Checking out the Czech Republic

We left for Prague on Thursday morning for the third and final leg of our second spring break. Upon arriving at our hostel, conveniently located in the center of the old town square, I was greeted with a pleasant surprise. Directly next to our hostel was a vegetarian restaurant! My visit to Prague was off to a great start. I made a visit there almost immediately upon arriving, as well as twice each of the remaining days on my trip. The food was incredible. My time in Eastern Europe made me appreciate the laws in the US prohibiting smoking in restaurants. Upon returning from dinner and a stop at a bar my clothes reeked of smoke.

On Friday we woke up early for a tour of the city. We stopped for breakfast at Bohemia Bagels as per the recommendation of our terrific house moms in Lugano. As we waited to start our tour, countless men on Segways tried to recruit us to take a tour on wheels. While I wasn't willing to shell out 1200 Czech Crowns, or 60 USD, I gladly took a test ride. I had never ridden a Segway before but very much enjoyed my first ride. I may have to invest in one when I return to the States.

Located within 30 seconds walking distance of our hostel, we learned that the Old Town Square is one of Europe's most popular wedding destinations. Prior to our tour, we saw three sets of brides and grooms taking photos in front of the Church of Our Lady before Tyn.

We enjoyed a wonderful tour from a guide who lived through communism in what is now the Czech Republic. She explained to us how frequently the country experienced change in the last hundred years alone. Her grandmother had lived in the same town her entire life, but was a citizen of five different countries in her lifetime because the country had experienced so much political unrest and conflict with other nations. We were introduced to the astronomical clock in the Old Town Square, enjoyed an authentic Czech lunch including a heavy soup in a bread bowl and a Czech beer. We also stopped in the Jewish district and saw the Prague Metronome. The gigantic metronome was put in the place of a large statue built as a tribute to former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The metronome represents time as it passes since the end of conflict in what is now the Czech Republic. We ended our tour near the Charles Bridge, and made our way to the John Lennon Wall.

The Lennon Wall was once a normal wall, that was covered in graffiti by students expressing their distaste towards communism. The wall itself was first painted with the face of the famous Beatle in the 1980's. It has since been painted over numerous times but still represents the ideals of peace. One of my favorite parts of Prague, much like Ireland, was the live music. Live music could be heard at almost any time of day in the Old Town Square and throughout the city.

I enjoyed a perfect dinner at the vegetarian restaurant, and converted a few other friends to vegetarianism, at least for the evening. The cost for the entire meal was under 3 USD. That evening, 24 of us went on a Prague pub crawl. I made friends with three lovely Californian girls at the first bar, and hung out with them the rest of the night. We were guided to three different bars and ended at one of the largest clubs in all of Europe. The club was five floors including an ice bar and different genres of music on each floor.

Saturday was our final full day in Prague. We spent most of the day on a tour of Prague Castle. The castle is one of the largest in the world. Inside the castle walls there were multiple churches, restaurants, homes, and museums.

The president of the Czech Republic has a residence within the castle, although our tour guide did not hesitate to show his disgust towards their leader. Here's one reason why:

We ended our trip with a visit at Prague's Beer Factory, a restaurant with four taps at each table. A large screen at the front of the restaurant displayed the total number of liters consumed at each table throughout the evening. While 24 college students would never think of taking part in a race involving mass consumption if beer, if we did, we would have given the table of Germans across the way a run for their money.

We spent the train ride Sunday morning reminiscing on the peaks and pits of our second spring break. Our break wasn't completely over, however. Before the start of our break, Nick noticed that our train home had a ninety minute layover in Munich, home of our favorite beers. As soon as our train arrived, Nick, Kyle, Trip, Taylor and I b-lined it to the city center for Augustiner Beer Hall. Within minutes we arrived and were seated enjoying pretzels and a final liter of what is arguably the world's greatest brew. We made it back to the train station just in time.

It's hard to believe another 10-day is in the books. We started our final class of the semester this week. I am headed to Rome for the three day weekend. Ciao!