London Spring 2011: Prague, Czech Republic

Since spring break includes Prague, Rome and Copenhagen I realize that not a single person is going to want to read a single massive blog post about my Spring Break, so I am dividing it into sections. On Thursday morning I began the first leg of my trip with a 6:30am flight from London to Prague. At the airport I went to the ATM machine to get the Czech currency, the koruna. One US dollar is the equilivant to about 18 korunas so I literally had bills that were worth hundreds and thousands of dollars, which made me feel really rich. The best thing about the Czech Republic being on the koruna is that everything is cheaper here. I have been to restaurants here and had three course meals for about $10-15 US dollars. However that is eventually going to change and the country will be switching to the Euro as soon as it meets the economic criteria, which will make the city much more expensive in a few years.

The first day that I was here I went with Shayna to meet up with our friends Marissa and Alexa, and their friends Matt and Chris that we met in Nice a few weeks ago. The first thing we did was get lunch and the waitress was a complete bitch to us because we had a biut of difficulty paying the check since it was in Czech and we did not understand the currency very well. She gave up dirty looks and slammed the change on the table...she did not recieve a tip. For the next few hours we explored the entire city and treked up hundreds of stairs to Prague Castle, which provided beautiful views of the city. Prague is filled with beautiful architecture, which is evident in the churches and clock towers that dominate the city skyline. It is truly one of the most magical and beautiful cities in Europe. After walking accross the Charles bridge and the old town center, we headed to Marissa and Alexas hostel to relax and play cards for a little while to get out of the freezing cold (Oh, I forget to mention that it is FUCKING FREEZING in Prague). At their hostel we decided to act like the ridiculous Americans that we are and went to Hooters. All I have to say about Hooters was that it was ridiciously entertaining and hilarious for numerous reasons. After Hooters we went to a local pub to end off our first night in the city and returned to the hostel where we hung out with Chelsea, her friend Jen and Meagan.

Yesterday, our entire group of eight went on a walking tour of Prague Castle which was very intresting and had many unique and cool sights. After the tour I was hungry and went to an Authentic Czech restaurant with Meagan. Chelsea and Jen which was delicious (and cheap!). After resting back at the hostel for a few hours our entire group decided to go on a pub crawl which ended up being pretty lame. There were about 200 people on the pub crawl and we went to a bunch of clubs and not bars. It was a complete waste of time and money, but we did our best to enjoy it anyway.

Today we started off the day by going to a cafe in which we had delicious crepes. The cafe was very authentic and was not in a touristy location at all which made us feel like we really experiences some Czech culture. We then headed to the Lennon wall, which is a wall covered in grafitti meant to be a tribute to John Lennon. At 5pm our entire group met up at the clock tower in the city center and we walked around the old town and did some solvunier shopping. We then headed to a famous cafe for dinner where we spent about 4 hours eating and chatting as the service was slow and it is part of Czech culture to sit around and relax in cafes and restaurants for hours at a time. Overall today was a very slow and relaxed day, which I enjoyed very much. Tomorrow morning I head to the airport for my second leg of my trip, in which I will be heading to Rome.

Overall Prague was one of my favorite citites in Europe. It both cheap and filled with beautiful buildings and friendly people. The only negative was that it is absolutly freezing and I have to dress in about four layers to stay outside for more than a few minutes. The thing that amazes me most about Prague and the Czech Republic is that before 1988 is was a communist country. Today, the Czech Republic is a thriving city in the European Union and it is amazing to see what a democrazy can do for a country in only about twenty years. It comes as no suprise that Prague is the fourth most visited European city. I will do my best to update from Rome in a few days.
-Rees