SPRING BREAK 1 of 4: PRAGUE

Prague is such a beautiful city.

The Lennon Wall.

Goulash & Bread Dumplings... sooo good!

The Astronomical Clock Tower in Old Town Square.

So, this is post #1 of 4 and I am going to attempt to fill you in on my Spring Break as much as I possibly can. I'll warn you though it may be brief and undetailed and not as informative as I would have liked but you have to understand that I traveled for 10 days and I did manage to write some things down but there's no way that I can remember everything from the trip but I will try. Also, I arrived back in Florence 36 hours ago and I'm actually leaving in 60 hours for my Easter long weekend in Greece. So, in this short amount of time, I have to manage to write postcards, do laundry, grocery shop, re-pack, go to class, start working on my research papers, upload all my pics (and yes, there are about 1000 pictures from the 10 days) and still find time to write this blog so here it goes...

Thursday night was departure day and we boarded the bus at 10 pm. The itinerary said travel time was supposed to be 10 hours but somehow that 10 hours magically turned into 14 hours so we didn't arrive in Prague until 12 noon on Friday morning. I have been on plenty of buses but never for that long and while trying to get a full night's sleep. I took sleeping pills around midnight and was manage to able to sleep for about 6 hours straight which was good but woke up very stiff and uncomfortable. It's nearly impossible to get comfortable on a completely packed bus. Anyways so we arrived at our hostel/ hotel/ APARTMENT? at the Czech Inn which was so nice. It sucked we were on the 5th floor but it was so worth it because we had like a whole apartment with an amazing shower and comfortable beds, it was nicer than our apartment in Florence. We didn't even un-pack we just rushed down to breakfast which luckily they kept open for us and it was amazing buffet. After stuffing our faces, we departed for Sanderman's New Prague Walking Tour where we saw the Old Town Square and the the famous Astronomical Clock (which sadly I did not get to see go off) but according to our tour guide, tourists wait around a half an hour before the clock goes off and then are sadly disappointed when it's over just one minute later. We also saw the Jewish Quarter, the New Town, and the Charles Bridge. We stopped for lunch at Bohemia Bagel which supposedly has the best bagels in Europe (it was a pretty good chocolate chip bagel) and definitely reminded me of home. We were exhausted but we had to go on the famous Clock Tower Pub Crawl in Prague and it was pretty awesome and we even got V.I.P. treatment because we were with Bus2Alps. The Bohemia Bagel actually turned into a bar at night and then we went to two other bars/ clubs.

Day 2 in Prague was pretty rough because I had rolled my ankle on the cobblestone the day before so it was swollen up like a baseball (it was very difficult to walk) but I wasn't going to let that stop me, there was still so much more of Prague we wanted to see. Our tour guides took us across the river to Mala Strana to see Petrin Hill (beautiful views of the city), the Prague Castle, and the John Lennon Wall (which is such a piece of art). We then spent the afternoon looking for souvenirs and wondering about the city. We ended up taking a two hour nap before dinner though because we were so exhausted. For dinner we had to tr the classic Czech food which is Goulash soup which I honestly couldn't tell you what exactly it is but it was delicious with bread dumplings. Sadly enough, we filled our stomachs and went right back to the hostel to go to sleep.

I fell in love with Prague ("Praha" is how they spell it in Czech), it is such an amazing city. It is filled with old buildings and new buildings which gives it such a unique look. Okay, so I have to mention the money in Czech because it is different than the Euro which is used mostly throughout Europe. The Czech Republic is one of the most stable in Central and Easter Europe and things are really cheap. The exchange rate is 25 Czech= 1 euro= $1.45. So, like you would see prices on things and kind of freak out for a minute and then do the conversion rate in your head. For example, we got a gyro for 65 euro which in reality is only like 2.50 euro which is reasonable. It was really fun though to do all the covers ions and to figure out how much things actually cost. I love Prague though, the city has such a great feeling to it and definitely a city I would love to visit again.