Sir Toby's made the trip

This weekend the group went to Prague, Czech Republic! We are now on the 2nd leg of the train ride back to Bonn as part of our10 hour total trip. I can safely say that I already miss Bonn and my host family so it’ll be nice to go back, but I have also had a great experience seeing new places and new countries over the past 9 days. The summary I can make of Prague is that yes, it has a lot of beautiful history that was preserved in the war, but overall the people there were not anywhere near as friendly as the Germans. This to me lowered my good experience of the place but thank goodness for Sir Toby’s!!

Sir Toby’s, our hostel, was amazing and so welcoming after I had my doubts about Prague on the train ride in. The place was full of other Americans and English speaking teenagers who were either studying abroad or just on vacation to travel around Europe. Breakfast was included in what we paid for (which was delicious), they had the ability to wash clothes and even use a kitchen if you wanted to make food. We showed up on Friday around dinner time and they were having a free barbeque on the back deck!

On Saturday we went on a free walking tour provided through Sir Toby’s (once again, awesome) and learned a lot about the time period before and during the wars in that part of the Europe. We watched the astronomical clock strike the hour which was great given the technology they had but I’m glad I was told not to get my hopes up. I tried pork goulash at a traditional Czech restaurant and then we walked up to where the castle used to be and got there in time to see the changing of the guards. I spent most of my money on souvenirs in Prague because they had so many beautiful paintings and just interesting knick knacks that are so different from the more westernized parts of Europe that I’ve been to. That night we joined in a bar hop also provided through Sir Toby’s. It was a great deal for the price and I had a lot of fun!

Overall, Prague wasn’t my favorite place I’ve been to so far though. I guess I just wasn’t as prepared for it to be so different and when it wasn’t as pleasant and urbanized as Germany I was disappointed. I could also just be getting tired and worn out with all the traveling. Next time I’ll just have to plan and research the place I’m going more before being tossed into a different culture (the pricing of things was getting confusing!) If I did go back though, I will most definitely be staying at Sir Toby’s hostel!!