Today Erik and I explored Prague, and I love it. The city is beautiful, rich with culture, cheap (relatively), and on a river. I'll update later! Good night!!
Update:
I woke up around 8:30 this morning, and decided to take advantage of being the only one up in our dorm with the bathroom free to use the sink to do some wash. I did a few days of wash in the sink, set up my clothes line on the under side of the bunk above me using the criss cross wires to tie the line, and had my laundry drying all over the place.
Then, Erik and I started off our morning. We wanted to make the 1045 walking tour, but by the time we left the hostel, caught a tram, and got downtown, we missed it. So from there, we decided to find a place for breakfast. We found a cute little cafe tucked away in a garden. The food was different - more lunch and cake than breakfast - but good. Then, we set out to see the town.
As we walked through old town, it was filled with little artisan shops. Everything from paintings to laser cut wooden clocks to puppets were on display. One shop had beautiful paintings of various scenic view of Prague which was something I had been hoping to find in a city. Erik and I bargained, and got a deal for 6 various paintings.
From there, we were going to do a 2:00 tour of the city, however we decided to go up to the Prague Castle instead. So, over the Charles bridge we went. It was crammed with tourists, but the views of the city were gorgeous. Up the hill, the views got even better, and at the top, most of the city could be seen. We found the Prague Castle with church inside. Although Erik has seen multiple European churches, I had never seen one like this. It was enormous with Gothic style architecture. The inside had gorgeous paintings and stained glass. The ceilings were tall, and an ornate tomb became a center piece on one side. It was beautiful to see. The castle was cool to see too, however it was unfurnished, with a lack of character. We sort of rushed through this to get to a different tour at 3:00.
From there, we headed back down the hill into old town. Now, it was time to find something to eat. We found a donor (a Turkish gyro) to eat on the way to the tour. This tour wasn't a typically city tour though, it was the communist history tour of Prague. It was 2 hours and very interesting, however the ratio of walking to information was very poor. We saw more than enough of the city in just two hours. After that, we were both sick of walking. We found a local fruit stand, grabbed some fruit and water, and sat at a nearby waterfront park for a bit. Then, Erik headed back to the hostel and I went back into town. I wanted to get a better feel for the city before leaving, and everything so far had been rushed and more outside of the city center. I meandered around for about old town for a bit. As I headed back to the hostel, I found myself at the wrong tram stop, so I headed to a different one, which also turned out to be wrong, and finally the third time was a charm. I get so frustrated getting lost in a city though. I've managed to get lost in every city at least once. I think that comes with traveling alone. I don't have another person to ask which way to go or get lost with. After I finally got back to the hostel though around 8:00, Erik and I were starving so headed out to eat. We got some delicious Mexican food up the street. We tlatr while chatting with some cool people from all around the world at our hostel.
That night, our tour guide from earlier in the day had invited us out to meet up at a beer garden with some of his friends, so we did. We caught the very end of the Italy Spain futboll game from Berlin (I believe Spain won 2-1 with a goal in the last minute or so.. but I could also be very wrong.) From there, we headed into the park that the beer garden was in. We met various people from Spain, Germany, Czech Republic, Italy, and the U.S. there. Most were English teachers living in Prague. One if the coolest things I've found with traveling is hearing other people's stories. Because English is the international language too, it's easy for everyone to communicate - and I like that I can understand what's going on. It makes me less guilty as an American to only speak English because it's everyone else's second language. However, while at the park, the sprinklers came on so we got indirectly kicked out. Some people went home at this point, but there was a bar that Erik and I wanted to see. The Hanger is an airplane themed bar with a various mix of music. It was a very unique place! Definitely different than a typical bar or club, but in a good way. We were probably there until around 4:00 or 5:00 - I honestly don't know. We wound up at more of a club down the street where we danced until the sun came up; literally. When we left, the sun was up! We took a taxi back to the hostel and arrived around 6:00am. Thankfully, our hostel gave us wrist bands with their address and phone number to get back, just for this purpose. We arrived with just enough time to get some sleep before checkout time.
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