‘The world is a book and those who don’t travel read but one
page.’ –St. Augustine
Early last week I took off for my first
international travel while here in Norway. Bright and early at 5 am I hoped on
a train to Oslo to head to Prague for a long week, where I’d meet up with a
friend from my hometown- Angela Pappas. It took quite the time to get there- a
2 hour train ride to the main station in Oslo, followed by a 30 minute train
ride to the airport, a 2 ½ hour flight to Dusseldorf, Germany (flight was
delayed by an hour because they had to clean the snow and ice off of the plane
and off of the runway before we could take off), a 2 hour layover in
Dusseldorf, and then a 55 minute flight to Prague! Quite the day! I got into
Prague around 4.00 and then waited there for Angela who got in around 7.00.
After getting some Czech crowns we hoped on the
bus and then the metro to our hostel. We were staying at Hostel Mango in a
6-bed female dorm. It was my first time staying in a hostel and it was a really
good experience. We were located just off of the Charles Bridge on the Lesser
Town side. After unpacking a bit we headed over the Charles Bridge to find a
good place to eat. After getting lost a few times (the roads are very winding)
we ended up having a delicious dinner at a restaurant in the basement of a
building. I’m not quite sure what I ate but it was delicious!
While at dinner we met some local Czech guys who
we then joined at a pub. It was really different because each person had their
own tap right at the table in front of them. One of the Czech guys couldn’t
speak English very well, but he had his Ipad with him, so we used that to talk
about movies, actors, TV shows, etc. and to help translate some words.
After a long day of traveling that next morning we
slept in quite late. We then got up and had a really nice meal at Lokal Inn, a
restaurant right next door to us. They serve fresh Czech meals and change up
their menu every day. I had some form of pork with spinach and potato
dumplings.
We climbed to the top of the Astronomical Clock and were able to see a nice view of Old Town Square at night. We then waited to see the clock go off. Every hour from 9 a.m. till 9 p.m. the clock rings and then the disciples go around and a rooster crows. It is quite the letdown, so now they have a person come out and play the trumpet every hour to try and make up for it.
On Friday, we got up and walked around the Lesser Part of town. It started off the John Lennon Wall. It is completely covered in graffiti- mostly with Beatles themed things, but now there are a lot of random sayings. After that we walked across the lock bridge and through some parks with lots of statues. Some of the statues I did not quite understand- especially one with 3 giant faceless babies. Afterwards we walked to look at the Dancing House. Here are some pictures of this part of the adventure.
We then walked up to the top of a hill and climbed the Petrinska Tower to get a wonderful overlook of the entire city. The tower resembles the Eiffel Tower and was quite the climb to the top. Here a video of the incredible view of the town.
Afterwards, we went and got a fried cheese lunch. It was basically a giant cheese curd. Couple that with the nice pint of beer and I felt like I was back home in Wisconsin!
We then walked around more of Lesser Town and bought some art on the Charles Bridge. We bought some sausage in baguettes and some hot wine from a street vender. That night we ended up going to an Ice Pub, where everything inside- the chairs, the bar, the glasses- were all made of solid ice. Luckily for us- they provided coats!
On Saturday we got up nice and early and took a day tour to a city called Kutna Hora, about an hour train ride south east of Prague. The city is mainly know as an old silver mining town and once rivaled Prague for being the largest/grandest city. Here we spent the morning part in the main part of the city and exploring St. Barbara’s Cathedral- a giant old gothic style cathedral. After a delicious lunch of wild boar goulash, we hoped on the train and headed a little bit out of the city to see the main attraction- the bone church.
The inside of the bone church is completely decorated with 40,000 people’s skeletons who died during the Plague. The graveyard of the church had been sprinkled with sand from Jerusalem so everyone wanted to be buried there, which led to an overload. So they hired a monk to use all of the extra bones to decorate the inside of the church with. Creepy. As. Ever. We really lucked out though because our tour guide hadn’t realized they had changed the times to winter hours so we showed up just as they were closing the church up. However our guide worked his magic and was able to get us inside for a little bit. Now enjoy some of the creepy sights from inside….
My flight out of Prague left at 6.10 a.m. on
Sunday, so instead of going to bed for about 2 hours or so, we decided to just
stay up the whole night. Two girls from Colorado were on our tour with us and
their flights also left at 6 in the morning, so we decided to spend the night
together and split a taxi to the airport. Upon request of our tour guide we
ended up at the Beer Museum, which is basically a pub with over 30 different
kinds of beer on tap. I tried a chocolate beer (tasted exactly like cold hot
chocolate), a blueberry beer and a cherry beer (my favorite!). When we got
there the place was completely full, but some guys from Pennsylvania could tell
we were Americans and invited us to sit with them. After some good conversation
before we knew it, it was 3 a.m. and I went back to grab my stuff and meet the
girls at their hostel for a ride to the airport. After 2 plane rides, a hour
layover, a train, a 5 hour wait for another train, and finally a 2 hour train
ride- I was back home in Bø!
The trip was amazing! Now, I just have to recovery, do a bunch of school work and then pack in a few days for Brussels! Life is busy! I love and miss you all back home!
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