Prague

Prague has definitely been a place to remember. Between the amazing colorful buildings and surprise sculptures you find around the city there is always something to see.

Day 1 we arrived in Prague at about 2. We had perfect directions provided by our hostel about how to get there using public transportation. It was quite simple we had to take bus 119 to the last stop which was the train station, then take the metro one stop, switch lines and take it again one stop. The traveling process wasn't difficult. What was difficult was the fact that 3 of the 4 public transportation ticket boxes didn't work! So we had to wait in a long line to use the only functioning one... that only worked about 50% of the time. But after about 45 minutes we got our tickets for transportation and were on our way. This was our first hostel experience that we booked ourselves and I would definitely do it again. The hostel was great. Great location, great staff, and it offered free tours everyday, and free dinners! It definitely was great as a student to stay there with all these perks and save money. It was like living in a dorm room again. Anna and I shared a room with 3 other girls and our bathroom was down the hall. I always felt safe and comfortable!

Day 2 we got up and went on a free castle tour. Our tour guide was accompanied by his two dogs which he said knew the routes just as well as he did. They were connected by a leash that clipped them together and the only time the tour guide grabbed the rope was when we were crossing the street. It was quite comical watching them roam the streets and one pull the other a certain way, and they definitely attracted a lot of attention. All afternoon people were taking pictures of them! But anyway along our tour we got a lot of history and stopped at some of the cities main attractions, the castle, John Lennon wall, the water mill, and David Curneys Barcode babies. After our tour concluded we then went shopping for some souvenirs. I found my watercolor paintings and I also got an ornament! The ornament shop was packed, I think its because for the first time we are actually close to christmas considering November 1st is in two days! They had these cool ornaments that were made out of chicken eggs or goose eggs. Anna loved them so got a few of those, but THEN she dropped one, so lucky for her they had a special that day where if you bought 3 you got the 4th free, so she just got another so technically her forth one counted as the broken one. We then started the walk back to old town where we were going to see the astronomical clock. We stopped and got a Tradicni, which is ice-cream in a donut like cone. They were all over the place here and pretty popular, I was pretty disappointed by mine, the ice cream was great, but the actual cone wasn't very good. I would've rather just had a normal waffle cone! THEN we as we continued our walk to the clock we passed a wax museum and couldn't resist because we got in for only 4 euros. Half of the museum was telling the story of Czechs past through these very creepy looking wax people, not going to lie I felt like I was walking through a haunted house for awhile, but then we finally reached the part with some famous people than that was pretty cool and very scary how lifelike they all look. We also passed a HUGE toy store that we walked through and besides the toy store in NYC this is the biggest toy store i have ever been in. I was 3 floors and had a merry-go-round and a huge slide in it! It was like a paradise for children, when we exited there were many children begging their parents to go inside! But after some more site seeing, shopping, and a nap we decided to have a traditional Czech meal for dinner. They are well known for their meats and fried cheese. So our hostel gave us the recommendation of a place that had great beer and you could do a beer tasting for cheap. So we did it and for only 5 euros we got to try 4 different types of beer, a light beer, a mixed beer, a dark beer, and a sparkling beer! It was a great meal!

Day 3 was definitely a little scary. It was suppose to be raining all day, but luckily the rain happened earlier in the morning and held off for most of the day, so we got to go on our free walking tour with the hostel. But to our surprise it was VERY windy out. It was so bad that the terracotta roofing tiles were flying off of buildings. One flew off and hit someone in the head! So there were places roped off all over the city that had to be avoided because of the tiles flying off. Mid way through our tour one flew off and shattered right next to us on the sidewalk. So needless to say after the tour we went back to the hostel not only because we were freezing and a huge storm was coming but it was probably what was best for our safety. For the rest of the night anytime I heard an ambulance, I was hoping someone wasn't hit by terracotta. But we did a lot on our tour. We went around the city visiting various sculptures that were made by David Curney. He created the barcode babies, the man hanging from the roof, the giant rotating head, and the peeing sculptures. The peeing sculptures were quite interesting because they actually pee out words and phrases. Some are famous quotes and some times you can send in your own message for the men to spell out! After our tour we went back to the hostel and got lunch near by, and we decided to get KFC. I haven't had fried chicken since I don't even know when, and definitely haven't had any fast food in a long time. So when I saw KFC I was pretty excited. Which is definitely saying a lot because when I'm home I say i don't like KFC because it would NEVER be my choice of what to eat. But this KFC was different than what we are use to in the states. It was more similar to a Chick-Fil-A. You could get chicken fingers, a chicken sandwich, or your chicken leg bucket. They didn't have any of the sides like they do in the states that we have all grown to love. But anyway it was worth it. We then hung out in the hostel and did some homework until the group dinner later that evening.