After getting off work late on Friday, we had about ten minutes to get completely packed and catch our taxi to the train station in Pressath. I have no idea how, but we ended up making to the station with minutes to spare! With that, we began on journey to Prague!
We arrived into the city around midnight, and our initial reaction was that Prague was pretty sketch! The train station itself looked a little shady, and once we walked out of the station itself, there were people everywhere, including more cops than I have ever seen. A few people approached us wanting to talk, but other than that, we avoided a lot of them.
After taking the tram the wrong way, we eventually found a taxi and made it to Sir Toby’s Hostel. The hostel was awesome! It reminded me of something that should have been in Portland. Everything was really unique and all different. The furniture was all mix-matched, the photos and paintings on the wall looked old school, and the decorations were all antique. I fell in love with the place. Needless-to-say, we all passed out pretty quickly once we got into our room.
Saturday morning we woke up around six-thirty, got our showers in, and made our way downstairs to the most amazing all-you-can-eat breakfast. It had fruit, a cereal bar, a pancake bar, an egg/omelet bar, toast, and yogurt with homemade granola. We definitely took advantage of it, since it was the first real breakfast we’ve had since we’ve been here. After breakfast, we took the tram back to where we got lost on Friday, which turned out to be on the edge of the Old Town Square. Following the masses of people, we made our way to the Square, and realized we were standing in front of the Astronomical Clock. Taking a few photos of it, we stumbled upon a Free English Walking Tour, so we went ahead and joined in. The tour ended up being pretty interesting; our tour guide took us around Old Town, the Jewish Quarter, and into New Town. There were quite a few people on the tour with us, and once we got talking to some of them, I found two guys who were from Oregon! One was from Wilsonville, and the other from Medford! How crazy is that?! The tour took around two and a half hours or so, and at the end of it, our tour guide suggested we participated in a pub-crawl. After a quick discussion with my roommates, we all decided to pay the small fee to participate! Following our tour guide to the first bar, which was also going to be the meeting place, we got registered, and received a free t-shirt and beer for signing up! Once we had taken care of all of that, we made our way to the Prague castle, toured a cathedral, walked across the St. Charles Bridge, found the Lennon Wall (the coolest thing I have ever seen), and also found the Dancing House. Making our way back to our hostel to change for the pub crawl, Sir Toby’s ended up having a free BBQ in their backyard area, so we were all able to eat some dinner before we headed out- just another reason why I love that hostel! The pub-crawl ended up being SO much fun! We met at our starting point, and were taken to two different bars before we went to Karlovy Lazne- the biggest dance club in Europe. (It has five floors, each with a different musical genre. I was loving life.) On the pub-crawl, I met another guy from Oregon- this one living off of 46th in the Woodstalk area. He knew exactly where I lived and ended up going to Franklin High School. AND! Our pub-crawl guide was also from Oregon- having lived in Eugene her whole life before moving to Prague. Talk about a small world!
Sunday morning we woke up and had planned on going to the train station to lock our stuff in the lockers, so then my diva-roommate Nicole could do some shopping before we had to leave. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize Prague has about three different train stations, so by the time we found the right station, we only had about an hour to kill before our train back to Germany.
The train ride back thankfully wasn’t too bad and we all passed out as soon as we got home. And although our Eurails are going to run out in a few weeks, Sydney and I are already trying to figure out a way to make it back to Prague.
I think I liked it so much just because it reminded me a little of home. The hostel was nothing short of amazing, the historical aspect of the city was beyond interesting, and the nightlife was pretty epic as well.
I’m not sure what our plans are for this weekend. Tomorrow is Sydney’s 20th birthday, so we were going to let her chose the destination. Unfortunately, she went to the doctor today and found out she has bronchitis, tonsillitis, and a sinus infection. Happy early birthday to her! This also sucks because that means we’re going to have to rethink our weekend plans, as she’s not allowed to travel with us. Lame.
I think my roommate Nicole and I are going to research some places to go in Switzerland, which would mean that was the fourth country I will have been to since being in Europe. I’ll keep you guys posted on what we decide to do!
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