So I got up super early, finished packing, and made my way over to the train station to meet the Canadians, Ally and Lisa, and our friend from Denmark, Bjorn. I had no clue what to expect for the train, I was honestly thinking something from Harry Potter, Platform nine and three quarters please! Haha
(Me and Lisa)
We also got some food for the train, Donut!
It was nothing like the Harry Potter train. It was more like the inside of the plane with just rows of seats everywhere, there was a dining cart, which I thought was awesome even though I never made my way down there.
Bjorn reading, Lisa sleeping
Our first train went from Innsbruck to Vienna. It took five hours! I don’t think it would take that long to drive there but we made five stops along the way. Austria is so gorgeous, I am really glad we took the train because I have not seen anything outside of Innsbruck. I snapped some pictures along the way.
When we arrived in Vienna we had to change train stations. So we got off the train, hopped on a subway,(No lie, the station we needed was called "Philadelphia") and then got on another train for Prague. Five more hours!
This time we lucked out! It was definitely more Harry Potter-esque. We had our own little room and we were exhausted so we laid all of the chairs inside completely flat so we could sleep, as Lisa would say, “Cuddle Puddle”.
The train ride from Vienna to Prague was probably one of the scariest moments in my life. It was dark outside and the countryside of the Czech Republic is not the greatest. We saw what looked like a neighborhood of gypsy huts, abandoned train stations, make shift houses, empty warehouses, just all around scary buildings. I do not remember which one of us it was but someone mentioned the movie “The Hills Have Eyes”, I have not seen this movie and now I never plan to. I felt safe because I was on the train but had the train stopped I may have freaked out, bad.
So we arrived in Prague around 10:00 pm, the train station was nice, I went to exchange money and got my first taste of the koruna. It makes no sense to me, they have coins but no change. You will never see something for 1.99, and 45 euro is equal to 2000 koruna. So when you go into a restaurant and look at the menu a sandwich is listen about 160 kron. It definitely took some getting used to.
Anyway, then we walked outside. There were homeless people, they said something to Bjorn but none of us had any idea what it was because we don’t speak Czech, I am assuming they just wanted money but who knows.
We found the bus stop and waited, got a little lost looking for the hostel, but finally found it. The family in charge of the hostel ws nice enough to stay late just for us. Normally they close at 7:00pm
Our hostel was amazing! I hear horror stories about Hostels but of my two experiences so far I would honestly prefer to stay in a hostel than a hotel any day.
The only negative thing was that we had to walk up eight flights of stairs to get to our room. The elevator literally only fit two normal sized people in it, and it did not sound like it was in working order so I refused to take it.
Everything else was perfect, there was wifi, computers down stairs for us to use, the people that ran the hostel were extremely helpful, and our view was amazing!
We all instantly crashed the second we got to our room.
The next day we found the nicest café. I learned what a Salty Pancake was, basically… AMAZING. I also tried their orange hot chocolate. I was expecting hot chocolate with orange flavoring but it was actually just hot chocolate with oranges in it.
The rest of the day we just meandered through the city, the Charles Bridge, and gift shops.
We stopped by the Markt to get some food to make dinner, Ally and Lisa made the best stir-fry ever!
(pictures of our hostel)
That night we decided to go out. We got ready, played a few drinking games at the hostel, and then made our way into town. We found a “disco”, check our coats, got our free drinks, and found the dance floor!
I was a little shocked when I opened my bottle of jack, there was some sort of stop on it that limited the amount I could pour out at once.
I am not sure how long we stayed. It was fun but everyone looked very young and there was a strange man in the corner filming everything. For some reason I was not too concerned about any of this at the time, it didn’t hit me until the next morning of what had actually been going on.
Once outside Ally and I had to get food. I am okay with street meat, so we found a stand that was selling Schnitzel sandwiches!! It was great and the lady put ketchup and mayonnaise on mine!
For some reason I wore five inch heels out that night and on the way home my feet were killing me! We were also not 100% sure we were going the right way.
We asked one cab driver where the Sony store was (the closest landmark to our hostel) and he told Bjorn no, I yelled, of course he is not going to tell you, we are not getting in his cab! The driver got slightly angry, I went to the next taxi and asked him and he told me how to get there, that it was just around the corner, but my feet hurt too bad so we all got in. He was not lying, it was about 200 feet away, the ride was 70 kron, I told him to take 100 because he was honest, gave him a high five and hopped out. I also broke down and took the scary elevator. I was not about to walk up eight flights of stairs in those shoes.
The next morning we had every intention of going on a free walking tour but that didn’t happen either, we just walked around another part of town.
This clock is said to be the most disappointing land mark in the world. It wasn't that bad. I mean dolls come out and dance and there is a man that plays the trumpet way up high. We later learned that when the clock was finished people would stand around a wait because they thought there was more. The man playing the trumpet was later added so he could wave to people when he was done, signaling that the show was over. haha
This little beauty is smoked cheese on bread. Not my fave. : (
We did happen to stop in this adorable café to get some tea, it was a nice unexpected surprise.
The weather was absolutely horrible, it was freezing, and raining.
It was St. Patrick’s day, my first 21 yr. old St. Patrick’s day and I did not drink green beer!
We ended up going to a Czech restaurant. They had ginger ale! I was so happy!
The food was great. I ordered roast beef because it was the only thing on the menu I thought I might like. It had a sweet gravy sauce on it, some cranberry sauce, whipped cream, and some sort of bread/stuffing. I wish I knew how to make these things. Delicious!
Oh and Lisa and I split this great Caesar salad, the parmesan cheese was amazinggggg
We just went back to the Hostel that night because we HAD to go on the walking tour the next morning.
It was raining, again, and the coldest day we had so far in Prague. But our tour guide was awesome, he was funny, his English was great, and he knew a lot about Prague. He gave us the 10 minute history of Czech and told us we were then officially Czech-sperts!
For lunch we got a break from the tour at Bohemian Bagels. It was such a cute little place. I am convinced that if any of the adorable café’s I have been in so far came to the states they would do extremely well.
(Me and Ally: Deer in Headlights)
Anyway, Bohemian Bagels had hilarious posters and each of us bought one. The tour continued after lunch but we were all too miserable to go on, we tip our tour guide, and stayed warm in Bohemian Bagels a little while longer.
Once we decided to venture out it had stopped raining and we decided to walk up to the castle.
It was GORGEOUS! Probably my favorite thing I have seen in Europe so far.
(We got outside just in time to see the changing of the guards! This guy was having a hard time keeping a straight face.
After that adventure we signed up for a pub crawl.
We went home and got ready. Earlier in the day we bought these glasses/necklaces so we just had to take pictures!
I am going to seriously simplify the “Gong Show” (As Lisa would also say) that ensued.
9:00pm Meet at Pub Crawl
9:15pm Shots/drinks began
10:30pm Crawl actually began
11:00pm Arrive at a bar
11:45pm Stand outside for 30 minutes debating which way the crawl went
12:15am NEED bathroom
12:45am Find bathroom, tell girls to wait
1:00am Girls have disappeared
1:15am Felix and I try to find my hostel
2:30am Arrive at hostel, proceed to buzz everyone in the building to open front door
2:40am My new best friend opens the door
2:45am Realize I dropped phone at some point and did not pick up battery that fell out. (Apparently, Lisa did and forgot to mention she had it)
3:00am made it up the eight flights of stairs and pound on hostel door.
3:15am Decide no one is home and sleep on stairs
4:30am Americans staying next door come home
4:45am They are from Boston and make me scrambled eggs with ketchup!
5:30am War in Iraq/American politics are being discussed.
5:31am I am pounding on my hostel door again hoping Bjorn is back and has opened the door.
5:35am Bjorn is home!
5:45am I am in bed wondering where in the hell Ally and Lisa are.
9:00am Ally and Lisa show up.
10:00am We stumble into the café we were in the first day.
12:00pm Make our way to the train station.
12:15am Ally’s bag handle breaks and we agree we cannot wait to get the hell out of Czech.
So our train left at 1:00pm, we had another 10hr train ride ahead of us and everything went smoothly the rest of the way home.
Yes, I am currently calling Innsbruck home and I was so happy to be back!
The one thing I am really bummed about is, I was suppsed to meet up with an old friend at some point while I was there but as you can see from the events of our last night there it was not possible. I wish I could have seen her. I'm sorry Kayla! I was really looking forward to seeing you!
((I would also like to note that the pictures in this blog are from me, Ally, Lisa, and Bjorn, a complete mixture from everyone))
