Praha

On the train ride there we met and adorable elderly, Austrian man who was in the train car with us, who was returning to Vienna from an Opera in Dresden. he gave us a brief history of the Dresden Opera House along with a short history of the world. His effulgence astounded me. After travelling through the gorgeous mountainsides we had arrived. What a beautiful city! I now see why they call it the "City of Gold". It was absolutely freezing though. It took us awhile to find our hostel. And by a while I mean around and hour and 45 minutes in 10 degree weather. If the city wasn't so gorgeous I would be bitter, but it was a pretty sight to see everything so lit up. I don't think Prague actually has real street signs. It didn't help that none of us read any Czech. There were at least three 'Tyn' streets but none of which were the right ones. Finally we literally stumbled on our hostel. It was in a back alley, but it was a pretty little place with colorful walls lines with brochures and maps. We went to try a few places but most were full. We found an American 50s themed diner, which was adorable, but alas it was full. So we went to an Italian restaurant. I ordered some of the most delicious Gnocchi I had ever tasted, and as Dr. Bennett said "Beware, Czech beer flows freely and cheaply" He wasn't lying. It was delicious. It was something long and seemingly unpronounceable for my lack of knowledge of Czech.But it was something yummy.

 We went back to the hostel then, we were beat after a roughly 6 hour train ride, 2 hours of wandering and a full stomach. We retired to the hostel and began planning for the next day.

We started our day early. With a trip to the bank, a pit stop at Starbucks for a cup of hot chocolate, meeting the most cheerful baristas. They were very enthusiastic about their job, it's always nice to see that in people, especially that early in the morning. With our bellies warm, we continued our hike to the top of Petrin Hill. It was cold, it and steep, and we made a few stops to thaw our numbing toes.

What a beautiful and well worth it hike it was. Wandering the castle was beautiful as well, the architecture was magnificent, It was so vast and overwhelming almost, it was entrancing. After making it to the top of the hill we walked around, enjoyed the live Polka-esque band band that was performing and enjoyed some tradition Czech food. We could see everything from here. It was strange to see the main church (of which our hostel was located behind from where we were and consider how far we've walked. The church looked so small that we could hold it in the palm of my hand. What a wonderful city. Even covered in snow it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. We later began our hike downward slowly and steadily, because if not, I have no doubt that I would've fallen to my death. The hill was so steep, and it was slick because of the packed down snow, that had been trodden on by people with the same intentions. However, we were joined by a clever little distraction to take our minds of the negative temperatures.

And I shall call him Kafka in honor of Franz Kafka who happens to be from Prague. He was a gem. Stalking from the bushes and providing as a little road block we couldn't help but stop to pet. We finally made it to the bottom and back to our hostel, exhausted but feeling accomplished. 

That night in honor of Virginia's Birthday we did Prague's Largest Pub crawl. We met a guy in his early 20s named Daniel from Australia in the first bar. in the second we met a kid from OSU named Cody that is doing an exchange in France. The world is smaller than we think.  We made it to 3 out of 5 of the bars before returning to our hostel out of pure exhaustion. Our whirlwind of a night on Prague ended here.

The following morning we left for the train station to return to Germany. We were tired, we were cold, but we had a night well lived full of stories to tell.