more prague, please!

We started our second day in Prague with a free tour. They're available in quite a few of the big cities we've visited so far. Our tour guide was a little difficult to understand because of her accent, but she was really nice. We were again blessed with lovely weather. We saw some pretty cool buildings, including the most amazing church yet and the place where Mozart premiered Don Giovanni:

The Church of St. James

Estates Theatre

We didn't get to see this museum...but it is the best advertisement I have ever seen.

We found a sneaky little BU among the graffiti of the John Lennon Wall near the bridge!


At Charles Bridge, which offers the best view of Prague, I met up with Rachael, a friend from high school! She is studying abroad in Prague. We lounged on the bridge and soaked up the amazing view and weather for a while.


After grabbing some delicious gelato, we wandered around the square, which was lit up and full of people playing music and selling food. We had a little language confusion when ordering hot dogs, but it was okay! I bought a gorgeous amethyst colored flower-shaped bowl, since Prague is known for its Bohemian crystal.

I know you're wondering about the concert! Well, we arrived at the theatre timidly, but the tickets got us in. We were surprised to see that we were basically on the 5th row...but looking around, there were only about 40 other people in the entire place. The Prague Royal Orchestra? Maybe not so much- there were only 6 of them. However, they did dress up and the music was pretty good! Not exactly what was expected.

The BEST part of the concert, though, was my neighbor, this little old lady who was so enthralled at the performance she began to conduct the orchestra from her seat. I'm not even kidding, arms flailing. At the finale, she was so overcome that she stomped her feet and CLAPPED to the beat out loud. I was exploding with tears of laughter by the time the concert was over.

At night we returned to Charles Bridge for a last look at the city. It was still and peaceful, glowing quietly. A beautiful close to a beautiful city...next stop, Vienna!

czeching out the sights in prague

B- Lexie, Brittany, Chris, Caroline, Kathy, Kaitlyn
F- Rachel, Amanda, Me

Tuesday afternoon, we decided to go find the Prague Castle. Unfortunately, it was closed for renovations. But, the cathedral was open, so we explored it.

Later, we were greeted by an amazing view...naturally we took a ton of pictures. And speaking of pictures, tragically I ran out of room on my camera and had to scrimp for each city. I let everyone else take the group pictures after this!


Prague really is a beautiful city. It was clean and full of tourist shops but the language was impossible for us to understand. Also, we had to switch currencies- to Czech crowns, which are about 30 to 1 euro. (By the way I'm starting to think of things in terms of Euros now instead of dollars...crazy.) We thought that was confusing...but just wait till Hungarian forints!!

Anyways, Tuesday's adventures didn't end there. We decided to explore the city square, which is gorgeous. Our group had planned to find a concert at some point on our journey, so when we saw a sign for a costumed Mozart & Strauss concert by the Prague Royal Orchestra, well, we couldn't resist.
The thing is, some random guy outside of the concert hall sold us the tickets. And when we looked at them, they didn't have a date or even the name of the concert on them...and that led us to wonder-- had we been conned?! We had to wait until Wednesday night to find out...

Prague is apparently known for its Astronomical Clock, so we made sure to check it out. I have to say it was beautiful, but I think we all felt it was a little overrated...there was a huge crowd of people every hour.

Brittany and I

This is the infamous Father Chris photo...I was joking that Chris kind of had to be like a dad and take care of us all, so I said to make a fatherly face...not so sure about that one!

Tuesday night marked our one month anniversary of studying abroad in Europe- can you believe it?! To celebrate, well, we thought we would look for a taste of home. We ended up going to a place called Red, Hot and Blues, with free music and Mexican food. I had quesadillas! It was nice to hear a little English, too! :)

close encounters

Amanda, Chris, Lexie, Caroline, Kaitlyn, Brittany, Rachel- waiting on our first train

We left on Monday night for Prague, Czech Republic. (Sneak preview: it is one of the most beautiful cities ever! This is no lie.) At one of the train stations, we had a longer layover, so we decided to play charades.

Amanda dominating!

On our night train, we crammed 8 people into a 6-person couchette compartment for 11 hours. It was sweltering hot, cramped, and absolutely insane. As he was the only guy, we made Chris sleep on the floor. (Sorry!) We're all like a family now, after sleeping that close.

Here's a video of the craziness:

Tuesday morning, we arrived in Prague, only to wait for Kathy, who was meeting us, coming from Vienna. We panicked slightly when it took a little longer than expected for her to arrive. She called me and told me only that she had gotten off at the wrong train station and a lady who spoke English was "taking her under the ground." It became clear that she meant the Metro after a few seconds of pondering. We waited in the train station like hobos for like an hour and a half at this sign. A nice lady asked us in English if we needed help. Finally, Rachel spotted her and we gloriously reunited.

After that, we checked into Hostel Elf, which was pretty cool and offers free tea and coffee all the time...yum.

Time for an authentic Czech meal? Why yes. We headed over to Sklep, a nice restaurant, and I ordered potato dumplings with sweet pork...yum!

After lunch, it was time to explore...