Prague 6.18.16 - 6.19.16
i am currently on a tour of prague, berlin, amsterdam, and the hague with 20 students studying global human rights. follow our travels over the next few posts!
|| day 1 ||
Good morning from the Czech Republic!! Or should I say, "Dobre rano!"
Prague is absolutely beautiful, and I think it's safe to say that while the entire tour group is exhausted, we are in absolute awe of Prague's culture, architecture, and food!
We landed at 11am, and immediately hit the ground running. I mean, immediately. Nobody checked luggage, so we walked right through customs, onto a tour bus, drove about 15 minutes into the city, got off the bus, and walked and walked and walked until dinner at 5:30. We had a chance to stroll around the old town, try some street food, had a local historian walk us through different parts of the city and teach us about the rise and fall of communism in the Czech, and do some pretty amazing people watching.
the Prague astronomical clock in the old town square
unfortunately, the Prague capital building was being completely renovated while we were there. I guess I'll just have to go back again!
My mom in a little garden we passed through.
Dinner was at a great little Czech restaurant, a literal hole in the wall where as soon as you walked through the short door, you stepped down about 12 steps underground to the tiny dining room. we were served 3 courses - and although we all agreed it tasted incredible, we can't figure out if it was just because we were starving, or if because it truly was just simply incredible food. Either way, we were stuffed Americans needing to be rolled out of the restaurant afterwards.
Obligatory tourist food photo. Don't worry, I only remembered this first night. Every day after this, I was too hungry to pause and take a picture.
Back to the tour bus, we had this incredible view, in which pictures simply do not do it justice.
After a long overnight flight, and more than several miles of walking in the warm sun, by the time we arrived at our hotel, everyone was in their room, getting ready for bed before 8pm.
Good night!
|| day 2 ||
Well, this girl definitely has jet-lag. Asleep last night by 9pm, awake at 3:45am, failure to fall back asleep when at 5:30am, I just accepted my fate and will hopefully figure out later today how to survive (note: it will probably be thanks to coffee...lots and lots of coffee).
Since it's Sunday in Prague, we were so lucky to be able to take it easy in the morning. We didn't need to leave the hotel until 9:30am, so everyone took their time getting up and ready, and eating the delicious continental breakfast at the hotel.
Our first stop was the infamous Charles bridge.
Up the bridge we climbed, and were told we had 1 hour to hang out and wander around until we were to meet and walk up to the castle together. Everyone dispersed to go find souvenier shops, coffee, sight-see, or to check out the art vendors on the bridge.
My first stop was Starbucks. Venti espresso please!
Then a few of my students said "Ms. C, how do you feel about getting your feet eaten by fish?" I knew exactly what they were talking about. I passed it not 10 minutes before and thought "I really want to do that one day..." So off we went!
I totally would do it again! It felt like little bubbles popping.
We sat in the window seat as other tourists stopped to stare at us and laugh. We waved and giggled as the fish ate all our dead skin, and as our time was up, we marveled at just how smooth our feet were.
Our hour of free time was up, so we gathered as a group and walked allllllll the way up a billion stairs (ok, not a billion, but it felt like it...) to the Prague Castle. The castle is insanely large and beautiful. It is the largest ancient castle in the world, and we all wish we were given more time to explore it!
After the short time visiting the castle, the cathedral, and everything else up on that tall hill, we walked all the way back down those darn stairs, and stumbled upon the John Lennon wall.
The John Lennon wall was beautiful to see - so many words of peace and love. some of the students signed it, or wrote wishes for a more peaceful world.
There was a young man at the wall playing acoustic Beatles and John Lennon songs. It was perfect.
Back to the bus! We headed to the hotel for a talk with a guy from Radio Free Europe about how important their work was during the era of communism. It should have been really intriguing...but it wasn't. The room was hot, wifi was down, kids were hungry, and the dude giving the presentation was not a presenter. He sat the entire time, his head barely poking above his computer, and you could tell he was reading through notes. We were all just so over it.
Annnd...back on the bus again for an hour of free time in the Old Square. Ridiculously beautiful city.
There was some kind of music festival going on while we were there. So unfortunately, we didn't have all of the square to explore and take pictures in.
Dinner was at a local restaurant, and it was just ok. Chicken with some cheese on it, potatoes, and apple strudel for dessert.
After dinner, we had a beautiful boat ride on the Vltava River. Our tour director, Vanessa, was amazing - she knew we were exhausted and kind of done with touristy things. So she told the captain to not do his usual sight-seeing tour with all the facts and information, and instead just let us relax. It was an hour of peacefulness, with the river wind in our hair. We were happy campers :)
Tomorrow...bright and early bus ride to Berlin!
xo, Jaclyn
