Czech, please!

Dobry den!

I have just finished an AMAZING weekend in Prague, where the beer is cheaper than water, the cobblestone streets are not made for high heels, and Prague Castle left us in awe.

After a day at the Tower of London on Monday, the hilarious play The 39 Steps, another theatre class walking tour, and one more wonderful Wednesday at Imperial College Union, we were ready to embark on our first vacation of the semester! I have to admit that I was extra excited for this trip because it was a place that I have wanted to go to for many years. Plus, living with 19 people for the better part of the last 4 weeks had taken its toll on everyone in the house. We were all ready to get away from each other, or at least go with each other to a different location for a much needed reprieve!

My travel companions for this trip were Hallie, Morgan, Katie, and Ali. Our travel arrangements were flawless, despite the hour long delay on the tarmac (of which I paid no notice, as I was already asleep before most people had finished boarding the plane.) We met another 8 girls from our program in Prague, who had traveled earlier in the morning on Thursday.

12 girls in the city of Prague...why not go see the Czech Republic famed Don Giovanni! After getting dressed up and walking laboriously on cobblestone sidewalks in heels to the National Theatre, we were informed, in broken (yet seemingly better than our broken Czech) English that Don Giovanni was not playing at this theatre. Another 20-min walk in our heels to its assumed location would have left us 20 minutes late for the start, if we ever found the theatre in the first place. So, we opted for dinner. It proved to be a great reward, as we had not eaten so well since we'd gotten to Europe. 16 Czech koruna is equivalent to 1 US dollar...so we ate really, really well. Unfortunately, you cannot ask for tap water, and a bottle of water is equivalent to about 4 US dollars. Beers ring in at only a dollar, and some cents. All of the restaurants also put bread on the table, and charged you for it if you ate it. Peculiar habits! They most likely do it in an attempt to make more money off tourists who can come to Prague and get a three course meal for about 12 dollars. And, we always had to ask for the check!

On Friday morning we got up bright and early, ate breakfast at the hostel, and did a self-guided tour through the Jewish Quarter, called Josefov. Six of the 12 girls who we traveled with are Jewish, and it was really enjoyable to have them explain certain things to the rest of us. We visited almost all of the Synagogues in the Jewish Quarter, and my particular favorite was the Spanish Synagogue. Its beauty survived WWII, even though it was used as a storage area to keep Jewish confiscated goods, and now the top floor of the synagogue is used as a museum to showcase Czech Jews' history and suffering through WWII. The Pinkas Synagogue is home to the Old Jewish Cemetery, and also to the names of all the Czech Jews who died during the Holocaust.

Friday night, we went back to the National Theatre to watch Aida the Opera for only $1.25. Truly, that was all it was worth considering we were in the last row of the theatre, and the English subtitles on a projection screen made you laugh more than take the Opera seriously. I kept thinking, if what they are saying is really as lame as they project on the screen, I am not going to make it through this Opera. Turns out, no one else could either. We left at intermission, and then ate dinner.

Saturday morning we made our way towards Prague Castle, admiring its view from Charles Bridge, admiring the artwork and photography of those artists selling their work on Charles Bridge, and climbing to the top of the hill where the castle sits. Once we reached the top, before even thinking about the Castle, we spent about a half hour taking pictures of all of Prague below. The Castle was closed, which we weren't all that heartbroken about, so we walked back down the hill and went to lunch on the river. We sat outside an admired Charles Bridge and then spent the afternoon walking around the rest of Prague and shopping.

Going to Prague really helped us appreciate our time in London. It wasn't that we ever felt unsafe while we were there, but we definitely didn't realize that Kensington was as safe as it actually is. Coming back to London was about as normal as coming home from Madison. We were so happy to hear English again, and so happy to know what all of the street signs said, and what to order...in English.

We are looking forward to our future vacations, and hope they are as enjoyable and beautiful as Prague. It is such an old and enchanting city where you can still see the affects of Communist rule, but where you can also see that its landscape and charm have been left unaltered. We loved the beer, we loved the cobblestone streets, and we loved the Castle as our landscape.

Have a wonderful week!
Annette