Prague Trip

Back from Prague!! This trip was so much fun, definitely much different that others. I went with my friends Kristi and Alissa from Illinois, and eventually met up with Mk and Bridget the second day of the trip. Our hostel in prague was AMAZING. Literally the nicest hostel I have ever been in. You walk in, and it was just a restaurant and bar, which bragged of its all-day happy hour specials. When you walked into our dorm room, the blinds automatically open for you with motion sensors, our private bathroom was much nicer than most hotels ive been in.

Our first day in Prague it was dreadful and rainy, so we hibernated in a bar down the street from our hostel. After Munich, food and drinks here were so wonderfully inexpensive, a meal costing around 5 euro and a whole liter of beer running at 3 euro. After a good nights sleep, we woke up to an absolutely gorgeous morning, loving the 70 degrees weather, a nice break from the cold rainy weather we're used to in Dublin.

We set off for the day, heading towards the center of the city, called Historic Prague. After seeing the town square, we found it really strange how Dublin really doesnt have a square, and how basically every other city we have travelled to this semester hast at least one or two. Dublin and other cities like Galway are set up kind of like cities in Chicago, where the highlights are streets and parks, not huge plazas. 

We made our way over to the Charles Bridge, St. Nicholas Cathedral, Prague Castle (which is not a castle per se, but a giant complex of palaces, cathedrals, and other cool buildings), and the John Lennon wall. The Lennon wall was pretty sweet, it was just crazy how much it changes in such a short period of time. I'd seen pictures of in it March, and since then things have been painted over countless times.

We had worked up an appetite, so on our way back to the hostel we stopped in a restaurant that the guy at the front desk had recommended for some authentic Czech food. Czech food is very rich, i had potatoes and a rotisserie chicken, but we tried beer cheese and goulash as well. Mom this goulash was nothing like yours, very different, almost a stew. 

After a quick nap, we headed out for the night on an organized Pub Crawl, which honestly was the best way you can go out in Prague when you know nothing about where anything is :) The Pub Crawl took us to several bars and clubs, but we had to make a pit stop at the Ice Pub in between stops, before heading to the largest club in Europe.

For those of you wondering, the Czech Republic does not use the Euro. They use the crown which has a conversion rate of about 18 crown to 1 US dollar. This was semi-confusing for a few different reasons. First, we had all gotten accustomed to the euro by now, and secondly, the conversion math always takes a little while, even for us accounting majors...

For those of you who don’t know, in the Czech Republic, beer is cheaper than water. We had heard rumors of this before we arrived, but now I can tell you with certainty that this is true. While a drink out anywhere else in Europe at a club will run about 7 euro, I got a beer for 20 crown, a little more than 1 euro. The Czech Republic is one of the most beautiful places i have been. Many scenes in James Bond: Casino Royale were shot in various towns and cities in the Czech Republic. 

I can tell however, that while the Czechs revolted against communism during the Velvet Revolution, they still do not fully embrace the capitalist culture. They hold onto their roots in some regards. The city itself is surrounded by hills with the Vltava River running right through the middle of it. Atop the hills one can see the famous red roofed houses that Prague postcards are famous for. I also noted that the city would be very cool to visit in the winter, although it would be pretty cold. Additionally, it is very easy to see that everyone has the same features. For such a small region, I found it unique that everyone looked so similar.

After three days in Prague, it was time to go home and begin studying for our finals at UCD, so we headed back and caught our flight to Dublin.