Czech it out!

The first and only break Kent State University Florence gets in the fall is Thanksgiving. Having a day off is a big deal for us because that means one more day of traveling without worrying about having to miss class. One of the girls on the trip Kyla has an uncle who lives in Prague so we decided in September to spend the break there.

            Of course I have to start off by telling you how our travel plans once again did not run smoothly. About two weeks before our departure day Amanda and Taylor received an email from Orbitz saying the flight we had booked to Prague had been terminated so our flight now had us only ending up in Zurich. The night we received the email Amanda immediately worked to fix the situation. I had not received the email or any notification of this change so I did not think my flight had been changed so when I woke up the next morning and Amanda told me the news I spent the day calling Orbitz back and forth trying to get any flight to Prague for Taylor and I. Fortunately Orbitz was able to find Taylor and I another flight but it was a different one than Amanda, Kyla and Olivia. This ended up being no problem because we all still were getting in at the same time. Problem solved right?? Nope because how could it ever be that easy!

            When we were about to leave for the airport I received an email from Orbitz saying my flight from Florence to Frankfort had been delayed. This meant that we would miss our connecting flight from Frankfort to Prague. Luckily again there was another flight from Frankfort to Prague the only problem was that we were now stuck with a five-hour layover in Frankfort getting us into Prague 3 hours later than our friends. This also meant that we now had to find our own ride and way from the airport to the hotel.

            Although everything had got rearranged and after a crazy taxi drive, seriously Europeans must have no driving rules because I swear they make up their own rules and there is no speed limits, we made it to the hotel in one piece. It was about 11:30 by then so we got our room at passed out.  

         The next day in Prague we went out to explore the city. It was beautiful! Our walk from our hotel took us to a point that overlooks the whole city...so of course it was a photo opt moment. It took us a while to figure out how to get down and across the bridge into the city but eventually we made it. Prague is kind of like Florence with several bridges in a row across the river. We went to the town and I immediately went to take out money since Prague uses crowns instead of Euros. I went to two atm machines before realizing that I had transfer money over from my savings account so I didn't have enough money to take out crowns. My phone also decided to stop working that day so I couldn't transfer money on my phone...the struggle was real! We walked around searching for a Starbucks so I could use the wifi and one of my friends phones to transfer money. On the way there we had an amazing cup of hot chocolate from a street vendor. Soon our white girl American instincts kicked in and we found the Starbucks! I transferred money and into my account. Money finally in my pocket we headed around Prague to explore. We stopped into a soup place for lunch and to warm up, which was delicious! Then after walking around a bit more stopping for these cinnamon sugar rolls (I forget the name..oops) we went into the square for a free walking tour. 

       Prague was absolutely freezing and this walking tour was about 4 hours long. We froze our buns off but the walking tour was awesome and we learned about 2,000 years of Prague's history in this time. Our tour guide was from Manchester and was super enthusiastic about everything! She loved Prague! Every so often she would have us do group star jumps aka jumping jacks to warm up. She took us to the clock tower, around the square, the Jewish quarter, and told us key factors that made Prague and the Czech republic the way they are now. A little more than half way through the 4 hours we stopped at a bagel place...yes a bagel place!! The New Yorker in me started cheering as we walked through the doors to a land of bagels! I have missed my bagels! Unfortunately I was still full from lunch so I made my friends promise we would be back to get bagels before we left. When we sat down and got wifi Taylor had seen that my dad had texted and called her trying to get in contact with me. When I reached my dad I found out my debit card had been hacked...suckers tried to take out money three times including trying to take out a sum of $900...unfortunately for them they picked the wrong debit card to hack because I could only dream that my bank account still had that much money in it...fortunately for me my bank also froze the account after seeing the unusual activity so no money was taken...now again back to unfortunates, this was the last time I would be able to use/take out money with my debit card for the rest of the trip. It was all good through because no money had been stolen and I still had my crowns that I had taken out earlier that day. We completed the walking tour and then fled back to our hotel to thaw out, yes it was that cold. 

          From there we went over to Kyla's uncles house for dinner. This was thanksgiving day was it was nice to be getting a home cooked meal. He made us stir fried and a vegetarian friendly one to boot! Kyla's uncle is hilarious!! He has lived in Prague for a while and it was really cool how his kids spoke fluent english and czech (always so cool to me!). We had a really nice dinner with a ton of laughs and by the time dinner and dessert were long gone we were exhausted once again. We went back to the hotel and passed out to Harry Potter.  

     The next morning was another day to explore! There was no real itinerary for Prague which was so relaxing. We just did what we wanted when we wanted. We decided to go see the John Lennon wall because that was something we were all dying to do. The John Lennon wall is incredible! I personally love graffiti art and the collaboration of so many peoples ideas and from all around the world writing on the wall was amazing. So many people had signed the wall and put quotes. I even found an axid etched in the wall! We had quiet the photo shoot at the wall...seriously overdid it with the pictures. Finally we all ripped ourselves away from the wall and finally my dreams came true and we went to a bagel place. This was the same place as yesterday only a different location. It was called Bohemian Bagels. I died and went to heaven in there with my pesto, tomato, mozzarella on a plain bagel. I guess the four months spent in Italy influenced me in that order...but still it was a real life bagel!! But enough about the bagels because we also had delicious chocolate chip cookies after...YOFO (you're only fat <in florence> once) is the term we coined to explain the over eating and indulgence in food abroad. From there we explored again, we had this thing in Prague where we literally went into every souvenir shop in attempts to keep warm, while also looking at all the cheesy souvenirs that say puns like "Czech me out". Can't say we didn't end up all buying cheesy souvenirs either...sometimes you gotta do the tourist thing. We decided to again do another walking tour expect this one was not free. It was another 4 hour tour in the freezing cold but we manned up for the sake of culturing our lives. This tour was around the Castle in Prague. The tour was a little disappointing because there are a ton of museums in the Castle that the price of the tour didn't include but looked awesome. We did learn a lot more about the history of Prague and the castle. We also got to watch the changing of the guards during the tour. The tour ended at the John Lennon wall so we decided to skip out before that...we were all a little toured out anyways. We once again had to thaw out at the hotel because seriously Prague was so cold!!!!! 

        We then walked around our apartment in search of a restaurant. It was a little on the later side for dinner so finding a restaurant that was open/not a bad/non-smoking was easier said then done. Side note: who knew Prague still allowed smoking in restaurants?! It's so shocking to see that since we have become so accustomed to smoke-free restaurants. We ended up at an Indian restaurant and the food was amazing! I have grown to really love Indian food here! In Prague beer is cheaper than water (imagine that!) actually significantly cheaper so clearly as college students our only option was to go the cheap route and get beer! poor us....hahah We were rushed out of the Indian restaurant in the end because it was closing and we decided to check out a bar in the area. The bar was packed...we actually had to sit on the floor until we finally rearranged coats and made ourselves a table. We stayed at the bar for no more than an hour and had to soon venture out to find something else because they didn't take credit card. We stopped at one more bar restaurant that was about to close and then went back to the apartment to turn in. 

        I usually spend most blog posts commenting on the breakfast I have and with that basically everything I eat. Since I haven't touched on the subject let me just add in that breakfast every morning was free and fabulous! I am such a breakfast person! They had green tea every morning and butter and jelly for toast...also clementine which are pretty much my greatest fruit addiction! Anyways onto the days activities. We started out the morning the same as always heading out into the city. Today was the start of the Christmas markets in Prague so we got to explore all the Prague street Christmas food and trinkets! The streets smelled amazing! I couldn't eat most of it because it was meat so I think the only thing I really ended up getting was a crepe and thats about it. Since I couldn't really eat anything in the streets as we went out exploring other areas of Christmas markets we stopped at a little restaurant for soup. The soup in Prague was perfect because we were always freezing from walking around so it was the perfect way to take a break from the cold and warm up. After soup we decided to check out Prague's Ice Bar. Ice Bars are located all around the world, I actually heard they just opened up one in NYC. Basically it is a freezing cold room made out of ice and its an absolute vodka bar. You get a big giant coat, gloves, and a free drink for the 20 minutes you get to spend in the bar. The ice bar was AWESOME!! I didn't even get to think about how cold it was because it was so much fun! We danced around the room, took tons of pictures, and sang at the top of our lungs. The drinks were served in cups with a frozen ice shell around them. When it got down to the last 10 seconds in the ice bar we shouted the countdown. The whole room thought we were all crazy but couldn't help not laughing and joining in. When we left the ice bar we made our way back into the center of the city and made a pit stop at Starbucks simple to use their wifi and warm up. Congrats to me I didn't order one thing at Starbucks the whole Prague trip I just used them for their wifi (also my phone came back to life this day so it was a good one). We waited in Starbucks until it was time for the Christmas tree lighting in Prague. 

         I was beyond excited to be able to experience a Christmas tree lighting in Prague. We had seen them setting up this enormous tree the last few days and they were finally going to light it for the first time. The tree had a whole light show along with music until bam it was over and remained lit! It was magical! That I felt was a once in a life time experience. After the Christmas tree lighting we went back to the hotel to get ready to go out for dinner. We decided to go into the city for dinner and ended up at a burger place..that had veggie burgers!! woo!! The burgers ended up being delicious, one of the best veggie burgers I've ever had! Beer again were had with dinner and the guy who seemed to be the manager or owner randomly appeared at the end with three other guys that worked there and they brought and took a shot with us....random.....He then talked about places to go out and where he was going out and soon after we left to go find a place for dessert..YOFO!! We stopped at another restaurant where we were asked smoking or nonsmoking...still so weird! We ended up getting put in the basement part of the restaurant and being the loud Americans...I swear people got up and left when we started talking. Everyone got dessert except me because I didn't like any of the desserts..picky picky. We stayed there for a while and deemed our room the rowdy room because the restaurant then sat a bunch of tipsy guys from Austria (I think they said) down there too. The night then took us elsewhere for an experience we would never forget...I'll stop there what happens in Prague stays in Prague. I also got made fun of all night by my friends because I went out in an under armor turtleneck with a sweater over it...hey it was cold. I also got a McFlurry later that night so I guess I contradict myself. 

      The last day in Prague would be a half day. We explore the Christmas markets once again. I got another bohemian bagel..such a good idea...except they wanted to charge me 5 billion extra crowns for cream cheese so I ended up having hot sauce on a bagel and tomato soup...so I guess that's what I get for trying to be too American in Prague. We today more than ever went in and out of every souvenir shop, since Prague was a little cheaper than most cities we had been to everyone was stocking up on some Christmas gifts. We also did "Prague on a budget" and peaked our heads over the fence to be able to see the Jewish cemetery instead of buying a ticket to get in. The Jewish cemetery is unreal. It was from the time of WWII and it was in the Jewish quarter which used to be the Jewish ghetto. The government of Prague would not allow the Jewish people any more space but that cemetery to bury their dead so the Jewish people had to pile up more and more dirt and kept having to dig up the tombstones and put them higher and higher above ground. What I'm saying sounds confusing so I will just put a picture. 

        Soon enough it was time to go back to the hostel and back on a plane to Florence. What an incredible way to spend Thanksgiving break!