Czech it out!!

This weekend we went to the Czech Republic for our free weekend. It was a lot of fun. At first I was a little nervous to go on this trip alone, but there were enough of us to help me feel more at ease.

We left at 6:30 in the morning on New Year’s Day. Most of us only got about an hour of sleep that night, so everyone slept for the 5 hour train ride. Once we arrived our first challenge was to find an ATM to get money, but how much would we need? I soon realized that I took out too much money. After the group navigated out way out of the train station, we split into two smaller groups. My group walked around the city while the others found their hostel.

The first thing I wanted to see was Prague Castle. This meant that we needed to find and cross the Voltava River without a map. This was the easy part. We somehow managed to walk down Golden Lane to Karl’s Bridge. We saw the castle on top of a hill while we were crossing the bridge, so we knew the general direction that we needed to go. We followed street signs down long curvy roads. The streets were very narrow and steep. We finally came to a long stair case that took almost 10 minutes to walk up. (That was our workout for the day). Once we got to the top we were pleasantly surprised with a wonderful view overlooking the entire city to our left and Prague castle to our right. We spent about 3 hours exploring the wonders of Prague castle, St. Vitus Cathedral, and Rosenberg Palace. After that we met up with other people from our group and made our way back to the other side of the river. Finally, we went to out hostel to put our bags away. My shoulders were really beginning to hurt. We went to eat at an Italian Restaurant then went to the Black Light Theater to see a play.

The next morning we woke up around 8:30 and went to New Prague to see the Dancing House. It is a house built to resemble Fred Astaire and Ginger. Then we stopped at a cute little coffee shop for a quick breakfast. It started snowing while we were inside!! It was beautiful. After breakfast we went to Jewish Prague. We spent about 2 hours in synagogues, the Jewish cemetery, and Holocaust exhibits. I round this really interesting. I learned a lot about the Jewish religion and the struggles that Czech Jew faced. After this we went to the Christmas market to grab a quick lunch and do some souvenir shopping. Then we picked up our bags and went to the train station to head back to Berlin.

I really enjoyed Prague. It is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. It was really special to me because that is where my family is from. It was nice for me to see where I came from. The city was very easy to navigate through. I loved the old cobblestone roads, the river, the view from the castle, and the old fashion building. I wish I had more time to explore, but I am glad that I at least had those two days.