Sorry it's been so long since I've updated, but I've been a very busy bee. I've been traveling outside Florence every weekend since I arrived so taking time to post on my blog has sort of taken a back seat. But, regardless, a post about Prague must be next! My roommates Christy and Brooke and I went to Prague on Euroedventures, which is a group that organizes weekend trips for college students studying abroad. We left Florence at 8 p.m. on Thursday night and arrived in Prague, or Praha, at around 9 a.m. Friday morning. Needless to say it was a vaheerrrrryyyy long bus ride. Luckily our group leader had a bunch of bootleg movies so we watched the lucky bones and AVATAR on the ride, which made it much more enjoyable. Once we checked into our little hotel we went with the group on a little tour of Prague. We visited St. Wenceles Square, one of the biggest squares in all of Europe, that had all these 24 hour stands with sausages, fried cheese, french fries, basically all the drunk food you could ever imagine, lining the streets. After that we walked to the Old Town Square that has the famous astronomical clock tower. There was actually a wedding going on when we walked by so as the clock struck noon and the little wooden people came out of the tower, the bride tossed her bouquet at the same time! It was really romantic, even though it was about 10 degrees out and the bride was wearing a strapless dress-- I felt so bad for her! But after that clock, which actually was sort of a let down, we went into the square that had more food stands and a great crepe stand! The square also had an exhibit of the surrealist artist Salvador Dali, which we went to the next day with Handler, Chukerman, Evan, and all my boys from home!
After that we saw the Old Bridge and the Prague Castle! It was literally the most beautiful castle I've ever seen. The gothic church attached was amazing as well. The stained glass was so colorful and something out of a disney movie!
The last stop on the tour was the Lenon wall, which was a really cool site because it had about a million drawings and spray painted names and sayings- and pictures of Lenon of course. It was clearly a huge tourist attraction though, so we didn't stay that long.
After the tour Christy, Brooke and I took a little nap before we met up with Handler, Evan, Churkerman, Jimmy and all their roommates for dinner. We got some great potatoes and meat, which I had actually really been craving after eating nothing but pasta and bread for weeks.
After dinner, we saw their apartment, which was huge and in a really cool old apartment building right on the river. It was so great catching up with all my friends from high school. Even though I was so far away from Highland Park, I felt really at home. It was amazing. We went out later that night to an underground club where there were all these little passages to different levels. I swear if I wasn't with Ben the whole time, I would have gotten lost. On the way home, Christy and I stopped at the 24 stands in Wenceles square and got some very healthy food.... NOT. Worth it though.
The next morning we slept in and then got up to meet the boys in the square for some coffee and then to see the Dali exhibit. It was alright, they only had his prints, none of his big paintings. But you definitely saw how creepy and surreal his work was through his drawings. After that we walked with the boys over the Bridge and to the Lenon wall again.
We met up for dinner that night at a Mexican restaurant which was... very needed in my diet. I was craving fajitas more than anything I think. It was incredible! The meal was a little expensive though, and the currency in Czech is so weird. They're not on the euro, but with crown, or krona... I'm not exactly sure what it is. But my bill for dinner was about 750 crowns... which I think is about 20 euro. Still, I felt like I was spending thousands of dollars the whole weekend!
Overall, I don't think I could study in Prague. It was a beautiful city but a little too eastern european for me. It was an amazing weekend such a great place to visit, but we were all really happy to return to Florence (after the 13 hour bus ride) on Sunday night.
Ciao for now!
