Prague

May 19 - May 22, 2013
Sunday, May 19th

I can now say that I have been to Dresden, Germany, which is not something you can usually say when trying to fly direct to Prague. Our flight was diverted to Dresden due to poor weather in Prague and unfortunately that bad weather followed us up to Germany, so a bus ride it was. After sitting on the plane for an hour on the runway to waiting in the terminal for an hour, the busses finally arrived. Only one of the three busses had showed up and there were a lot of grumpy people waiting, but dad and I managed to be the first ones on! The bus took us all the way to Prague airport where a driver from our hotel picked us up. We finally arrived at our Hilton in Prague at 3 AM.

Monday, May 20th

After sleeping in a little bit, we went up to the executive lounge in the Hilton for some morning snacks and coffee. We made a last minute decision and tried to go find a free walking tour starting in the center of old town Prague. We may not have found the tour we were looking for, but we did find a lady in a neon green shirt and decided to follow her around when we heard her speaking English. We walked all around old town and into the Jewish quarter before the tour ended. I happened to run into two friends while on the tour, too. I couldnt believe it. I had smelled something delicious while we had been walking, so my dad and I hunted down the restaurant once the tour had ended and had lunch on their little patio. After lunch, I had a little more energy so we walked to Charles Bridge and ran into my friends again outside a giant building. We walked back to the center of town and the main square where my dad scouted out Starbucks. We relaxed there until it was time for dinner and we ate at a place called Pizza Donna at around 10 PM.

Tuesday, May 21st

We spent a lot of time in the executive lounge during our stays at Hilton's, so I'm just going to skip that part from now on. Oh and we (I) took a lot of naps too, but that's not exciting. We grabbed a quick breakfast before heading to the Charles Bridge again, but this time we went across and up into the hills on the other side. There were lovely little street vendors along the bridge and really cool shops on the other side. There is a giant palace and the Vitus Church that overlooks the city, so we trekked all the way up to see them. There was an amazing view from the top, and it wasn't too crowded with tourists yet. We walked around and behind the buildings and also inside the church before we headed back down the mountain. My dad hopped up into a little part of the wall to pretend like he was Caesar on the way back down the hill. After a quick visit to the museum of communism, we trekked up to a giant metronome that sits above the city in some hills. It was a nice little adventure up to it and it had another amazing view of the city. Prague is one of the most photogenic places I've ever been to.

The main square also had two beautiful churches that we wanted to peak into. One of them, the Tyn, was a gothic style and just loomed over the other building in the square. The other, St. Nicholas I think, was much less intimidating. They were both beautiful inside and there was a little boy playing music in the second one. We were outside just in time to hear the famous astrological clock chime and put on its show. We got to see it a few times during our visit. There were some booth in the square where I got a sugary bread treat and my dad got a sausage. We grabbed some gelato on the way back to our hotel. We had to interrupt our day so that I could register for classes back home. What a buzzkill. We got to go back out into the city afterwards to see a (very small) symphony at the Municipal building before calling it a night.

Wednesday, May 22nd

In the morning, we met my friend Annabelle at a monstrous looking tower called the Powder Tower. The three of us grabbed coffee and caught up on our most recent adventures. We strolled through the city, stopping every once in a while to take photos. We went across the Charles Bridge and down some stairs to the John Lennon wall, which is a wall covered in graffiti which is often Beatles themed. We took a few photos and wrote on the wall ourselves before starting back across the Charles Bridge. Half way across the bridge, it started pouring rain and hailing. I had not expected this, so I was in a t shirt. We ran for cover under a huge tower along with everyone else who was on the bridge at the time, and within a few minutes it stopped. We made our way back to the clock, stopping for souvenirs along the way. My dad and I said goodbye to Annabelle and grabbed our luggage at the hotel to catch a train to Vienna.