The one in Prague

So I got up after a few hours of sleep, quickly grabbed my stuff, and hurried to catch the subway to the train station. We made it there in plenty of time so we grabbed a quick breakfast (Dunkin Donuts, I've never appreciated your everything bagel with cream cheese more in my life than at that moment) and then found our platform. The train ride to Prague was beautiful. The train rode along a winding river with rolling hills behind it and small houses and buildings that seemed to disappear into the mountainside that dominated the scene. It really was quite beautiful. I slept for part of it but I sat up for a good portion and just looked out the window at the passing hills. We arrived in Prague, exchanged our currency to Czech crowns and then came up with a game plan. We would meet up with Rachel, a friend of Monica, Jamie, and Torey's and then we would go on a 2 hour bus tour of the city before checking into our hostel.

So we found a place in the train station to lock up our luggage for the day and then went to find a nice little restaurant in the train station to grab some lunch and wait for Rachel. She joined us and we all ate ham and cheese paninis, and after a short while, we said goodbye and walked to the starting point of our bus tour. This was the best decision of the trip. Prague was beautiful, but if I had been seeing the city on food, I would have frozen to death. It was absolutely bitter cold and it was much nicer to enjoy the sights of the city from the warm comfort of our personal tour bus with english audio guides. This trip made it difficult to take pictures because we were inside a bus but we learned a ton about the history of Prague and the buildings that we passed. If we had had more time there, I would have liked to find a crystal shop or square or something. As it was, the city is beautiful but I'd recommend going when it's a bit warmer.

After the tour, it dropped us back off near the station and we went to get our luggage out of the lockers and headed to the hostel. The hostel was adorable but kind of far away. Prague has amazing public transportation but we didn't know how to use it until the lady at the front desk explained it to us very clearly in English. Clearly, none of us speak Czech. Anyway, we headed upstairs to our 6 person private room and unpacked our bags for the night. We set out everything for when we were going to sleep and even put our shower stuff in the shower so it would be ready to go with minimal effort necessary for later that night or the next morning. Then we headed back to the city center to find our something for dinner and then our pub crawl.

First we went to check in at the pub crawl and told the guy at the bar that we'd be back in a little bit after we found something to eat. He then informed us that we could order food from a place nearby and he's go pick it up for us! That way we could start drinking for free and really get our money's worth for the pub crawl! Let me tell you, we got our money's worth. For the first 2 hours, beer, wine, shots of vodka and absynth, were all free. That can be dangerous so we took our time drinking and eating but definitely made it worth it. The rest of the pub crawl was a blast too. We became friends with a lot of other people on the crawl as well and had a great time dancing the night away at all the pubs we went to. The best part was in the middle when we went to a jazz bar where they played live jazz music; it was really impressive and cool to see a live band playing jazz; you don't see that much in the states. So after a wonderful night with old friends, new friends, and free pub crawl t-shirts, we headed back to our hostel to get yet again about 3 hours of sleep.

It took us forever to get back because the tram doesn't run at night and the night tram didn't go all the way to our hostel. So we took the tram halfway, walked for a while, got lost because we couldn't cross the river on foot (clearly because we're not Jesus), so we took a cab for the last length of the trip. When we got back, I showered, slept for a few hours, got up, and then got on the shuttle to take us back to the train station. It was a short trip in Prague but we were hoping that Vienna would be warmer.