a blog for PRAGUE!

have you ever gone to a country you know nothing about? not the language, the money, what is even popular to see, the food, the transportation... ect. WELL, i really recommend it if you havent. it makes the for one of the best trips [at least my experience]! after we got to the airport [on our own!] with luggage fitting  the requirements and everything going smoothly and got on the plane i started thinking ok, what do i know about prague? and well nothing. my cousin scott told me to go to a castle in prague and see some famous bridge, but thats really all i knew. i got off the plane and wanted to say thank you and didnt know how, so i said it  in italian! they dont know italian! i still do not know how to say one word in czech. but being american does have its benefits and EVERYONE in prague speaks english, very good english! so it all worked out for us! 

susanna, laurie, me, and laura at the airport!
i traveled with these girls and we met up with 5 others when we got there!

oh, and apparently it is a really good thing if you land over here in europe because everyone cheered like we it was questionable if we were going to land or not? idk i was confused.

once we got there, we had a taxi waiting to pick us up. he had a sign with our names on it. i could get use to that. he took us straight to our hotel, Hotel Vitkov, which costed me about 20 euros for the whole weekend!! it was no hilton, but i had a bed to sleep in!! i roomed with susanna and laura and we each had a bed!! we got situated in our very small space and then went out to meet everyone else for dinner. we had all decided we wanted MEXICAN! we have been craving it for so long and it is no where in italy [at least nowhere we can find]. and one of the girls had heard of a really good one in prague, so that is where we went!

it was quite some adventure to get there... keep in mind we had NO IDEA where we were are where we were going. we asked the lady at the front desk, and we kind of understood what to do, not really. we went to get our bus tickets and the owners of the store did not speak a lick of english [luckily this was the only time we ran into a problem]! even our hand gestures we have gotten use to in italy didnt work. we were getting no where when trying to buy this ticket! but EVENTUALLY some one who could speak english walked in and helped us out [everyone was so sweet and helpful]! so we got our bus ticket and went to find the bus stop and crossed our fingers and got on one! and we arent really sure if it was the right one because all the words look like alfd;sfjds;fjds;kfj to us. but it got us closer to our mexican restaurant!! after stopping in a few places and going down a few sketchy allies we finally met the rest of the group where we enjoyed our mexican and fabulous margaritas!

everyone at dinner! such great girls!!

after dinner, we decided to go to a club in prague! we were very surprised to see how the czechs danced... it took me right back to middle school where boys and girls were separated and didnt dance with each other. it was odd. then they did like the robot? haha it was very entertaining to say the least!!

mary was confused by the dancing haha

saturday, we had a plan [that we came up with friday while going to bed] to do as much as possible. so we decided to start at 10am and head toward the castle to start our day off. there are 3 means of transportation in prague... the bus, the tram, and the metro... and apparently we had to take the tram to the metro to get to the castle... talk about a headache. we got outside to the trams and realized there were 3 different lines to take... we all looked at each other so confused. then a nice young man came up and we all looked at him so he got the idea we needed help and asked where we were trying to go. then he planned our route out for us and told us EXATLY where to go and what to do. it was so sweet of him because im pretty sure we would have never made it... he laughed when we told him our plan!! we took line to 9 on the tram to the flora [the easiest word we had seen yet] metro and it took us right to the castle!

these guys are so fun to talk to

we were all amazed by the beautiful cathedral! some of us decided to go to the top to get a view of all of prague!! we climbed 287 stairs to get to the top... it was tiring but well worth it!!

St. Vitus Cathedral!

Charles Bridge

it was such a beautiful sight!

susanna, mary cate, and me going down the stairs...
it felt like i was just going in a circle the whole way down!

mary cate, laura giles, susanna, and me

for lunch we want to try out some czech food... we had know idea what that consisted of but we wanted to try and get the full experience! we found a nice little restaurant in the castle and got out of the freezing cold!! the high was 32F all weekend! we all split some baked slice potatoes with smoked bacon with the traditional "castle beef goulash" in a bread boat and i highly recommend it if you ever go to prague!! it was delicious!! especially on a cold day!

mary and suze enjoying the potato and goulash!

the money situation was just funny to us the whole time because we never really knew how much we were spending and it was just a process to figure out how much american money we were spending... we would get a bill back and it would say you owe 2000 and we were like what the heckkk! because in america, thats a lot [at least to me!].

900 crowns is apparently around $45?

after lunch we wanted to see more of the castle so we got short tour where we got to see Old Royal Palace, the Story of Prague Castle, Basilica of St. George, and the Rosenberg Palace!

this is inside the church!

this is inside the Old Royal Palace! haha

this is the Basilica of St. George

once we were done at the castle, we started toward the Charles Bridge we have heard so much about!! it was probably one of my favorite walks ever!! we got to see a lot of the city and i felt like i was on a movie set it was so beautiful and unreal! we got to stop in a few stores along the way... where i got my souvenir! i have to decided to get a christmas ornament every city i go to! so i got a hand painted bell ornament in a little shop!!

walking toward the bridge!

precious little shops!

laura giles, susanna, mary cate, and me on the bridge!

we astronomical clock!

after we saw everything we wanted to see for the day, we ran to our hotel to freshen up a little then we went back to the center of town to have dinner with the whole group!! i had a delicious burger with fries and wonderful chocolate desert!! after dinner we went to the largest club in eastern europe. it blew my mind! there were 5 stories with different music on each floor! 1st floor- rap and r&b music, 2nd floor- electronic music, 3rd floor- mainstream dance music, 4th floor- music from the 80s and 90s, and 5th floor- techno music with a lot of lasers! haha it was very crowded and just crazy! me and susanna did not stay long! we just made a point to see every floor and get out of there!! some of the rest of the group stayed till 5am [do not know how they do it]!! and got on our 11am plane!! i need my sleep... thats for sure!

our metro station!

this was our favorite floor!! they played a lot of greece songs! :)

prague was so much fun! if you ever have the chance to go, GO!! you will love it!!

i hope everyone is well! we are getting up at 6am in the morning to head to Assisi!! i miss you all very much!!

love- rae :)