We got on the train and then soon found out that the 6th bed in our sleeper car would be filled. We were nervous about our stranger roommate and swapped "what-if" stories until the train came to a screeching stop and we realized this person would join us at any moment. We grabbed our belongings and secured them and then felt silly when we met this nice German mountain man who was probably more intimidated by us than we were by him. After all, WE were the ones blasting Taylor Swift, drinking out of wine bottles and passing around hunks of cheese. His english wasn't great, but we bonded over the fact that we were both wearing Patagonia jackets. He was actually nice to have around, considering we were all about to die of a heat stoke when he managed to pull open the window (we may or may not have screamed when it finally budged and we were blown back by the air pressure that rushed in). He left our car and went to the restaurant car with his friend, so we didn't have to hang out with him too much.
Sure enough, our plan worked brilliantly and the red wine put us to sleep only a little over an hour after boarding, even despite the claustrophobic and rattling environment. We still slept close to our belongings, not fully trusting the mountain man, but we all slept through the night without trouble, giving us perhaps one of the longest nights of sleep we've had all trip (12 hours!! unheard of!!!). We woke up, brushed our teeth in the teeth brushing room and boom! We were in Prague!
Trying to get to our hostel was not easy, even with our specific printed directions, because every sign was completely foreign to us. In other countries, we can usually figure out certain phrases and get around with ease, but not in the Czech Republic. I guess we missed a sign because we realized when we got on the subway that we never paid for a ticket (woops... I should probably be in Czech jail right now) and we somehow got to our hostel, where we converted our Swiss Francs into Korunas. The currency (20 USD= about 405 Czech Koruna) exhausted my mental math skills by the end of the weekend.
After leaving our luggage in lockers (too early to check into our room), we made our way to Old Town Square to meet our free tour guide. We got there with an hour to kill before the tour, which was good since the square was jam-packed with merchant tents set up for the notorious Prague Easter Markets. We walked around admiring the hand painted eggs and indulged in Trdelnik, a traditional Czech pastry that reminded me of a churro. We also sampled hot wine and sausages.. yum!!
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| Back to wearing our "uniforms" |
After our tour, we went back to our hostel and got ready for the famous Prague Pub Crawl. I've heard about this particular pub crawl from a ton of people and everyone says it's a must-do. Before leaving, we decided to get dinner at Belushi's- the bar that is connected to our hostel. We figured this would be quickest and would leave us plenty of time to walk to our meeting place for the night. WRONG-O!! The food took forever, causing us to have to scarf down our food and take a cab to the bar. This ended up being a blessing in disguise because the can wasn't expensive and we got there much quicker than we would've if we had walked. The pub crawl was AWESOME. We arrived just in time and headed to our first bar, where we had unlimited drinks for an hour. Then, we stopped by a few other bars with various drink specials and finally made it to the last stop: a 5 story club that played different music on every floor. We spent most of our time on the oldies floor, where we knew the words to almost every song and we could dance like idiots without anyone caring. We finally ended up walking home, but not without first stopping at a place called Burrito Loco- the closest thing to Taco Bell I have found yet.
The next morning we slept in until 11 and then walked to a place called Bohemia Bagel for brunch. Despite having to wait for our food for a while (what is it about Prague and taking forever to make food?), the meal was pure heaven. My bacon, egg and cheese bagel was the first one I had since the day I left the states and MAN was it good. Going from having a bagel basically everyday to not having them at all has been a tough adjustment and we were all nearly crying happy tears at the sight of a real bagel sandwich.
Afterwards, we walked over to Prague Castle and did a self-guided tour. Inside the castle walls was an entire village and they had replicated rooms and dungeons that made it easy to pretend we were back in the medieval time. The cathedral in the center of the village housed stunning stained glass that reflected all throughout the church. Beautiful.
Next, we walked over to the John Lennon wall, a wall that has been a canvas for anti-communist quotes and symbols of peace since the 1980s. We spent some time reading all of the graffitied tidbits, took some pictures and then moved on.
From there, we walked back to the Old Town Square to explore the markets some more before dinner. We consulted our handy TripAdvisor apps on our iPhones and found the perfect place: a tavern that brewed its own Czech beer and offered a wide variety of cheap Czech food. We recieved our first round of beers and ordered our food, anxious for our meal when out of nowhere the power goes out. Everyone got our their phones and some started playing music. We just sat there laughing and continued drinking our beers, hoping it would come back on soon. Our waiter said it would be back on soon and brought us another round before coming back and breaking it to us that it would be more around 2 hours. We left in search of another TripAdvisor gem and found it a few blocks down the road. Starving, we ordered more food than we could eat and couldn't believe how good it was when it finally came. We all ordered different dishes and passed them around. I had the pork brisket and Megan ordered a stuffed chicken breast. The best was Rachael, who ordered an entire pork knuckle that ended up being bigger than her head! By the end of dinner we could barely move.
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| before the lights went out. |
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| and after! |
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| Rachael's massive pork knuckle! |
After dinner we went back to the hostel and freshened up before going out again. We hung out at the Belushi's bar for a little while and it got late very quickly. Exhausted, we packed up our things and went to sleep.
Sunday morning we woke up and had breakfast in our hostel before taking a cab to the train station. Due to construction, we had to take a bus instead of the normal train to our first stop, which we thought was going to be horrible. It ended up being better than any train, offering plenty of room to recline and relax in big leather seats. The ride home was a little different from the ride there, since it wasn't overnight, but somehow thanks to a plethora of books and movies it passed by pretty quickly. Before we knew it we were back at the Montarina... left only with the task of studying for our exam the following morning... Yikes.
Next weekend: Nice, France!
linds
Sunday morning we woke up and had breakfast in our hostel before taking a cab to the train station. Due to construction, we had to take a bus instead of the normal train to our first stop, which we thought was going to be horrible. It ended up being better than any train, offering plenty of room to recline and relax in big leather seats. The ride home was a little different from the ride there, since it wasn't overnight, but somehow thanks to a plethora of books and movies it passed by pretty quickly. Before we knew it we were back at the Montarina... left only with the task of studying for our exam the following morning... Yikes.
Next weekend: Nice, France!
linds
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