Thursday
afternoon I left to go visit one of my best friends from UNC, Erin, who is studying abroad for the semester in Prague. I got on a bus around 4:30, arrived in the Czech Republic at
3am, and Prague at 6:30. I apologize for the mass amount of pictures on this post, but the city (and weather Saturday) was absolutely beautiful and I couldn't resist.
Erin lives in a hotel, which is as strange as it sounds. There is a small
continental breakfast each morning (where I stuffed myself because it was free)
and maids come to clean the bathrooms and her sheets. Although there are many
upsides, there are a few negatives – the main one being that the facility
charges about $17 per night for a guest. I obviously found a way to cheat the
system – one of Erin’s friends was leaving for the weekend and very kindly
offered her room to me. Erin
wasn’t feeling well Friday morning so she went back to bed in hopes that a few hours of sleep would make her feel better. I, somewhat foolishly, drank too much coffee at breakfast so I went for a long run along the river (which was beautiful). Around
noon, Erin and I headed into the city.
We
spent most of Friday just walking around Prague, and I tried various items
offered by food stands that littered the streets. My love for American
mozzarella sticks was only enhanced by the pitiful fried cheese which Prague
has in abundance. Food stands and restaurants offer fried cheese as a meal – at
the stands, it comes in between a hamburger bun with French fries. I don’t know
where Europeans got the idea that Americans eat ridiculously unhealthy foods,
because it’s not like these people eat bags of carrots. Friday night we went to
a delicious Mexican restaurant, suggested by my “Let’s Go!” travel book (thanks
again, Mom).
 |
| Fried cheese sandwich |
Unfortunately,
Erin caught some sort of bug during the week and felt horrible on Saturday.
Despite her efforts to ignore the virus she ended up back in bed and Erin’s
friend Melany graciously showed me around the city. Melany walked around with
me for about four hours – everywhere from the Prague Castle and Charles Bridge
to the Lennon Wall. We also picked up some ginger tea for Erin – my flatmate
from Prague, Janii, swears by the stuff. Apparently it is a quick remedy for
illnesses, especially the most standard of viruses and colds. Erin joined us
for dinner at a typical Czech restaurant and the food was good, but my favorite Czech dish thus far is still Janii's goulash which I could eat by the ton.
By
Sunday, Erin was feeling slightly better (obviously because of the ginger tea)
and we re-visited a couple of the tourist locations I had seen on Saturday and
also meandered around Prague some more. Earlier in the morning I approached
Conlan, one of the students on Erin’s program, and coerced him into talking a
morning walk with me. He showed me the fake Eiffel Tower which resembles a
child’s toy compared to the monstrosity of the Parisian Eiffel. I did not take
my camera so I have no pictures, and it’s really not worth looking up online.
The view of the city from the top of the hill, however, was stunning.
 |
| The Lennon Wall- created in the 1980s as a tribute to Lennon and the Beatles |
Sunday
night, after a delicious (which is an understatement) Indian dinner at a
restaurant recommended by Janii, I boarded the bus back home. By mid-afternoon
Monday I was back home in Nijmegen!
No comments:
Post a Comment