It started with me packing everything the night before. Which entails 10 minutes of throwing things I think I may need into my backpack. Then after a few hours of sleep, I had to get up at around 430am and walk to the train station. This wasn’t too bad in itself, but the blisters it caused made for the abundance of walking throughout Prague fairly painful. After catching the train and arriving in Frankfurt, I had the task of finding out where my bus would arrive by asking people who solely speak German. Keep in mind, my German is much worse then my French or Spanish. I eventually got it figured out, and sat by my bus stop. As Germans are quite diligent about staying on time and keeping a tight schedule, I became somewhat concerned after the bus had still not arrived a half-hour after it should’ve. Then it was round 2 of German conversation. I figured out (or I think I figured out) that the bus was delayed due to construction and would be later. I ended up getting on the bus over an hour late. The worst part about it was not the waiting, but I figured I had either missed it, or booked the wrong bus, as I’ve never had one of my buses or trains be more then 10 minutes late here. I had begun thinking about catching a train back to Marburg. The bus finally arrived and the ride was fairy pleasant as I met some girls from Australia and other from France to talk to (I also got to practice my French). It also included eating copious amounts of granola bars, as I did not feel like spending all my money at the roadside rest stops, which are notoriously overpriced in Germany.
Finally upon arriving in Prague, I realized this may have been one of the most unorganized trips I’ve got myself into. I had barely packed, forgot they don’t use the Euro, only had the name of my hostel, and not able to meet up with the other two, ect… I almost decided not to go on the trip because it was nearly impossible to find a way there, and our hostels got canceled a few times. But it all worked out. I sorted things out, and finally just walked through the city to my hostel to take a shower, which was needed after 8 hours in a sweaty bus.
I met some new people at the hostel and decided to go for a beer with one of them when I finally got in contact with Chris. So we all went to this really local restaurant/pub located way out of the city center that Chris had been to with a local the day before. I believe it may have been called the “Original Budvar” or something of the sort. Although I’m quite confident that we were the only tourists/non-check speakers in the place, it was an awesome place to be. A 0.5L of beer was actually cheaper then 0.25L of water. The cheapest thing on the menu. I then had a rack of ribs. By a rack, I mean the many ribs where actually placed upon a rack in front of me, for which I presumed was so I could inhale them faster. They were awesome, and for 5 Euros, it was the first time here I could legitimately order whatever I wanted on the menu.
Somehow, David made his way over to the middle of nowhere and met up with us. After that pub we walked to a hill overlooking the city with “the metronome” structure. The metronome is there to signify that the periods of suffering they went through, like all other periods, will pass. Or at least that was the meaning I was told. We spent the rest of the night going into all types of bars and what not. Everything from the small little “24hr sports bar” to a place that gave you a beer tap at your table and it registered how many beers you poured yourself. Overall it was a fun night and we stayed out of too much trouble.
We reconvened the next day (as we 3 were all staying a different hostels… very organized trip) and took the “Free Tour” of the city. Prague was a city that, for me, got more and more interesting the longer you were there. We learned all about the Jewish quarter, which has one cemetery, which is extremely small, but holds over 100,000 bodies. How? Well they are buried up to 13 bodies deep. Probably a fact you did not want to know.
We continued our walk around, speaking a lot about the period from the start of WWII until the fall of the Soviet Union. History I won’t even try to explain, but will say it is a very extensive and interesting stage of that country in such a “short” period of time. We saw/learned about many other things… but I’m sure if your interested, the internet can tell you much more then I.
After, we walked about to the Prague “Castle”. I use the term castle lightly because it is more like a walled city/fortress containing an entire “small city”. The church that it posses, like all other in Europe, is very impressive. One cool thing here was with the time of day we went, the sun shone through the stain glass windows so that much of the interior was light up by all these bright colors. The rest of the “castle” included many buildings (old I presume), open squares, and gardens.
Then it was time to make our way back to a hostel, which we were now all staying at. The plan for the night was to go on a pub-crawl. For around 20 Euros, you get an hour of free drinks, entrance to 5 different clubs, and a shot at each club. We started at the one bar, which pretty much just had rows of beers and shots of Vodka/Absinth lined up on the bar for you to take. As responsible young adults, you can image we responsibly enjoyed a few of these beverages in the allotted time frame. The rest of the night was an awesome time, meeting a ton of other people and ending up at the “biggest club in central Europe”. It had 5 different floors with different themes. Everything from a rave-like scene to a floor with quiet enough music so you could lounge/talk. Pub-crawl=Success
This left us with a late start the next day. When David and I finally rose from the dead, we headed into town to “get our tourism on”. We rented a paddleboat and just sat on the river for a good hour. Possibly not the most exciting thing we did, but probably the most relaxing. Just “bro-ing” out.
Later on we took a tour of a “communism and the nuclear bunker”. The communism part was pretty informative but the nuclear bunker part of the tour was much more appealing to me. It was an actually bunker which is still able to operate correctly today. It has been semi-transformed into a museum and small night club (they don’t get any noise complaints there… ). First off, the doors to get in are over two tons of solid lead. They were thicker then our shoulder widths and take a good push to even budge. After walking down around 20 meters we got to the bunker. They had displays of gas masks/suits, pictures of historical events, among other things. They also had an area where you could try on the gas masks, old soldier uniforms and hold some of the guns from that period. It felt like the inside of a large ship or submarine, with many sealable compartments/rooms, air purification systems and very small spaces. You weren’t allowed to take pictures of the air/water purification rooms as they are still fully functional.
Later on, Dirty D and Chris decided to go to a concert, while I felt like doing the exact opposite… So that’s what we did. I got to nap, wander, see some churches and go to a mini farmers-market. Meeting up later for supper they told me they really enjoyed it. We ate at the “café Louvre” which has been frequented by people such as Albert Einstein… I don’t know how we managed to get in, but I did enjoy some good Goulash there, which is typical Czech food.
We initially planned on having an easy night, but as the theme for the weekend was, that organizing feel through and next thing you know we were out on the city being led by some locals we met from one different pub or club to another. It ended up being a pretty fun but late night to say the least.
David and Chris must’ve been too “tired” from the night before and ended up missing their bus to Dresden. After I breached the difficult task of waking David up/explaining to him the situation, they managed to grab the next bus for a decent fare.
As I typically really enjoy doing, I spent the rest of the day walking and biking around. I went up the to mini Eiffel-Tower they have and looked over the city. Also, I was able to go around some of the less touristy areas and see some typical “block-buildings” of the communist era and some of the shadier parts of town. The day ended on more of a negative note, but I got past it and finally hoped on the night-bus back home. The 12 hour Journey landed me back in Marburg and very happy to sleep in my “own bed” for more then three consecutive days for once.
Although my experience in Prague may have been hindered due to a couple negative incidents, I still think the city is absolutely remarkable with a ton to do at both night and during the day. It was awesome to see, and spend some time with, my brother David and Chris. It was also a new experience due to the fact that in this weekend, I was placed in situations or interactions where I was “forced” to speak with someone in German, Spanish or French, as they did not speak English.
Now, I’m not planning on traveling anywhere soon. Just want to settle back in here, and get some of the schoolwork I have done. I will be traveling briefly to Frankfurt a couple times this weekend to meet my younger brother and my Dad. And next weekend, I will be going to Lubeck with my program. Other then that, I would like to go to Munich at sometime, but am happy to stay around here for the rest of the time until my parents arrive in early June, at which time we will be biking throughout Germany for a week or two.
Maybe I’ll edit this later if I have forgotten later. If not, then I’m probably busy doing less productive things.
Ciao.
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