after spending a glorious weekend in Berlin, Christine and I hopped a bus to Prague. It was nice to ride through the country and look at the landscape, though those of you who know me, know i fell asleep almost immediately (travel induced narcolypsy- i swear it's real.) We watched dirty dancing in German and our bus driving sang along to the songs. It was an especially cozy, hilarious ride and we arrived in Prague in good spirits. My friend Ellen is studying in Prague this semester and graciously offered to let us crash at her flat for a few days. She met us at the train station and showed us around the city- absolutely stunning. prague is breath takingly beautiful. the castle sits on top of a hill and from the top you can see the whole city. It was all spires and red roofs and cobblestone streets set against the backdrop of changing autumn foliage. gorgeous. and on top of the sheer beauty of the city, we stayed with the nicest people ever. seriously- ellen and her roomies were ridiculously hospitable. they made us dinner at night and breakfast in the morning. they showed us all around town and made a bed for us. seriously so nice. overall, it was just a really relaxing kind of trip. we didn't go to 'see the sights' or hit up museums. we just kind of wandered and hung out and soak it all up. here are the highlights:
1. beef and onion goulash followed by apple strudel with vanilla sauce. nuff said.
2. hiking to the top of a park that overlooks the city and despite panting like a crazy person and cursing myself for being so out of shape, just standing there and marveling at the city. absolutely stunning.
3. tons of weird marionette shops everywhere! i find them simultaneously awesome and creepy and i dragged poor chris into them everytime we passed.
4. the sweet old astronomical clock in the center of town. there's a big fan fare there every day when the clock strikes three and back in medievel times, it was a pretty big friggin' deal to have a clock like that.
5. eating these weird dough-nut-y/monkey bread things. it's like dough wrapped around a rod & cooked and covered in sugar, i think? whatever it was, i want more.
6. PRAGUE HAM. <--this is the best. there are a bunch of food stands in various city squares (like mini villages!) and the one features a full pig on a spite, cooking all day. when you order, they literally just cut it off the pig and onto your plate. this ham melts in your mouth. so good! so salty! i'm salivating just thinking about it now.
7. walking tours with ellen's history class. got to explore less well known sections of prague.
8. ellen's roomies being the nicest people ever. spent a lot of late night time just drinking wine and watching arrested development. so good. and they made us yummy food! spring rolls and pasta and apple pie and eggs and toast. very very nice people.
9. the money is crazy- it kept throwing me off. for example, you order a fast food lunch and it costs you 100 crown. that sounds nuts right? but it's actually only about $5. so our group dinner bill would say we owed like 1000 crown and despite it not actually being in USD, i felt pretty pimp.
10. learning czech phrases from ellen & co. 'jeddycheck' (totally spelled phonetically) was my favorite. it means grandpa. we also learned 'momika' (mommy) and 'permite' (please) and 'proscem' (thank you). i even ordered stamps in czech! granted, ellen wrote it down and i just read it off a piece of paper but i was super pumped when the dude understood me. like, on the verge of pure giddiness at the post office. ultimate triump.
prague was lovely lovely lovely. if you're even in the city, eat the ham and look at the puppets for me.
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