Prague with Sam and Meaghan!
After many months of planning, it was finally time for me to go visit my friend from home, Sam, in Prague. Sam and I went to high school together, college together, and he worked up north like me this summer, trying to make as much money for this trip. His girlfriend and my best friend, Meaghan, was also coming that weekend to visit. It was very hard for me to find a flight to Prague that wasn’t too expensive and had the times that were good for me. Flying somewhere is always a long trip because you have to leave 3 hours before the flight to make sure that you get there in time and that they have the right bus/train times for us. I decided to take Thursday off of school so that I could get a flight that got to Prague earlier Thursday and returned late on Sunday. My flight connected in Zurich and then I headed to Prague where Sam picked me up from the airport. Unfortunately it was dark by that time but we took the scenic route home anyways so that I could see some things at night. Meaghan wasn’t coming in until Friday afternoon so Sam and I got up early to explore a little before we went to pick her up at the airport. I was a little disappointed because it was finally 60 and sunny in Rome, but it was 40 and rainy in Prague. I told Sam that he had better show me a good time to make up for the weather. We went and saw Sam’s school which is in the heart of Prague. He brought me to a place to have an American breakfast!!! You don’t understand how great this is. Italy doesn’t do breakfast like we do. I of course got my favorite breakfast food…French toast and a cappuccino. We then walked over the Charles Bridge, which is the most famous thing in Prague. There is construction going on on the bridge and Sam says its been a year or so in the making. I asked what was taking so long and he said “I don’t know. All I know is that an Italian construction company won the bid.” I laughed and said…well, that explains it all. As we walked by, there was a man tightening a bolt while looking at the people walking past, and another man watching him tighten the bolt. They didn’t seem to be getting much done. We had a good laugh watching them.
It’s a good thing that there were 2 of us going to pick up Meg because when she came out of the gates, she had more luggage for one week than I did for 4 months lol. I was so glad to see her and Sam. I haven’t been homesick yet but it was really nice to share stories with them and see what they have been up to. We again took the scenic route home and Meg was exhausted so we all took a nap lol. We woke up hungry from our nap and asked Sam where a good place to eat Czech food was. He named a bunch of places but then we realized it was Friday and we couldn’t have meat. This wouldn’t be a problem in Italy because most dishes can be made without meat, but in Prague they would ask us to leave if we asked for a vegetarian dish. Their food is really really heavy, and it is best with a really heavy beer. So we opted out of Czech food, and went to a Thai restaurant. Sam and I weren’t home for Meg’s birthday so we decided this would be her birthday dinner from the both of us. I had never had Thai food before so I was interested to see how it turned out. Meg and I were happy with the place we chose because we could get girly drinks without glares from both Sam and the waiter. The food was really spicy, but really good.
Saturday we got up early again to get some sightseeing in. We went up to the Prague Castle, which is the biggest castle in Europe, and did some exploring. Meg and I shot cross-bows from the old times, and we saw the church which is what the castle is centered around. We also walked up to the top of a HUGE hill/park to see the Little Eiffel Tower. People normally take a tram up but the line was really long and we knew we didn’t have much time at each place so we opted to walk. We laughed so hard the whole way up because we couldn’t talk from being out of breath. Sam was nice enough to let us stop and take “Picture” breaks on the way up. We climbed the tower and took a bunch of pictures. After the tower and castle, we went back down to Charles bridge to show Meg. Something I didn’t know about Prague was that it is known for its crystal and glass. Bohemia is the region in Czech where Prague is located and Bohemian crystal is very popular. All the souvenir shops sold crystal like they were postcards. We did some looking around and Sam took us down some side streets that weren’t as touristy so that we could find something crystal. Another great thing about Prague is that our money is worth much more than theirs. I have been so used to the Euro and my money not being worth anything. I decided to buy a crystal vase. It was 2300 cr, which is like 70 US dollars.
All that shopping and exploring got us hungry for some Czech food. We went to one of Sam’s favorite restaurants. Meg and I got different kinds of goulash with a beer of course, and Sam got pork with potatoes. What I consider goulash is definitely different that what they consider it. I think the translation has something to do with just throwing things together into a stew. It was lots of vegetables and pork in a really heavy brown sauce, and you got potato dumplings on the side.
Sunday we went back up to the Castle to do a few more museums and then we went and had lunch at another Czech restaurant. This time we got switzkova, which is totally not how you spell it but I have no clue. This was another pork dish with bread dumplings and a heavy sauce. I really liked the food but I definitely couldn’t eat it every day because it is too heavy. We then went to the John Lennon wall which is a tribute to John Lennon and his views on world peace and the fall of communism. As many of you know, the Czech has been taken over many times and was previously a communist country. They are democratic now but the culture hasn’t completely switched over. Anyways, the John Lennon wall is just a random wall in Prague that someone painted sayings by John Lennon, and parts of his songs. The government painted over it time and time again but it kept getting written on. They finally have given up and now people have written all over it in all different languages. Some things are very inspirational but others are things like “Hi Mom”. I unfortunately had to go home soon after this so we headed back and got my things to leave.
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