sweet though and basically explained the entire menu to us. We told her that we were there for the experience and it was okay if we ate Czech food – that was the point. So, after a really filling dinner, we set out to do the infamous Prague Bar Crawl. It was a fun night that took us to five different bars and clubs. It was really inexpensive and a definite quality experience.
Friday morning we all slept in and decided to make the Museum of Communism our first stop. Uncle Leon said that the place was intense as well as, “tongue-in-cheek” and it was indeed. I really appreciated the opportunity I had, in all three countries, to really dive into the history the culture and people.
We went to lunch at Bohemia again but this time we ran into girls from the SU Florence program! Kari called me out from across the restaurant and she was sitting with Stacy and Monica. We killed some time there and then headed off to meet up for the Prague Castle tour.
This one we had to pay for. We got to the meeting spot and then Remi and Cameron showed up! Those two are also SUF students. This world is too small. Anyhow, the tour took FOREVER. I think it was 4 hours long or something ridiculous like that. The Castle is HUGE. It was absolutely freezing and I am not usually one to admit that I’m cold or that it is cold outside. The tour was really informative and was indeed fun.
Immediately after it was over, we set out to find some hot beverages. We found Au Gourmand and got some hot chocolate, ice cream, and hot wine. We were just trying to kill time at that point. Then we went back to Molly Malone’s to get our t-shirts from the Bar Crawl. We sat there and just hung out for a while which was really nice.
For dinner we tried going back to our first restaurant but it was booked so we went to another little place around the corner. They put the six of us in a back room away from all the Czechs. It was really weird. Our waitress’s name was Staina. She was so adorable. She was scared that she wouldn’t be able to serve us to the best of her ability because she didn’t speak great English. We told her it was fine and she smiled the biggest smile I have ever seen. She was a very animated character and actually sat and talked with us for a while once we were done eating. The food and beer were fantastic!
We went back to the hostel and really had to rally ourselves in order to go out. We were all really tired but decided that we couldn’t let our last night of Fall Break go to waste. So, we ended up getting our lazy selves together and heading out to Karlovy Lazne which is Prague’s infamous 5-story club. There were four different music floors and a lounge floor. We spent time on all four just letting loose. It was so much fun. We were all there in sweaters or turtlenecks because it’s all we had left for clothes and it was freezing outside! Short and sweet of it was that we had a blast and were back to the hostel by 3.
We were up at 9am and had breakfast before we checked out. We went to watch the Astrological Clock go off. It was very anti-climactic but we knew that going into the experience so it just ended up being funny to watch the other tourists become incredibly disappointed once the bell stopped ringing.
Then it was off to the Church of St. James. We also called this Shriv Church. You see, there is a shriveled, mummified arm hanging from the ceiling in the church. Legend has it that there was a robber who went in to take a gold necklace from around Mary’s neck. She came to life and grabbed his arm and wouldn’t let go. When the priest found the robber in the morning, he couldn’t pry the arm from Mary’s grip so they had to cut his arm off. His arm is still hanging there today to ward off anyone who has any foul thoughts coming into the church. There is really a human arm hanging from the ceiling. Anyway, we endearingly called this, The Shriv.
From there we headed off to actually cross the Charles Bridge. There are a lot of statues and monuments on the bridge and it was packed with tourists so we didn’t stay long. We headed towards the John Lennon wall which is the only place in the city where graffiti is allowed. It’s a really cool spot. I signed it with, “Emily Allen 10-31-09 Let it Be”. It was an awesome experience.
We found a café for hot chocolate, coffee, and hot wine and sat there for a while. We still had three hours to kill until we had to leave to find the airport. So we just wandered around looking in different little shops and things. Then, of course, headed back to Bohemia bagel for lunch and snacks for the road, and a Halloween treat.
We went back to the hostel to grab our stuff and then took a train and bus to get to the airport. We were an hour and a half early, which I really appreciated. Megan fell asleep and ended up leaning on me so I had to legitimately hold her up. It was quite entertaining. Our flight was delightful. We sat six across in a row and just took some time to rest and reflect on our awesome week. Touchdown in London town – no problem.
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