Looking through my drafts, I realized that I never got around to Prague day 2, so while it feels like forever ago, I should at least post my photos and impressions!

New Town is the side that our hostel was perched upon, and features a grand castle and the famous St. Vitus Cathedral as well as a collection of squares and buildings in the surrounding area. Our short walk up the hill to the landing boasted of views of Old Town across the river, and into the depths of the orange-roofed city. The views were just as amazing as the gothic facade and stunning stained glass windows inside the cathedral, which is one of the most largest I think I have been in. It's amazing how people could stack these stones and create ribbed vaults in the extremely high ceiling without modern day technology (even with cranes and all that this would be quite the project to build!). The palace gardens were beautiful and filled with couples taking wedding photos (we realized it was because we were there on February 14th), and we even caught the second half of the changing of the guards. No outing would be complete without some mulled wine in Prague so we sat with our little cups at the edge of the wall overlooking the beautiful city.

Later that day we decided to see the famed John Lennon Wall which is basically a wall filled with graffiti, most of it pertaining to the famous singer-songwriter and many representations of his most popular lyrics. I really liked the blue and white stencil of his face covered in orange damask. Next to the wall was a pathway leading onto Kampa Praha island which houses some cute cafes and a museum. We wandered around until we arrived at the Charles bridge and crossed over into Old Town for an afternoon snack of trdlnik (do you see a pattern here?) and watched the sun set over the river from atop the bridge. All of that walking and touring around in the cold will really take a lot out of you, and we took a nap break at our hostel before heading out to U Medvidku for some goulash. Truth be told we didn't really enjoy our experience there because the waitress didn't come to take our orders for an hour and then left us hanging for another two hours waiting to pay the bill, but we did check off goulash from our list of must-eats on our trip. Honestly it could have been much better (and warmer), but you win some you lose some. Our night ended off with our 10th trip across the Charles bridge that trip and we awoke bright and early to a beautiful sunrise before jet setting back to Rome.

I loved the quirkiness of Prague found amidst all of its beautiful architecture and historical beauty. I cannot wait to be back to enjoy the views again in the summer!

This post is long overdue, but I'm tired of seeing the same photo pop up on the food section of the front page of my blog so here's a little change of scenery and a reminiscent post about our lovely food adventures in Prague. I had no idea what Czech cuisine was before I arrived, but was very pleased to find out that it consists of a lot of potato dumplings, meat, and famous Czech beer (they're very proud of it and convinced that it's better than its German counterpart) and mulled wine. Perfect stick-to-your-stomach food to help us brave the negative degree weather which definitely got to us even though we were all wearing at least two pairs of pants every day... My daily get-up consisted of two pairs of socks with boots, leggings, jeans, two shirts, a sweater, a sweatshirt, and my puffy down jacket all topped off with a scarf, a hat, and gloves. It's no wonder I didn't notice my tummy also adding to the bulk (I'll tell ya -- all those potatoes have to go somewhere!).

Our first dinner experience was probably one of the best, as we were all so tired of travel and just wanted a nice cozy meal. We ended up at a restaurant where we had some of the best potato dumplings (with bacon!) of the trip accompanied by a gang of opera-singing locals at the table behind us. A glorious first experience to start off our stay in a new city! I'm also a big fan of the pickled cabbage that seemed to accompany most meals, as its tart flavors cut through the starchy dumplings and rich meat. Though this was probably my favorite mealtime experience of the trip, my absolute favorite meal had to be the cabbage soup from Lokal. It was a red soup with cabbage and sausage, a side of potato dumplings, and fresh bread. Oh man, the soup was seasoned in such a sophisticated way as it wasn't overwhelming at all (rather light, actually) but still filled with flavor.

We also discovered the wonders of trdlnik which is a specialty pastry of sorts that is rolled out dough wrapped around a metal stick and rotated above burning coals and then coated in sugar and little nut bits. It's best enjoyed hot off the stick and the outside is slightly crunchy but the dough inside literally melts inside your mouth (and not to mention that it should always be paired with mulled wine). Mulled wine became one of our new obsessions since there are stands selling it everywhere and it's just so perfect to sip on while trying to make the most of our time in the freezing cold. I wish we could get it in Rome, but I think it's better enjoyed in the north where the climate is far from mediterranean.

We then continued our trend of frequenting beer halls for dinner and one night I got bacon-wrapped cheese with lettuces which was super tasty and the next night we knew we had to get goulash. The service at the last restaurant we went to was unfortunately awful (they literally left us for two hours after we waited for about an hour for them to come take our order without coming back to check in, take our plates, or bring us the check), but that aside I think I liked the stew of sorts. My friends told me I had to try it in Budapest so I'm excited to taste test during the summer (is it a year-round thing? I hope so).

Overall we didn't really have any misses on the food during our trip, and I am actually very much intrigued by Czech cuisine now. I don't know if I'll be whipping up potato dumplings in my own kitchen anytime soon, but I really liked it a lot and would be more than happy to go back just for the food!

The morning started off with with a cozy breakfast of crepes and cappuccinos before we crossed the Charles Bridge to get into old town from our hostel perched just under the Prague Palace. We arrived in the main square surrounded by gothic buildings and met a hilarious duo of English tour guides who entertained us as we waited to join a free tour of this area of the city. They began quarreling about accents and pronunciation, and one of them started elongating his words like "Baaaaahhh-sk like a liz-aaahhhhh-d" to which we could not stop giggling and that became the defining sentence of our entire trip. However, neither of them were our tour guides and we weren't too keen on the Australian woman leading our actual tour so we ditched the group in front of the Astronomical Clock and watched it come to life at the hour with the skeleton pulling the bell, the apostles coming out and the men shaking their heads, and the golden bird at the top at the grand finale accompanied by the trumpet player at the top of the bell tower. We then decided to take a stroll around the adorable area surrounding the main Old Town Square and indulged our cold little selves in trdelnik (dough rolled around a stick, rotated and baked over coals, and covered in sugar -- ugh it's literally one of the best snacks EVER) and discovered the wonders of mulled wine in the below freezing wintertime.

After our little mid-morning snack we tried to visit the Church of Our Lady before Tyn but it was unfortunately closed, and ventured on toward the Powder Tower and Municipal building which were both quite impressive. The Powder Tower was interesting because the weather-worn stone made the gothic architecture stand out against the blue sky, and municipal building was especially ornate. I think the cold really speeds up my metabolism because we got a case of the munchies again and decided to stop by a restaurant called Lokal. We were handed menus in Czech and understood absolutely nothing, but thankfully they realized what our blank stares meant and brought us English substitutes. I ordered the cabbage soup and potato dumplings (and of course a round of Czech beer -- so cheap! So good!!) and my oh my this was honestly the best meal I had in Prague. The cabbage soup was tart and the sausage was so flavorful, and potato dumplings really stuck to my stomach in the best way possible since the cold was making me so miserable. We feasted heartily before heading back out to keep on exploring. This was the beginning of our circles around Prague. We decided to head towards the Jewish quarter and found ourselves in front of the Kafka statue (which I hugged in a photo my friend took of it because The Metamorphosis defined a good portion of my high school AP English Lit life). We aimlessly wandered around and passed by the back of Lokal, and again past the statue, and by many other buildings we had seen and figured out that we were just making figure eights -- a theme carried out throughout the rest of our stay in Prague because everything ran in circles. The synagogues in the city were beautiful on the outside, but unlike Rome where everything is open to the public for free Prague charges for entrance everywhere so we decided to skip out on venturing inside and continued on our way towards Wenceslas Square.

We arrived at a beautiful square surrounded by candy-colored buildings and literally everything looks like a Disneyland set. I'm convinced Prague is not a real place and most of it is made out of plywood and styrofoam because it is just too perfect. There was even the most adorable traditional Czech decorated egg store with real painted eggshell ornaments and dolls. After a quick break we decided to head back to the Charles Bridge to watch the sun set, though it was slightly cloudy, and coincidentally ran into a group of guys from our program in Rome. It seems everyone had the same idea! Exhausted from our day exploring the town we decided to head back for a quick siesta hour at the hostel before heading back out for dinner. Our friend looked up a restaurant that was supposed to serve super authentic Czech cuisine, but it was hidden in an obscure little alleyway so we had a little trouble finding it. However, we eventually located Baracnicka Rychta where I tried an interesting plate of bacon-wrapper cheese with greens and balsamic sauce which was super tasty. After dinner we decided to walk around near the castle and then head back downtown to check out a little pub near the river where we sat for a quick chat and a cider before calling it a night. We were off to see the castle the next day so we needed a good night's rest for the following day's adventure!

This may have just been one of the most interesting days of my life. My friend and I were off to an early start, checking out of the hostel before any of our roommates were awake and headed across the street to the train station (oh how nice it is to be centrally located!) after a quick coffee and donut stop nearby and patiently waited for our train that would take us to Prague to arrive. People started to crowd around the stop in clusters so we figured we were in the right place, but 10 minutes... and 5 minutes before the train was supposed to come... nothing showed up. A police officer asked to see our tickets and we pointed and asked "Here, to Prague?" and he sent us across the way to the next platform over where a train was waiting to leave. Confused and thinking we were lost in trasnlation we looked around and it seemed everyone was being rerouted to that train. I kept hearing slight mentions of Prague and figured the policeman knew what he was talking about, so we sat anxiously waiting for some English explanation, but the only announcements were in German. But what else were we supposed to do? So we sat tight and the train started to move out of the station and we were out in the industrial outskirts of Munich again, whizzing past green lawns and orange rooftops with dark wooden accents lining ever windowsill. However, instead of a direct train to Prauge this train said "Landshut" as its final destination. We started to panic again, but nothing you can do when you're on a moving train... So we both fell asleep until an attendant came to check our tickets and told us that we had to go further up in the train because this section was going to detach at the next stop.

We frantically grabbed our bags and ran to one of the first cars on the train to make sure we were not going to be left behind, and ended up on another two-hour leg to Passan. Somewhere along the way I heard the mumble of the words "strike" and "ALX" (the train company that was supposed to be a direct trip) mixed in with some German babbling and we realized we would have to endure a major change of plans. Little did we know how unfortunate this strike would be to our carefully planned trip. At the Passan station we followed the crowd and transferred to another tiny little train of only two cars that was destined for Bayerich Einstein. Don't ask me to locate that on a map, but I'm pretty sure it's one of the last stops in Germany. We found a sizable group of Korean travelers who kept asking people for Prague so we followed suit with them and eventually settled into our seats for a few more hours of German forest and farmland. When the little train screeched to a stop we exited to a flurry of snowflakes in our faces. When I wiped away the moisture from my eyelashes I noticed a small wooden hut-like station with one lobby and a bathroom. There was literally nothing else around it except for snow-covered trees and four sets of train tracks in front. Where the heck are we now..... We had no idea. So we asked the man at the counter (who spoke absolutely no English) walked outside and pointed us to a train when we showed him our tickets (he looked just as puzzled to see the multiple ticket-check stamps from the different trains we were on as we were) and we curled up in the small little Harry Potter-esque train cabin complete with red leather upholstery and everything with a dusting of powdered snow outside the window in hopes that we'd finally arrive in Prague.

The rest of the trip was more snow and more forests, though we started passing by more hut-like buildings which I guess signified that we were finally out of Germany and in the Czech Republic (that and someone came by to check our passports). We were starting to get antsy and wondered when we'd be in Prague, and had a little mix-up when we arrived at Plzen h.na. train station because it was similar to Praha h.na. (very different towns, we now know). Some Czech guys who seemed to have just come from the slopes tumbled into our little train cabin and we pointed to the ticket and the station to ask if we were at the right place and they nodded enthusiastically, but turns out that meant we were on the right train but not yet at the right stop. We figured this out as we got off here and realized there was no subway, so ran back up to the platform where thankfully the train had not yet left and stood in the hallway until one of the cabins opened up and we could sit until our final destination of Praha h.na.

Once we finally made it to the Prague central station we were so happy we could cry! We were starved beyond belief because our last meal had been before 8 am and it was already nearing 5 pm, but we decided to push through and get to the hostel. A metro ride, a quick tram trip, and a walk up a hill later we arrived at our hostel and collapsed on the beds. Our two friends who were to meet us in Prague messaged us saying they'd be there in a few hours and we should get dinner but we were about to pass out with hunger so decided to wander down the street (casually running into the tower marking the Charles Bridge) to get a quick sandwich. Oh it was one of the most glorious things in the world after our expected 5.5 hour trip to Prague turned into more like 10 hours of stressful train-hopping in the middle of the German wilderness.

Once our friends arrived and we swapped our travel horror stories we headed down the adorable street the hostel was on and ended up at U Kocoura. We all ordered a round of much-deserved Czech beer and sat amongst the locals eating potato dumplings and pork. It was a very happy dinner to say the least. What made it even better was the group sitting right behind us, a few older men and women with some middle-aged couples who all started to sing what seemed to be Czech folk songs. The old man in the center was teaching the younger man which tone to sing and and his voice boomed in alto as the woman joined him in an almost operatic soprano and they harmonized across the table. It was so great to be in this jolly atmosphere and feel like we were experiencing the real Czech culture (we were the only non-Czechs... and only ones under the age of 35 there)! Apparently it's a regular thing because we passed by this restaurant on some other nights and always heard singing inside, which made us all warm and happy inside. Also the potato dumplings were probably one of the best dishes I've ever eaten, not to mention it was so comforting after the terrible day we had spent on the train. I liked Prague immediately after this night, and it was a good night's sleep after we arrived back in our hostel with droopy eyes and stomachs filled to the brim!