After a small scare, Steph and I made it to Prague! We took a bus that deceivingly left from the bus station metro stop, but not actually from the metro station. But we made it on the bus. We took a student agency bus, which only cost us about $45 round trip, and was really nice. Hot drinks for free, movies and Friends episodes in English! The seven and a half hours pretty much flew by. We got into Prague late on Thursday night, and my friends Sara a
nd Brooke from Tulane met up with us at the bus station. By the time we got back to Sara’s apartment, where I stayed for the weekend, we were ready to crash to get ready for our weekend of sight seeing.Friday morning Sara had class, so Steph and I followed her there and just wandered around the area. The school was in a nice place – right by a church with a gorgeous old cemetery. We also found a park with a lot of gorgeous views, so we took lots of pictures.
After Sara got out of class, we went to brunch at Bohemian Bagel. Steph and I were beyond excited about this – Budapest almost completely lacks breakfast food to our dismay. After binging on pancakes and bagels, we headed back to the Jewish quarter. We bought passes into some of the o
ld synagogues and the old Jewish cemetery. The cemetery was amazing – it had been built up and up since they were given such a small amount of space to bury everyone. Then we headed to the synagogues that had displays in them. Probably the most intense display we saw there was one of artwork of children during the Holocaust. The people in the Jewish ghetto that they had been sent to came together to try to shelter the children from the horrors that were going on by putting them in dormitories and sending them to school. Part of their education was their artwork. The art traced the whole journey they had been through – the Nazis moving in, life in the ghetto, and their dreams of returning home. Sadly, at the bottom of each piece of art it showed their birth date, the date they were sent to the camp, and in most cases the date that they were killed at Auschwitz.After that intense experience, we went to go meet up with Brooke and Kelly after they had finished up with class. We went to go get hot chocolates at Café Slovakia, a famous old coffeehouse. We did some sightseeing by dark – the mini Eiffel tour, the Czech version of Castle Hill, Charles Bridge. Dinner was at Radost – an incredible vegetarian restaurant.
The next day, Jacque and her cousin Erin made it to Prague, so we met up with them and all the girls for brunch (love that breakfast food) at a New Orleans themed restaurant. It was funny being there with my friends from NOLA. Next door to the place was a tiny grocery store that sold American food for high prices – Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Barq’s Root Beer, Marshmallows. I caved and bought a box of Kraft Macaroni and cheese for about $4 – totally worth it.
From there we headed back up to the castle hill area. We went through a mirror maze - almost definitely a huge tourist trap, but it was fun playing with all the warped mirrors. We walked over to the national palace and saw the national cathedral (it had felt like far too long since we’d toured a church, now that our CIEE excursions are over). The cathedral and castle were both beautiful.
We did a lot mo
re sight seeing around the area, including some peeing statues outside the Kafka museum and the Lennon wall. The Lennon wall was really cool – it has been decorated over and over since John Lennon died.For dinner we tried out Czech food at an old beer hall. I went with the Czech version of goulash and dumplings – it was funny how different it was from Hungarian style – definitely good though. We went out for drinks after at a cool wine bar that was made up of lots of caves. We called it an early night though since Steph and I had to catch our bus at 6:30 the next morning.
Prague was a great trip. I had an amazing time catching up with my friends – lots of telling of embarrassing freshman year stories. The city itself was beautiful. I was surprised how different it felt from Budapest. Prague had a unique feel – I feel like I heard a lot more English and there were a lot more American conveniences. But at the same time, it was clear that we were in Central Europe. It was fun knowing that Sam, my brother, had studied there the year before, so now we can compare thoughts on it, though he definitely had a more in depth experience with the city (I somehow managed to get by without getting any black eyes though…)
<3 ali
prague pics: http://tulane.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2070630&l=31ab6&id=2808002
1 comment:
After reading your article I have understood that you liked Prague as me. I have been in Prague only once, but it was enough I was very surprised, amazed how beautiful this city is. And I liked, that when I searched for Prague hotels, many of Prague hotels offer free transfers from airport. The easiest and best way find accommodation in Internet! So many ancient monuments, I have never seen such masterpieces. I was impressed by the Prague castle, the old town's powder gate tower and the famous astronomical clock. I had a chance to explore the Jewish quarter, also fascinating (the Spanish synagogue is not to be missed). St. Vitus's Cathedral rivals Notre Dame as a massive, buttressed church: it also houses the tomb of "Good King Wenceslas". Charles Bridge is a treasure, a great beauty.
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