Czech me out!

This week has been an adventure! Last night we got back from Prague and let me just say that I am utterly exhausted! I will probably be passing out as soon as I post this and it's only 6:30.

We left for Prague Wednesday night and got to our hostel at about 2 o'clock in the morning. I love driving through the city at night because it becomes something entirely different. Our driver dropped us off at our hostel, gets out of the car to help us with our bags and says "this area of town isn't very safe, don't walk around in that direction" and points down the road away from Old Town Prague. I, of course, did not feel comfortable for the rest of night and had trouble sleeping (the bed was hard and the window in our room faced the main road so I heard cars driving by all night). Our room was really weird looking too, this was the first time any of us had stayed in a hostel, so we didn't really know what to expect.

So in case you can't see very well...on the lefthand side is s picture of the Godfather holding Snoopy and beside it is written "Hollyweird" and then in the middle is Winnie the Pooh roughed up, smoking a cigar thinking ACDC. And on the right is a picture we couldn't agree on who it was.

The next morning we headed off in search of our tour meeting point. We left early (because I was super afraid of being late) and met up with our group which consisted of a group of people from Portugal and and couple from somewhere in Europe. This was a free walking tour given by New Europe Tours and they have tours over a bunch of different cities in Europe. The tour lasted about 3 hours and the lady leading the tour really knew a lot about the city (duh) and told us a lot of history of Prague, which I loved of course. We walked passed the Opera house that Mozart preformed in and got a 30 minute standing ovation.

We walked past the astronomical clock that was built in the 1400's.

The small figurings next to the bottom ring move on the hour (just small things like moving an arm or turning a head). This clock tells the time, the position of the sun, the phase of the moon, the sign (horoscope thingy) and even the day. (Crazy that they could do that back 600 years ago!)

One of the oldest functioning Jewish synagogues in Europe.

The second tour we went on was given by the same tour group, but this time we went up the hill to visit the Prague castle. Which we found out was was not just one building, but many different buildings which were eventually added at different times.

This was just one of the the many entrances to the castle, and each of them were guarded by a set of guards standing outside the gates.

This was my favorite part of the castle, the chapel that was built during two or three different centuries (don't quote me on that). It was gorgeous and big inside and still used for mass and worship.  One thing that I always love about older castles is the stain glass, it amazes me how people made them and I love the detail that is placed in these magnificent pieces of work.

After walking outside the castle, we were able to stop and take a picture of the amazing view from the top of the hill. As you can see it was pretty foggy (and cold) and hard to see the entire city, but it was still pretty lovely.

We then headed down to the river that splits Prague in two (Vltava) and headed over to a famous graffiti spot.

Yes! The John Lennon wall. Now Lennon wasn't killed in Prague, but he was a great inspiration to many people in this city. So in tribute to him, they started to graffiti this wall with all sorts of sayings and pictures. And last year a group of individuals on Nov 20th or 21st whited out the entire wall and just wrote "Wall is Over" claiming that people no longer had to pay tribute to Lennon because the Czech Republic was a free country and whatnot. (I'm not exactly sure about the political side of it because I hate politics) These ruffians were actually arrested for vandalism and now people are back to writing on the wall as usual. 

Our tour guide brought along two cans of spray paint so that we could leave our mark among others on this wall. Yes, I did paint the Deathly Hallows sign on the John Lennon wall. You're welcome. The tour finally ended at the Charles Bridge, but it was too dark to take pictures so MC, TP and I went back Saturday morning. 

The Charles Bridge was started in 1357 under King Charles and was finally finished in the 15th century. This tower behind me is often referred to as one of the most impressive gothic towers in all of Europe (while I haven't seen very many gothic towers, I had to agree that it was impressive, but maybe not in all of Europe). There are a total of 30 statues along the bridge and all of them are replicas. Yes, unfortunately all of the real statues are in museums and collections around the world. Which I thought was pretty dumb, but I'm not in charge.

Friday was a relaxing day somewhat. It snowed the ENTIRE day. Thankfully, it wasn't falling very hard, so none of it stayed on the ground where we were. We decided to use the day to explore and search for a couple of places we had seen while on the tour. One of which was probably my favorite place we visited.

It was a giant chocolate museum/store that sold all different kinds of chocolate and candy. They created some pretty cool things in chocolate that you could take home and enjoy, such as the horseshoes and paintbrushes above (they also had some inappropriate things which I'm not going to talk about). I ended up getting some Caramel Fudge to take home and some chocolate covered pineapple and strawberries that I ate there in the store. After that we decided to take the tram to go to the highest point in Prague.

At the top of the hill we could climb a tall tower (that looks suspiciously like the Eiffel Tower, except smaller) and see the city. There is also a lovely garden area that surrounds the tower along with some buildings and the begging of the last standing ancient wall in Prague (it used to signify the end of the city). I'm sure in the summer it's a beautiful sight when everything is in bloom, but we got to see the other side of the spectrum with snow still sticking to the ground at the higher altitude. In the middle picture you can see a bit more of the castle of Prague and how big of an area it is. I also love all the red roofs that are found in Prague.

We then worked our way back to our hostel because MC and TP had a pub crawl later that night. On the way back we found another delicious treat to try

These tasty things are called Trdelnik and what it is is a type of sweet dough rapped around a metal rod and baked over hot coals and then rolled in cinnamon and sugar. They are SOOO good. I would suggest to get one if you are ever in Prague and are looking for a dessert. (just be warned that the also have almond slices on them, YUCK)

Saturday was a short day out, we went back to Charles Bridge and the John Lennon wall to get better pictures in the day and then headed back to Old Town Square (where the clock is) and then back to our flat. On the way back we stopped in a Tesco and got some snacks for the plane ride home. This is what I purchased for my snack 

OH yes! More chocolate! I'm a sucker for it, but I didn't feel bad because: 1. they didn't have any Milka bars in London or in the US and I wanted to indulge while I could and 2. we had done a lot of walking those three days and beyond that I feel like I deserved it! (Don't worry I didn't eat all of it on the plane, I would have made myself sick)

It took forever to get home. The shuttle picked us back up at 4 o'clock and we got to the airport at 4:30 and our flight wasn't until 7:40 so we spent a lot of time sitting around and reading a book (I finished 4 books this weekend alone from all the downtime we had). I was soooo happy to arrive back in London. While I enjoyed my time in Prague, I was happy to be back in London. I love it here so much. We were able to see someone detained at the airport while we waited in line to get through customs, so we were somewhat entertained during the long line. 

Today was a hard day emotionally for me. I'm pretty sleep deprived and malnourished (food here goes bad quick so whatever I had in the fridge when we got back last night I had to throw away, so I've had grilled cheese/quesadillas for dinner/lunch both yesterday and today) and a bit *cough* hormonal. While I enjoyed church and the messages that were shared, I felt on the verge of tears the entire time and I was really missing my moms hugs. Ugh, sorry that I ended with a downer, but it's just how my day went today. The good news is my dad is coming for a visit in two weeks and I cannot wait to see him!

I don't have any big plans this week, but I plan on finding some fun things to do after school gets out on Wednesday. We shall see what happens!