"We're in Praha...hahahaha."

Hi, everyone! Yes, I decided to go with an English greeting as opposed to Italian since in the Czech Republic, where I was the past two days, they don't speak Italian (or English much for that matter), and I don't know any Czech so I kind of went with the typical, boring greeting. I guess I could look it up now, though...*is google translating*...it' ahoj. Okay, now that that's settled, I'd like to tell you all that I am currently on my fall break trip for the semester--The Northern Loop with the student travel group, Bus2Alps. I have a little downtime this evening after a nonstop past couple of days, and I decided I'd write a little post about each city I visit. I left Prague today for Berlin, where I am currently located, and we will soon be off to Amsterdam on Monday night, and Paris on Wednesday or Thursday.

We began our journey on Thursday evening at 9pm, departing from the Santa Maria Novella Train Station in Florence, where I am studying for the semester. It was an overnight ride for about 13 hours, but hey, at least for the first few hours we watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall and He's Just Not That into You to ease the pain of cramping limbs and uncomfortable sleeping positions. We arrived that morning, checked into our hostel, The Czech Inn (ahahaha. Get it? Check. In. Yeah, it kills me every time. I'm okay with that.). Aimee, my roommate from Florence, and I ended up in a two person room with its own bathroom, which was a blessing after the 12 person room and shared bathroom that I had to deal with on the Amalfi Coast trip a few weeks ago.

After freshening up and having breakfast, we departed on a three hour walking tour of the city of Prague with a crazy, kind of funny, and extremely awkward tour guide named Christian. He was half Czech, half Swedish, and all pumped up. He would jump all over and yell "I'm over here!"...and we'd all have to turn around and adjust our positions in the group to hear him properly. It was kind of a pain, but hey, I guess it kept our attention. We saw the beautiful sites of Prague throughout the trip, heard the history of the area, enjoyed the architecture, and got a good workout. However, all the calories burned off from walking were gained back when consuming my first bagel since I left the states from a place called Bohemia Bagel (with some veggie cream cheese). SO GOOD.

My roommates, Josh, and some great guys we've met on the trip!

After the walking tour, my friends and I explored the souvenir shops, sat and relaxed in a local restaurant, then headed back to the hostel to prepare for the Prague Pub Crawl. For the record, pub crawls are not my style, but I figured I'd give it a shot. We took the metro from the hostel and ended up in a rather dark, haunted-house style bar where a live band was playing. It was really different, but I was able to spend time with some new friends I made the first day. After the third bar, though, I was exhausted, and so two of my friends and I, unable to figure out the metro station, walked about 40 minutes in the cold back to the hostel and finally were able to rest.

The next day, we decided to sign up for the Prague Castle Tour with the same group who offered our tour the first day. We crossed the Charles Bridge and ventured up some extremely steep stairs to get to the castle high above the city. We didn't get to go inside, but we explored the castle grounds, heard about defenestration (the act of throwing people out of windows as punishment), saw some beautiful cathedrals, and got to see some lovely views of the city. We then hiked down to see the John Lennon wall. It began as graffiti by the Czech youth rebelling against the government during the times of communism and asking for peace. However, the police kept painting over it...but the Czech youth kept coming back and repainting it. Eventually, it was left for good as a work of art and is still added onto today. It was an unforgettable sight. Some of the artwork was really intricate and was a fantastic dedication to Lennon, the Beatles, and peace.

 At the John Lennon Wall!

After that, we joined up with the entire Bus2Alps group at a beer hall and had a large meal of delicious, genuine Czech cuisine. It started with a vegetable soup and bread. We then had beef goulash with dumplings and apple strudel. I was really impressed and really enjoyed the entire meal. Who knew I'd ever be in the Czech Republic? I had to enjoy some genuine cuisine while I was there! That evening, we continued walking around, I picked up some gifts, and then we relaxed for the evening in the hostel bar.

Prague's architecture was unforgettable, and I overall fell in love with the city. We left this morning for Berlin and got here this afternoon. Tomorrow, we will be exploring the entire city on another walking tour and taking in the culture. Look for a Berlin blog post soon! I must continue on my journey now. :)