The bus was packed and everyone was speaking crazy czech. we had no idea where to get off and no idea what we were doing. In fact, we almost got off at one point... in the middle of no where... but hopped back on the bus at the last minute... then this rando was like, "I'm waiting for the metro too, I think it's the last stop and everyone will get off." THANK GOD. Crisis of being stranded averted. We get to the metro stop, finally, and we didn't have enough money to buy tickets because the the machine only took coins. We are so tired that we were like screw it, and we just hopped on. We got off a few stops later and found the hostel without much trouble at all, but the only problem was we couldn't check in until 2:00.
That afternoon we blew the rest of the 20 euro we spent on pizza and candy... like children. Then we exchanged more money at a bank, window shopped down the big avenue, checked into the hostel, napped, showered and then decided to venture into the unknown to try to find the bus station so we could buy tickets for a little excursion. We walked for about a half an hour and finally found the station, and there were several different bus companies so we decided to go ask the information booth what to do. Luckily the woman there spoke English, but I literally felt like I was at the Mad Tea Party or something. This is what the dialogue went like, for the most part:
Me: Hi, do you speak english?
Her: Yes, what do you want?
Me: We want to buy tickets to Cesky Krumlov tomorrow, where should we go?
Her: Yes, you have to buy tickets.
Me: Yes, I know, but which company should we go to
Her: Incomprehensible name in Czech
(we walk away without knowing what she said, so turned right back around to ask again)
Me: I'm sorry, which booth did you say?
Her: What do you want?
Me: to go to Cesky Krumlov
Her: Where?
Me: Cesky Krumlov... we need to buy tickets?
Her: I don't know
Me: You just told us a name...
Her: BOOTH 16! (shuts window in a hurry)
Whaaaaaaaat? It was the weirdest thing ever. Anyways, we got the tickets, round trip for about 7 euro each, and then decided that we wanted to go out to eat. We had found this coupon for sushi, so sushi it was. The restaurant was actually really nice, and we ordered 4 rolls to split. All in all, it was pretty good, but I was really sad about the california roll because they didn't have cream cheese... they used ricotta instead so my mouth didn't know what to think. Our waitor was so attractive to me for some reason that I couldn't even look him in the eye or say anything else besides "Please" and "Thank you." Then we got the bill and it said 1291.00. It was always funny to us how much the bills/price tags read initially because our instinct was to think dollars... yea, we were big ballers because we dropped 1291.00 on a night out, yo. Afterwards we walked around the city and then went out for ice cream.
The next morning we got up around 7 and walked to the bus station, which we found a lot easier than the night before. The bus left pretty much on time and it took about 3 hours to get there... I slept the entire way. We got off the bus and randomly started heading up a hill that looked like it went into the city. We were right :) On the way, we stopped to take some panoramic pictures that turned out really lovely. The sky was so blue, the rooftops were so red and the buildings were mostly yellow... so the city had a very basic, uncomplicated feel to it right from the start.
We walked around the city for a little while, in and out of the shops. After buying some postcards we decided it was time for lunch. We found this place called Papa's which had a terrace by the river, so we decided that would be perfect. The menu was very "American," but I didn't care. In fact, I enjoyed it. I ordered ribs, and when the plate came out there was a FULL rack of perfectly seasoned meatiness, with a big grilled cob of corn... I had a Coca-light and also hot raspberries with ice cream for dessert and it's safe to say I got out of there for under 10 euro. Amazing! We sat around and wrote out most of our postcards, waited for the little bit of rain to go away, and then we set out for more exploring and shopping.
We went up to the castle, which was really beautiful but only by default -- all the facades of the entire state had been painted on; although it all looked like stone and sweet masonry, it was just stenciling. I don't know if they ran out of money, or time, or if that was just the style back then, but it was really interesting.
We walked around the city for a little while, in and out of the shops. After buying some postcards we decided it was time for lunch. We found this place called Papa's which had a terrace by the river, so we decided that would be perfect. The menu was very "American," but I didn't care. In fact, I enjoyed it. I ordered ribs, and when the plate came out there was a FULL rack of perfectly seasoned meatiness, with a big grilled cob of corn... I had a Coca-light and also hot raspberries with ice cream for dessert and it's safe to say I got out of there for under 10 euro. Amazing! We sat around and wrote out most of our postcards, waited for the little bit of rain to go away, and then we set out for more exploring and shopping.
We went up to the castle, which was really beautiful but only by default -- all the facades of the entire state had been painted on; although it all looked like stone and sweet masonry, it was just stenciling. I don't know if they ran out of money, or time, or if that was just the style back then, but it was really interesting.
We had a traditional Czech dessert known as Trdlo per recommendation of Haley's friend, and they were delicious! Just hot dough fried, rolled in various goodies like vanilla, almond, cinnamon and sugar. They're in the shape of a big cylinder and you just rip the dough off in one big coil... so fun!
We took the bus back and literally got dropped off in the middle of nowhere. Well, we were in Prague, but we had no idea where in the city we were because our map only showed us the city center, and we were no where near the bus station or anybody who spoke English. For a few minutes I didn't know if we were going to make it to the hostel that night because we couldn't find a taxi and we couldn't seem to get to a metro station. Finally we stopped these two younger girls on their way out if they spoke English -- one of them gave it ago but thought her directions weren't good enough, so they let us follow them to the metro station and I felt like God was simultaneously laughing at us and helping us. We got back to the hostel and went right to bed.
The next day we slept in and then went to a place called Bohemian Bagel.
*ASIDE* I got to Spain on January 26th, and I have been craving a bagel since January 27th. I've searched all over the city - high and low - but haven't found any trace of anything even remotely resembling a bagel. Then one day, I came up with a theory as to why there are no bagels in Spain: late in the fifteenth century the Catholic Kings reconquered Spain from the Moors. They forced the Moors, along with the Gypsies and the Jews out of Spain. As you know, bagels are a Jewish food. No Jews to make the bagels, no bagels. No bagels, no happiness. I showed my host mother a picture of a bagel and she said she had never seen anything like that in her life. Hmmmm....
So this Bohemian Bagel place is owned by an American. I get there and order a sesame seed bagel with veggie cream cheese and my leg still begins to shake when I think about how good it was. To boot - they had fountain pop. ON TOP OF THAT - FREE REFILLS! Europeans can't wrap their heads around the concept of a refill, and I really think it's the one thing that could lead to world peace. Hahaha -- needless to say we went there for lunch that same day, then breakfast and lunch the next day, then BACK to buy bagels for snacks on the return trip home. What a love affair.
After that, we went to the post office to mail the posters that we bought in Brussels to the US. We had to go on a baby goose chase to find poster tubes, but we felt very accomplished mailing them out so early and with the post cards too. It was actually pretty inexpensive which was unexpected but oh so pleasant.
We went to the Charles Bridge and took some fly pictures,
then up to the castle which was much less interesting than what we thought... so we didn't even pay to go in, we just snapped a few courtyard photos and then left. Afterwords we got pretty heavy into souvenir shopping - mainly nesting dolls because I adore them and they were everywhere. I ended up buying one for myself, one for Lily and one for Colton. We made it to the John Lennon Wall after trying to track it down all morning... it was by far and away my favorite part of Prague. The graffiti was so pretty, and the messages we so clear.
I could have stuck around to soak it all in for a good chunk of time, but a big group of tourists showed up fairly shortly after we had started taking pictures, so we decided to split. We then went to a little market and I bought an absolutly lovely pashmina, a ring and some weird wafer-cookie type things that were supposed to taste like lemon, but didn't really taste like anything. The day slowed down quite a bit after that and I got pretty tired and pretty bored prettttttttty fast. We sat down for a drink, talked for a while... walked around some more... went to a random museum and then out to eat. Back to the hostel kind of early to sleep, which didn't really work out because we had these disgustingly obnoxious guys sleeping in the beds next to us who may have quite possibly been the worst snorers I have encountered in my life until this point in time. Douchebags.
then up to the castle which was much less interesting than what we thought... so we didn't even pay to go in, we just snapped a few courtyard photos and then left. Afterwords we got pretty heavy into souvenir shopping - mainly nesting dolls because I adore them and they were everywhere. I ended up buying one for myself, one for Lily and one for Colton. We made it to the John Lennon Wall after trying to track it down all morning... it was by far and away my favorite part of Prague. The graffiti was so pretty, and the messages we so clear.
I could have stuck around to soak it all in for a good chunk of time, but a big group of tourists showed up fairly shortly after we had started taking pictures, so we decided to split. We then went to a little market and I bought an absolutly lovely pashmina, a ring and some weird wafer-cookie type things that were supposed to taste like lemon, but didn't really taste like anything. The day slowed down quite a bit after that and I got pretty tired and pretty bored prettttttttty fast. We sat down for a drink, talked for a while... walked around some more... went to a random museum and then out to eat. Back to the hostel kind of early to sleep, which didn't really work out because we had these disgustingly obnoxious guys sleeping in the beds next to us who may have quite possibly been the worst snorers I have encountered in my life until this point in time. Douchebags.
The next morning, after breakfast at BB, we went to seek out the Jewish Quarter. It was supposed to be pretty awesome... I was really excited about getting to see the cemetery, but we weren't allowed to go in at all, so I think we just decided to skip the synagogues too. The only glimpse we got to steal was through an iron gate outside the cemetery. Whah whah.
After that, we walked across the river and past the Charles Bridge again to go to Petrin Hill. It's kind of like the Montmarte of Prague, almost 400 feet above the city. The locals love hanging out there and it's pretty famous... Kafka wrote about it in his short story "Description of a Struggle," and it was part of one of Haley's favorite books called "The Unbearable Lightness of Being." We took a little tram up the hill, then walked all the way down which was really relaxing. We got to the park and kind of separated to read and journal, but I got really cold after about a half hour so we left. We walked back home and pack up all of our stuff for the big trip back to Sevilla the next day, which took a while. Then we went out to dinner at a pizza place and back to the first Ice Cream cafe we went to the first night. It was really laid back and fun, and we got to go to sleep pretty early to be a little bit rested for the next day's journey.
After that, we walked across the river and past the Charles Bridge again to go to Petrin Hill. It's kind of like the Montmarte of Prague, almost 400 feet above the city. The locals love hanging out there and it's pretty famous... Kafka wrote about it in his short story "Description of a Struggle," and it was part of one of Haley's favorite books called "The Unbearable Lightness of Being." We took a little tram up the hill, then walked all the way down which was really relaxing. We got to the park and kind of separated to read and journal, but I got really cold after about a half hour so we left. We walked back home and pack up all of our stuff for the big trip back to Sevilla the next day, which took a while. Then we went out to dinner at a pizza place and back to the first Ice Cream cafe we went to the first night. It was really laid back and fun, and we got to go to sleep pretty early to be a little bit rested for the next day's journey.
We took the shuttle back to the airport, checked our bags and then met up with our friends Lauren and Kate who had also spent the last few days in Prague. On the way out of the country, we got stamps in our passport... a little backwards, but I can't complain! Then we flew into London Stansted for a little layover and got another stamp there. YAY! We had to hang out in the airport for about four hours... but we just grabbed some food and drinks, people watched, did crosswords and lusted over all the awesome accents. Well... the latter was just me, but I don't mind admitting it. I CANNOT WAIT to go back in a month and explore all of the UK!!!
We arrived back in Sevilla around 9 pm, then fought like wild animals to get on the shuttle bus back to town. I walked into my apartment around 10, and my roommate was gone for the weekend, so it was nice to be able to have the room to myself... unpack my things and relax from a busy week of traveling. This past week I was a little sick with the head cold, so I didn't do too much other than resting up for the last leg of this semester. I'm sure I'll have more to say before that point in time... so keep checking! There's lots of others pictures besides those in-text here, so don't be shy.
Love you all.
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