Prague

I actually didn't know how I felt about heading to Central Europe. Compared to Western Europe I thought the hole area would be a lot more unsafe and unkept. After coming back though I consider Prague to be one of my favorite destinations thus far.

We were told have our rooms ready for check out by 10:30 and our train for Prague left later on in the afternoon so a few of us decided to go into town again. We went to one of our favorite restaurants in Germany, "Vapiano" and then walked around the Sony Experience in Potsdammer Platz. We had a train to catch so we to the metro back to our hotel and met up with the rest of our group. We got to Berlin Central Station a little early so we had time to shop for souveniers and get snacks for the train ride to Prague. It was a really fun train ride because we had chips and dip and movies on our iPods and the like.

It didn't seem to take that long to get into Prague. We got to the Hotel at around 10pm and got our room keys and everything situated. I was one of the first one to get my keys so me and a few other people got into the elevator to go up to our rooms. It got stuck. We were there for about a half of an hour while everyone else was eating there welcome dinner in the hotel restaurant. It was fine until it started to get hot inside with the radiating body heat of 5 people in an enclosed space. The worst part of it was that it was my friend Conrad's birthday and he was spending it trapped in an elevator waiting for help. When we were finally rescued we were greeted with hamburgers at the hotel restaurant and an itenerary of what we'd be doing in the city as well as a map so we'd know how to get around. I wanted to go out after dinner but there was really no point because I didn't really know the city all that well and it was already pretty late so I just stayed in and went to bed.

The next day we had a walking tour of Prague in the morning. Prague is really interesting architecturally because almost all of it is original as opposed to Germany after being bombed in WWII. I really love Baroque architecture and I definitely got my fill in Prague. Prague is really small in comparison to Berlin so we pretty much saw all of it within our 2 hour tour. I really enjoyed walking through Old Town as well as the Jewish Quarter. After our tour we had quite a bit open for free time before we were supposed to meet for the Opera. I don't really remember what I did in that free time but it was probably shopping. Prague's currency is the Czech Crown and the exchange rate is roughly 25 Crowns to 1 Euro which was really confusing for a lot of us but I felt really wealthy carrying 500 crowns at a time even though that's really not a lot at all.

After free time, we dressed up for the opera and met in the lobby. As our group we made our way to the center of town to watch "The Magic Flute" which actually was in German. I'm glad they had the English translation on the screen above though because I would have had no idea what was going on. I'm a Theatre Major so obviously I enjoy things like these but I was most surprised to find that a number of my peers did as well. We had heard and seen that the largest club in Central Europe (5 stories) was in Prague. Since we were all dressed up we figured that this would be a good opportunity for all of us to go out together. We had a few drinks at a bar in town before and then made our way to the 5 story club. It was so much fun. We actually spent most of our time on the 70s/80s music floor. It was a nice change listening to bands like ABBA, the Bee Gees, and other old people music (just kidding). The combination of our attire, the atmosphere, and the music made us all feel like we were at a wedding reception. It was a lot of fun because every person on our trip (20 of us) went out to this club. I had to be dragged out unwillingly at 4am.

The next day we had more free time. That equates to shopping time for me and I found a really cheap jacket at H&M which is the perfect purchase because it is starting to get colder here. We walked around town for a bit and then had another group dinner, this time at a traditional Czech Restaurant where they served my friend an entire duck. I got a really good "Pfeffer Steak." One of my friends who's in the London program at LMU happened to be in Prague the same weekend as me so I made time after dinner to visit her. She was sick so I didn't get to see much of her during the weekend which was a bummer but I'll be staying with her when I go to London so I wasn't too sad.

We went out to the club again but this time spent our focus on the music we usually listen to: Hip Hop and rap. Each floor was decorated to reflect the genre and it was funny to see that the Hip Hop floor was all grafittied out. It cracks me up to see Europe's perception of America sometimes. It's kind of dangerous when Hollywood is your frame of reference for American culture. I think we left a bit earlier that night. The Czech food did a number on my stomach so I left a little more willingly this time and we had to take a bus to the airport in the morning so we all had to be packed and ready before then. It was of course sunny the day we left. I was begging for good weather the entire week but to no avail. The sun did make for a good hour plane ride back to Bonn though. Once again I was happy to be home in my own bed with the familiarity of Bonn. Travelling is tiring!

Again if you want to see more pictures go to www.picasaweb.google.com/tderodeff