PRAHA, Czech Republic

Another fun and successful trip! We went to prague, in czech it is called Praha. I got a list of things to do from Dani Winston because she studied abroad there last semester. Our flight was a little later, 11:00am which was actually really nice. Katie and I flew there and we met Haley at the airport in prague. Other girls from berkeley who are in Barcelona, Gaelin and Celine told us they were going to prague the same weekend so we just booked out hostel with them so we could stay with people we knew. It was called Hostel Elf which was hilarious and it was not really close to the center of the city so I was kind of upset at first and wished we just made our own plan but i ended up being happy that we were with that group. Celine and Gaelin are in Chi O at Berk and were meeting other chi-os studying abroad in Rome and in the Netherlands, so it was like a chi-o reunion and then me, katie and haley. They were really nice and I like meeting people from Berkeley that I never knew before. I definatly wouldnt be in that house haha but they were a lot of fun. It was also Haley's first time in a hostel, and she would have much rather paid more for a hotel but i made her do it with us. It wasnt the nicest place in the world but it was totally fine. We all were in one room. After we put our stuff down the three of us went into the middle of town, called Old Town Square. We took a bus there and figuring it out was funny because the money there is not the euro, they have the Crown, which is sooo weird. 1 euro was 20 crowns so we got like 1000 crown bills and 50 crown coins. It was weird having that change. Old town square is soooo beautiful. The buildings and apartments have the most interesting designs and colors, like nothing you would ever see in America and like nothing ide seen before. Haley and I thought it kind of reminded us of disneyland because it was so cute and like a fairy-tale. There are cobble stone streets and small little roads. In old town square there is the famous Astronomical Clock which shows the rotation of the planets and the time and rings every hour and huge crowds gather to watch. We walked around and went into some shops, every souvenir shop sells fur hats and I wanted a hur headband but they only had real fur ones that were expensive. Everyone said prague was "soooooooooo cheap" and we didnt really find it that cheap. I spent the same amount as I have on my other trips. Beer was cheap, which is what they are known for, but food was regular priced like in europe, which is expensive in us dollars. We stopped in a cafe to get a snack, and I tried the famous czech beer called Pilsner. It was good and cheap. After we walked to the Charles Bridge, which is the famous bridge that crosses over the river from Old town to Lesser town. It is beautiful!! There are cool statues on the sides and street performers and people selling things along the bridge. Dani told us we had to walk across it and hold hands because its romantic, so we did. Then we crossed back over and set out to find this restaurant for dinner that Dani said had good czech food. It was called Kolovna. The czech language was so weird, but really cool, but it was hard to catch on to so I feel so ignorant not even being able to say hello of thank you, cause I kept forgetting. But most people spoke english. I am pretty good at looking at maps and finding my way around so I did that for our group because haley and katie both have zero sense of direction. Haley i already knew like doesnt know how to get around and just cabs everywhere, but Katie is legitimately retarded and I get really frustrated sometimes. I like being able to get around and I could eaily do it by myself, so its nice I feel mature and independent. We went to the restaurant and it was really cool and was like a pub. Katie and I tried the Goulash, a czech local dish. It was sooooooo good!! It is meat in an amazing sauce with potato pancakes and dumplings. It tasted exactly like brisket and was so good with the bread and potatos. We then went back to the hostel to meet up with the other girls who wanted to do a bar crawl. Dani had told us it wasnt fun but many other recommendations said you have to do the bar crawl in prague so we decided just to go. We met at the clock and they took us to a chruch looking building where there were all these people drinking and a dance floor. It was crowded near the bar and there were people playing beer pong, which was weird we were confused why we were in prague but it was exactly like a frat party haha. We ended up meeting these nice guys from Penn State so it was kind of fun. The "next" bar was literally just going up the stairs and it was more club like, and there was a cross lit up, and again we were just confused but it was funny. We went to the next bar, and walking there ran into Dani Stern who is studying in prague for the semester. It was funny because we wanted to see her, but its just a small city its easy to run into people. It was fun, but then I wanted to go to this club Dani Winston had told us to go to but everyone was tired and Haley was sick so we just went back to the hostel. The next day Haley, Katie and I went out because the other girls had been there for 2 days before us. We went to Prague Castel, across the bridge from the old town. It was beautiful but mostly just had amazing views of the city. Prague is seriously beautiful. There was a cool cathedral up there and we went into some parts of the castel. It was interesting to learn that Prague was communist until the early 90ies. After the castel we walked back across the Charles Bridge and met Dani and her friend in old town square for lunch. We went to a place called Bohemian Bagel, which was sooo good. I had an amazing salad and an onion bagel with cream cheese- definately not czech food but sooo good because its hard to find a good salad in barcelona. Then we went to the John Lennon Wall. I wish I had a guide book or travel book about prague when we were there to know a little more about the history of the places we were. But the Lennon wall is a wall covered in paint and graffitti started by John Lennon advocating for peace. There were peace signs and beatles lyrics written all over and its so colorful and cool looking. We took really cute pictures. Its just a wall off a random street so anyone is allowed to write on it, so we put our initials on it. I thought it was so cool. After that we walked from old town to new town to a place called Wesceslas Square. On the way stopped in a shop called "The New Yorker" which was like their department store. I got a cute sweater with fauz fur for 180 crown, so like 10 euro. Wesceslas sqaure was soo pretty, and has a big government building at the end of it. There are these food trucks on every block that dani winston told us about that are open all night and she would also go there after the clubs. We got "hot wine" from one of the trucks which literally tasted like hot red wine and was kind of good, expecially because it was soooo cold there! Then we went back to the hostel to rest and we were going to go to this italian place on the river that dani recommended but ended up not wanting to go to a big sit down dinner, and having to go all the way back to the center. Haley was sick so we just stayed in, but the rest of us went back to Kolovna because the others girls hadnt been and wanted to and we werent that hungry so were just going to get beer. I ended up trying the goulash soup which was good and then radler which was beer with sprite which was soo good. I know it sounds like all I do is drink but i just want to try the things people tell me are famous in that city. Then we went to a random bar and it was so funny it was a biker bar and they played classic rock. Fat girls danced on the counters. We tried this czech alcohol and it tasted like christmas. Then we went to the famous club there called Karlovy Lazne, which was right on the river and was five stories. Every story played a different type of music. It was probably my favorite club ive been to so far because it wasnt too hugeee and every floor was different and fun. The next day we went with all the girls and walked around the Jewish Quarter. There are a lot of old synagouges and there is a jewish cemetary which was really interesting to see, especially for me, haley and celine, who were the only jews of the group. We bought these little hamza bracelets to add to our jewish bracelet collection. Then we went to lunch at a place called Bakeshop that dani recommended. I got a "savory pie" which was like a tomator and goat cheese quish and it was really good, but not even cheap! Then we headed to the airport. It was sooo much fun and a lot of cool new experiences but I didnt love it as much as I loved paris. Im glad I didnt study abroad there mainly because of the cold, and because it is really smally. We walked around the same things all the time and did almost everything in that weekend. We had done more than dani stern had who is abroad there. Overall another amazing trip and soo cool to see a difference country and culture.