Prague, Czech Republic

Well, it's been a while. I want to preface this blog by saying that I have been incredibly busy, and traveling a lot.  Right now, I am currently in Barcelona, Spain needing to update you all on my last three trips- Prague, Rome, and Barcelona. Three amazing cities in Europe.

So let's start with Prague. Prague was the trip that everyone said, "Hey Kyla...you're really close and I hear it's beautiful. You should try and go." So after hearing about Prague, and still not being all that excited about it, I decided to go to Prague with a fun group of people.

Our trip started out in a very interesting way- we decided to take a bus instead of a train or plane. Why? The bus was significantly cheaper, and made more sense.  We left Vienna around 9pm. After searching for a long time to find the proper bus stop, we got the the bus and started our journey.  After a solid 2 hour nap (well my friends napped while I wrote a paper), we stopped in a town called Brno, Czech Republic.  We got to Brno around 11pm, and had to find something to keep us occupied until around 4am. Yes, 4am....please don't be mad at me, Mom.

We stopped in an asian resturant, then ventured off to McDonalds where there was free internet. After McDonalds closed, we were forced to go to the neighboring casino. Not exactly what I expected to do in this shady town, but I did get a decent glass of wine out of it. Finally, we were able to get back on the bus and finish our journey to Prague.  Early that morning...around 5am, we arrived.  We basically RAN to our hostel hoping to find a couch to sleep on. To our surprise, our room was ready, so we were able to sleep in a nice, comfy bed!!! This hostel called, CzechInn was literally the nicest hostel I have ever stayed in.

After waking up and getting a good nap in, we ventured off into the city. There was so much we didn't know about Prague, and we were eager to explore it. After walking around a little bit, we realized it was pretty necessary to do a walking city tour. We found an ad for a FREE WALKING TOUR. While we had our worries, we decided to try it. This walking tour was the ABSOLUTE BEST tour I have ever been on. Our tour guide, Justin (from Boston), was amazingly informative, charismatic, and exciting. He loves Prague so much, and he made us love us too!

At one point in the tour, he stopped us in front of the main university and gave us a huge summary of the history of Prague from like the 1800s to present day. It was an incredibly intriguing 20 minutes. I hate standing in one place (it's a pet peeve of mine), so for me to endure 20 minutes of standing and not notice, is pretty respectable.

During the tour, we learned some really interesting things. We got to see where Michael Jackson stayed when he did a world tour. We learned that Hugo Boss was the designer of the 3rd Reich Nazi uniform....pretty surreal.  Through the Jewish Quarter, we were taken to the cemetery in the photo below. The cemetery is currently about 1.5 stories above normal ground. Why is that? Well, people were buried to the point where there was not enough room to continue burials, so the Jewish people spread dirt over the current graves and continued to burry bodies until it reached this amazing height. It is believed that over 100,000 people are buried here. The Jewish community holds this cemetery at such great value. Because it is a common place where they can bury their loved ones.

A little dark, but pretty powerful.

After the tour, we did some more exploring and headed back to the hostel for sleep. We were POOPED, to say the least.  The next day, we were able to see some more main sites, Christmas markets, and the main palace in Prague. Pretty amazing:

After the castle, we were able to find the John Lennon graffiti wall. This wall was dedicated to Johh Lennon after he spoke up on the Czechs behalf during the time that the Soviets took over the country. He believed in equality and freedom, and the Czechs love him for everything he did. The wall was so colorful and cool to see. Tons of Americans were visiting the wall!

That evening, some of our friends headed back to Vienna, but four of us remained so that we could travel to Kutna Hora, Czech Republic the next day to see a church made completely out of bones. A little somber, but it seemed like a pretty cool experience. Plus, we were able to see a smaller down within the Czech Republic. Basically, this church was created from the bodies of the thousands of people that died from the plague.

After exploring that very small town, we traveled back to Prague, by bus, and had dinner. After dinner, losing the two guys we were with (lack of communication...go figure), and picking up our luggage from the hostel, we got back on the bus and headed back to Vienna. The night bus was a little more hard to endure this time around, but we made it safe and sound. Prague was a great trip!!

Talk to you guys soon! I still have lots of updates to do: Rome (trip from heaven and hell) and Barcelona!!