Today’s Dickens feature is: Prague

Best of Times

* THE FOOD!  We had one of the best meals of the whole trip here.  I had a goulash with knedli, which are like giant dumplings, and my friends had duck.  It was cold and rainy outside and we had walked quite a ways in the wetness, so the thick, warm meal was especially delicious.  We also had mulled wine which is like a steamed wine with cloves in it.  It tasted like a cider.  DELICIOUS, I tell you!

* The atmosphere.  I’m not a person who enjoys rain and cloudy skies, but if there is ever a city to visit in such conditions, it is Prague.  The weather just fit with the architecture.

* The Mucha stained glass window in St. Vitus.  This was the most amazing stained glass window I have ever seen.  The color and the shapes are totally different from traditional stained glass windows.  I really liked it! (Plus, remember…I am cultured now, so I appreciate this stuff, ok??)

* The Charles Bridge. Even though it was super crowded here, the views of the river and the town beyond are second to none.  It is a really peaceful walk (if you block out all the other people around), and there are odd stories, like places on the bridge where people were, um, executed.

* St. Vitus.  This church is definitely worth a visit. It is so so so gothic, plus it has the tomb of St. Wenceslaus, so how can you beat that??

* Funny sayings on souvenir T-shirts, like “Czech me out” and “Czech Mate”.  Get it?  Get it?  hahahahahahaha!

Worst of Times

* For sure, the train ride.  You know, the one where somebody snuck into our compartment and stole from Kanye???  Yeah, that!  Not to mention the whole idea of sitting on a train for 24 hours and dealing with other passengers so so so close for that time.  Might I suggest you fly into Prague?  Just an idea…

* Finding the hostel.  We got lost.  And we were tired from the train.  And we were carrying bags, walking the dark, desolate,spooky streets of Prague.  Not fun.

* The hostel.  Note to self–check if hostel is actually a university dorm.  Because, turns out, I am TOO OLD to be staying up partying until 5am every night.  And I wasn’t even invited to the party.  I just got to listen to it from afar.  And, in my humble opinion, it ceased being fun at like 1am.

* Internet Cafes.  This was also the land of outdated computers and the internet cafe employees who couldn’t correctly operate a calculator, let alone figure out if their computer has the capacity to download a chat program.

And so, that is Prague in a nutshell.  Go check out the photos.  They are way more fun to look at than my boring writing here.  Wait, my writing is NEVER boring.  But still the photos are more fun….remember they are found in the gallery, which is the picture of the yellow church on the right hand side of the blog.  Enjoy!