So on our last day in London, Lena and I packed up our backpacks for our adventure week, packed the rest of our things into our suitcases, and took the suitcases to the storage company we would be storing our things at for the week. That night, Lena and I pushed our beds together and a few of the girls came and watched a movie in our newly created giant bed. It was a precious end to the semester and a nice goodbye.
The next morning, Lena and I got up, went to the airport, and headed to Prague! We got to the hostel, which was kind of set up like an old boarding school or something, dropped off our stuff and set off to explore. Prague was FREEEEEZING. I have never been so cold in my life, so we walked around for a bit and then went inside for a long dinner. When we got back to the hostel, we saw that we had another roommate. There were 16 beds, but only three of them were taken, two by me and Lena and one by an Argentinean guy in Prague on business.
The next day, Lena and I got up to walk to Old Town Square, where we were meeting the Sandeman's tour group. The Sandeman's tour is a free tour, where they have the participants pay for what they think the tour is worth to them in the form of a tip at the end of the tour. We took the Sandeman's tour in Scotland and Ireland and enjoyed the one in Scotland, so we were excited to learn some history in Prague. In Old Town Square, we saw the Astronomical Clock, which is a big clock in the square that has been around since 1410, and has been added to and improved since then, including 12 apostles that pass by the window above the dial when the clock strikes every hour. We also saw St. Nicolas Church, Church of Our Lady Before Tyn, and the Jan Hus Monument. There was also a little Christmas market in the square, complete with Christmas tree and manger with real (and smelly) animals.
From Old Town Square, we moved on to the Stavovské Theater, where Mozart performed his operas and rose to fame, and where he premiered Don Giovanni- specifically written for the city of Prague. We then went to moved on to see a few sights in New Town, including the Jewish Quarter. The Europe's oldest working synagogue is in Prague's Jewish Quarter. There is so much history in the Jewish Quarter, unfortunately most of it being heartbreaking. Our tour guide explained that Prague was the city held under Nazi control for the longest amount of time, and was essentially on the border of the agreement between the Soviet Union and the democratic Allies (mainly the United States). When Allied powers liberated Europe from the Nazi's, American forces were not allowed to enter Prague because it was set to be Soviet territory, which forced the citizens of Prague to liberate itself and wait for the Soviet forces to come and take control. The arrival of Soviet forces ushered Prague into another horrible and violent phase in its history- that under communist control. *disclaimer- if any of this information is wrong, don't blame me, blame the tour guide (or my faulty memory).*
After the tour, we walked around and bought tickets for 8 Euro to see Carmen at the State Opera Theater the that night. By that time it was time for dinner, so we ate something, walked around some other parts of Prague (which is a very small city, so didn't take us too long), bought some absinthe to save for later, and then went to the opera. I am definitely not a big fan of opera, but the whole thing was such a cool experience because I was sitting there, in Prague, watching an opera set in Spain, but sung in French. It was such an expression of the amount of culture and all the unique experiences I was able to encounter during my semester.
The next day, we went to the part of town across the river where Prague Castle is located. The bridge we took to go across the river is called the Charles Bridge and is a wide walking bridge lined with beautiful religious statues. We learned on the tour that one of the statues has two plaques on it. the plaque on the right side is good luck to rub, and the plaque on the left side is bad luck to rub. We rubbed the good luck plaque and made our way across the bridge. The other side of the river was set on a hill, and Prague Castle was on top of the hill, so the streets were a little steep. We slowly made our way to the top, where we were rewarded with an amazing view of Prague. The castle itself was kind of hidden, so we glimpsed it and continued walking around on the hill. There were many beautiful buildings, but again it was absolutely freezing and windy on the hill so we made our way back down.
Our friends Jacqui and Elise were doing a similar trip and were arriving in Prague that day, so we got some hot chocolate while we waited for them to arrive. We met up with them in Old Town Square and moved inside to warm up and talk about our trips so far. We saw some of the same sights again with them as we walked around Prague. Elise really wanted to see the John Lennon Peace Wall, which is on the Prague Castle side of the bridge, so we walked over there, showed them the bridge, and found the wall. The wall was really cool. It reminded me of the East Side Gallery in Berlin, but much, much smaller and more graffiti-like than murals. There was a paining of John Lennon flashing the peace sign, a big peace sign, and signatures and graffiti covering the wall. We signed it and admired it before setting off back to New Town to get dinner. After dinner, we said goodbye to our friends, and went to pick up our stuff from the hostel before setting off for the train station, where we got on our overnight train to Budapest, Hungary. We got a sleeping car to ourselves, which was awesome, and where we had our own sink and mirror next to our bunk beds.
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