Česká Republika

Maybe it was because I was there during the kickoff of the Christmas markets, or maybe because it was snowing and there were castles and it was magical, but Prague is a hidden gem and I feel so lucky to have spent my last trip in such a beautiful city!

On Thursday morning, I headed to the airport as usual by walking to the airport pick-up stop downtown. As soon as I left my apartment, I could tell something was going on.. tons of people were everywhere wearing red shirts and waving flags, yelling things, etc. After the airport bus was super delayed, all the Italians waiting with me began chatting with each other and looking really concerned. A British guy waiting too explained that the communist rally was blocking all the traffic. This was very concerning because a) I had no idea the communist party was popular (?!) and b) I was tight on time. Rob, the British guy, asked if I wanted to share a cab, so we headed off to track one down and ended up walking past the demonstrations.. tons of people and lots of yelling and police directing traffic. Crazy! I called a taxi because they were all in high demand but we were soon on our way to the airport. I found out Rob was living in Italy because he owned a few high-end men's clothing stores (I should have guessed by his suave attire) and he ended up being the most outgoing British guy I have ever met. He wouldn't even let me split the cab with him.. he just told me to have a drink on him in Prague. (This also reaffirmed I'm moving to England.)

I had a stop in Germany and on my flight there, Lufthansa brought around bags filled with German candies because it was December 6.. Saint Nicholas Day! I decided Lufthansa was my favorite airline of all time (that lasted for four days until they cancelled my flight home.. boo.)

I finally met Emily in Prague and we tracked down our hostel nestled in the heart of the city. (Which turned out to be the nicest hostel yet and was all-around great. Minus the fact we had accidentally chosen coed and had four guy roomies.. at least it made things entertaining.)

We were so excited to see the Christmas markets so we soon set off to find one, and our new friend Keegan (one of our guy roomies we had just met) joined us. We all finally tracked down the first Christmas market closest to us, and were in awe of the amazing twinkly lights, delicious foods being sold left and right, decorations in every nook, and holiday cheer abounding. We then made our way to the largest Christmas market in Prague, in Old Town Square. It was surreal! There were Czech music groups singing carols besides the most extensively decorated Christmas tree I've ever seen. There were rows and rows of booths in the square selling everything from ornaments, to hot wine (a super common thing to be sold at all the markets), to Trdelnik (my favorite treat.. a hot cinnamon-ish pastry made from dough and cooked fresh in front of you), and tons of trinkets!

At the first Christmas market.

Most beautiful Christmas markets ever!

  

Trdelnik & the tree!

On Friday, we planned on joining our hostel's free walking tour but a few minutes into it, the sole of Emily's boot totally broke off so we changed plans, successfully found her some new boots, and then ventured to Prague Castle. We decided to take the tram to get there, and about ten minutes into the tram we heard people raising their voices arguing with a man checking tickets. We hadn't validated our tickets because it's REALLY rare anyone ever checks tickets and before we knew it, the man was in front of us, showing us his badge, and demanding to see our tickets. Emily and I just glanced at each other and decided to improv. We gave him our tickets and kept pretending we had no idea we needed to validate them. Fortunately, a foreign family right next to us really DIDN'T know they needed to validate and since they could barely speak english, so we sort of joined in and pretended we had no idea what was going on too. I would say A+ acting skills for both of us. Unfortunately, this guy got REALLY mad and made us all get off at the next stop and told us we all owed the equivalent to €30 each in fines. Since there was no way that was happening, Emily and I kept refusing and fortunately the stop he made us get off at was the castle stop anyway.. so, we just gave him our unvalidated tickets and jetted off before he could arrest us or anything. Crisis averted!

The castle turned out to be less of a castle than we expected and was actually just pretty buildings, cathedrals, and cobblestone alleys dotted with eclectic shops. My favorite part was Golden Lane, a tiny street with colorful and quaint medieval houses-turned-shops. I had to duck to get in almost every doorway.. people must have been so short back then!

On our way to the Castle

The Cathedral

Cathedral and courtyard & Golden Lane

After exploring the castle and doing our best not to freeze to death, we stopped for a traditional czech lunch and then went back the hostel to throw on some more layers. One of the guys in our room kept making fun of me for wearing so many socks but lets be real, desperate times call for desperate measures. Emily and I then headed out for the night to meet up with Emily's sorority friends who are studying abroad in Prague, Lauren and Erin. I met them at Oktoberfest too so it was fun to see them again!

Real-life Disneyland

Emily, Erin, Lauren & myself

My rain boots failed and somehow absorbed water, so my socks were literally drenched and freezing all night. I just fought through the pain and kept thinking it couldn't be THAT cold anyway.. it had to all be psychological. Turns out, it was that cold. As in, 16° Fahrenheit. FGDAHKFDAS. I don't even feel bad about wearing five pairs of socks anymore. Brrr!

On Saturday, we went on the walking tour and actually made it through the three hour tour without wimping out from the cold! Our tour guide was a young American guy who just one day decided he wanted to live in Prague. He was really funny and kept us entertained as we walked all around the city and saw Old Town Square, the famous Astronomical clock, St. Vitus Cathedral, the Jewish Quarter, and Wenceslas Square. After our tour, we walked across a bridge to the John Lennon wall. We happened to be there on December 8, the anniversary of his death, so there were a lot of people visiting and a few people were playing the guitar and singing his songs. Amazing!

We walked back across the Charles bridge, a walking-only bridge that was built in the 1300's and is dotted with huge and intimidating statues. It was packed with tourists and people painting and playing music and was such a fun thing to see.

Charles Bridge

Freeeeeeeeezing!!

Once back in Old Town, we met up with Lauren and Erin again for dinner and happened to walk past the filming for some European crime show. We watched for awhile and got to see a scene being filmed & how it played out with the director, crew, actors, etc. If only we could have jumped in and been extras. We also saw the famous opera house where Mozart's Don Giovanni premiered in the late 1700's! Woo history.

The set!

Where Mozart premiered Don Giovanni

On Sunday after Emily left, I went to the top of Petrin hill and walked/climbed to the top of the Eiffel Tower replica to see the view of the city. Walking up the stairs turned out to be a LOT more intimidating than it appeared but the view was definitely worth it. :)

From the top of the tower - the Charles Bridge

I then met up with my friends for lunch, Becky, Meghan and Kristen from Torino, who also happened to be in Prague this weekend. They went shopping while I stayed at the coffee shop to study for my operations management final the next day (boo) and by the time I left, I walked outside to see everything blanketed in snow! It was SURREAL. There was no one around and only fresh snow everywhere! Good thing I was wearing rain boots or that would have been a fail. I was literally ecstatic walking back to Old Town Square. The entire city felt magical and my favorite moment was when the Czech Christmas carolers were singing, and it was snowing, and there was so much happiness around. (Okay I just re-read that and sorry for the cheesy-ness.) I met up with the girls again for dinner and it was so much fun to run around in the snow! Soooo incredibly glad I was able to see snow while in Europe.

This basically captures the moment.. (you can't really tell but it was snowing!)

On Monday morning I was at the airport by 4:30am only to discover my flight was cancelled, and after three hours of standing in a line, I was able to change my flight and left for Paris at 10am. I had to change terminals in Paris via a shuttle, which was way too confusing, and barely made my connection 40 minutes later. I ended up missing my Italian class but luckily made it back in time for my operations management final. My roommies and some friends ended up going out to an amazing Italian dinner and grabbing gelato after to celebrate, which was a great ending to a day that started out pretty rough.

Hard to believe I have little over a week left until I'm back in America.. where does the time go!?! But I'm so excited to see everyone soon. :)