Pursuing Prague

Well I arrived in Prague from the night train at about 7:45 in the morning!!! Got off and started toward my hostel. Now in Budapest and Prague I had a pretty good city map in my guide book that I bought before I came but this wasn’t the same for Prague. My hostel was just a little bit off the map and so I did a rough sketch in my notebook so that I good get there. I failed to include enough street names on my drawn map.  I got to the cross street and walked right… well the correct direction was left… woops. So I walked about three blocks and thought I should have come across it so I asked two people smoking on the corner (a lot of people smoke here, it unreal).. They said it was 3 or 4 blocks back the other way. It was just one street over from where I originally started! It wasn’t so bad though because my arms weren’t complete jello since the night before the Irish guys carried my bags ?. (They said they are true Irish gentlemen.) I got to the hostel and checked-in but they couldn’t give me my bed yet because it was like 9 in the morning. However, since there were just shared bathrooms I got to shower and they locked my bag up. The receptionists was absolutely fantastic, she offered me a sandwich, gave me a map telling me all the places I should see, and told me about all the free tours (which I had already looked up but still). This was by far the best receptionist I had seen in my travels. She was very welcoming and truly hospitable. I was just in time to make it to the free walking tour in the morning so I went to the main square, watched the clock show (The main clock tower has figurines that do an automatic show each hour), and then started the tour. Our guide was very nice and funny and I got to see a good majority of the city with some background information. Then I decided to walk back and take a little break but I got side track on the way. There was just this little market selling food and other goods. I have come to really like this kind of thing and almost everywhere I have been they have one. I didn’t find one in Bratislava or in Budapest but Florence’s was great, Krakow, and now here in Prague. You the freshest food and get to see a lot of local made things; it just very interesting and fun to look around. I spent an hour or more there and then bought some awesome fruit for the way home. Ironically, I tried to get one without a lot of strawberries because they aren’t my favorite and there were a lot of other berries that look better but in the end these were some of the best, the best strawberries I have ever had. The blue berries were amazing too and there were raspberries and something that looked similar but a peach color, red currants I believe and one or two blackberries. When I got back I thought I would lie in bed and do some reading for oxford/ catch up on my blog…. I dozed off. I have been pretty tired; I don’t know if it is all the traveling, disturbances in the night  or what (yes grandma I will take some vitamins <3!.. I stopped and did right now). I woke up to some people come in the door to our room. A boy and girl,  brother and sister, named Barbara and Lodewijk from Belgium. We talked for a while first about our schooling which lead to conversations about our school systems and of course I got the typical questions about America and if I agree with this or that. Eventually, this Australian, Tom, joined us and we talked about global warming, nutrition and our travels. We decided to go to the grocery and cook something here at the hostel together which was fantastic. We bought some tomatoes, onions, a pepper and cheese and Tom mad this nice tomato sauce we put over pasta. It was very good and nice to just cook together. We ate and then the boys had talked with the receptionists about a good local pub so we set off to find it, joined by another Australian, Tim. The walk was… interesting. The pub wasn’t in the city center, we traversed a long bridge, it rained, we ran, Barbara and I took of our flip flops because we were slipping all around, we got a little lost (I think), and finally found the place. It was an adventure, a great memory. The place was pretty full and had no empty tables so our brave leader Lodewijk asked two gentlemen to join another table so we could all sit together and it worked! (The rest of us were all very skeptical of this idea.) We sat down looked at the menu and had no idea… Autumn (my roommate from Bratislava) who had spent a lot of time in Prague told me to order dark beer, tmave pivo, so I did. I also found out that the Czech Republic had the second best beer in the world only behind Belgium… Lodewijk and Barbara made this very clear. I didn’t really like it or any other the other many beers the other had. I think I just don’t really like beer at all and so I (and Barbara as well) ended up giving almost all of mine to the guys. After we ordered our first round, the guy from the hostel, Andre, showed up and sat with us (which we were all a little relieve since he could now speak with the waitress!). We ended up also getting this common type of soft cheese that was soaked in oil with some pepper in the middle and onions on top. With the bread, it was delicious. The room we were in closed at 11 pm and so we had to move into the front room. It was nice just to sit around and chat about different cultural customs and whatnot. It was really nice but it started getting pretty late a Lodewijk had stopped drinking so Barbara, him, and I took a taxi back to the hostel which Andre (the guy from the hostel) was so kind to arrange for us. We got change, went to bed…. but there was someone snoring loudly and so we started making up silly plans to get them to stop. Barbara had fallen asleep so Lodewijk and I talked a bit more about our families until someone else in the room kindly asked us to stop… and so we went to bed. I have decided that I really do like the hostel atmosphere and environment. It is a great place to meet people and make connections and as I have gotten more comfortable with them, I have come to appreciate certain things. I have stayed in all relatively small hostels which I have decided I like a lot because you are really am to get to know and hangout with the same people. I have made some decent friends and now have connections in a few more countries, on top of the ones from Bratislava. I haven’t really had any negative experiences which I know are possible so I will keep that in mind but as of right now, I am very happy with this experience and the chance to meet others who are traveling. Also, I like destroying people’s perceptions of Americans!!!! Muhahaha! It has been great but I am ready to go to England and get settled in somewhere. Lots of love.