Weekend Trip to Prague

Last winter before studying abroad I asked everyone I knew who went abroad which city was their absolute favorite; the city they would return to if they ever could. Hands down the most mentioned city was Prague, Czech Republic. Prague was therefore always on the top of my "cities I can't miss" list. Finally, I was able to spent a weekend there, and might I say, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The city is beautiful, with rich history, amazing architecture, and a welcoming atmosphere. Of all the European cities I have visited, Prague has seemed the most accessible for foreigners. It truly deserved all the recognition it was given.

Our trip began Thursday night when 25 of us from my school in Perugia (more than a third of our whole program) got on the bus that would take us all the way to Prague, which in total is a 14 hour bus ride! We all booked a weekend long, all-inclusive trip to Prague through the same student traveling company, Bus2Alps. We piled into the bus, our home for the next 14 hours, and cozied up with the 20 or so students from Rome going on the same trip. As we drove through the darkness movies were played and most of the bus was lulled to sleep, with the exception of myself and anyone else unlucky enough to not possess the ability to sleep on public transportation (honestly I wish I could, but I cant. I envy you people). We arrived early Friday morning to our hostel, an hour late, which gave us very little time to unpack, eat, and get back down to the lobby for our first free walking tour of Prague. We all made it back downstairs in time, tired and grumpy, but ready to explore the city. We were given an amazing tour by a very entertaining guide, an Irishman named Deckland, who possibly knew more about Prague than most Czech's! After the tour ended we grabbed a quick lunch. For me this included a delicious bagel sandwich (my first bagel in months) and a pumpkin spiced latte from Starbucks. 

Yes, Starbucks. I walked into the Starbucks in the middle of Old Town Square in Prague and was overcome with a feeling of homesickness. I turned to a friend of mine and explained just how important such a silly experience like going to a coffee shop was to me. Starbucks is, oddly enough, a large part of my family life. My mom worked for Starbucks for over 10 years, and so did many of my siblings. My little brother still works at a Starbucks in San Diego. One might call being a barista something of a family vocation. I walked to a familiar room and observed pony-tailed women in their green Starbucks aprons, hurriedly running back and forth behind the counter trying to fulfill their never-ending list of demanding coffees. It felt like home. My only indication of being outside of the States was when the Czech girl behind the counter mispronounced my English name. If she had not I would have mentioned to her how my mother, a Starbucks store manager, would have loved her smiling customer service. I enjoyed every sip of that coffee as it warmed and soothed the shivering bones in my cold-intolerant SoCal body.

After walking around for a little while we returned to the hostel for a necessary nap. We ate cheap takeout Chinese food and then got ready for our evening out on the town. Bus2Alps had prepared a pub crawl for us! That evening was a blur of beers, cigars, dancing, and friends. We all made it back relatively early and fell into our beds, exhausted. The next day we awoke, enjoyed the complimentary breakfast, and got ready for a second walking tour. This tour was not given by a real guide, only our Bus2Alps chaperons, yet it was still a chance to see the sights of Prague we could not see the day before. After thetour, Bus2Alps had arranged a luncheon at a traditional Czech restaurant, one which boast a very popular 500 year old beer recipe. The meal, and especially the beer, was amazing. We returned to the hostel for yet another nap and there we stayed until dinner. We had an amazing meal at an Indian Restaurant that I found through great reviews on TripAdvisor. The next few hours were filled with disappointment. My friends and I were supposed to meet up with the rest of the Bus2Alps group and go to another bar. Unfortunately dinner ran late and we missed the meeting time. We started asking cabbies around the area how to get to the bar and none of them had heard of it. After finally finding cab drivers who knew of the bar and agreed to drive us there, we finally got our hopes up. They proceeded to drive us in a weird direction and stopped outside of a pub, charging us 12 Euro for the cab ride. Being clueless tourists we paid and got out of the cabs; which sped off in a hurry. We realized we had gotten duped too late as we walked down the street and found out they took us in a complete circle. Fed up with everything the majority of us decided to spend a few hours in a nearby Huka bar. Thankfully a group of our friends from Perugia unknowingly walked into the same establishment not 10 minutes later. A few hours later our large group returned to the hostel to get some sleep before our long ride home. 

The next morning we ate breakfast and rejoined our Roman travel companions to make the long drive back to Italy and Perugia. For 14 hours (with one break of 45 mins) we watched movies and chatted on the bus. Walking back to our apartments in Perugia was an amazing feeling. It seems anytime we leave this town we are so happy to be coming back.