Our last excursion before the program was to Prague. I had anticipated going to Prague and Budapest earlier in the semester, so I was very happy to have final been given the opportunity to go. I was ready to enjoy myself without having to worry about school and grades and get to experience somewhere in East Europe. We had a great group going, and I was very excited for the trip. I would soon find out, however, that virtually nothing would go according to plan, as demonstrated from the very beginning of our day.
Early on Saturday morning, I was woken up by my phone ringing. Upon stumbling out of bed, I was informed that I had missed my train to get to the airport and that I would have to hurry in order to make it before the flight took off. Thus, the trip started with me taking a taxi to the Dusseldorf Airport in order to make the flight. I later found out that the others from my group ended up getting on the wrong train to get to the airport, and thus, no one made it to the airport without any problems. Once landing in Prague, we went to our Airbnb, which was actually a really nice apartment with multiple king beds and a fridge stocked with all the candy and Capri Suns that we could ever want to drink. We decided that we would go to a castle outside of Old Town and get lunch while enjoying a view of the city. When we arrived at the train station, however, we could not buy a train ticket because the ticket machines only took coins and no one would give us change. While trying to get help from the train station people, we were accused of trying to get on the trains without a ticket and were forced to pay a fine. I'm pretty sure we were getting scammed, but I really did not feel like getting thrown in Prague jail if it really turned out to be real (that would have been an entirely different story) and ultimately paid the fine. We were able to enjoy the rest of the day by exploring the castle, getting a view of Old Town, eating some great food, and exploring the town while listening to live music.
At night, we had planned on going out to a five story club in order to experience the night life in Prague. We had prepared to go out after taking a brief nap only to fail to wake up and end up not going out at all. We spent the rest of the day exploring Old Town and making impromptu visits to different shops and street vendors around town. Thankfully, we were able to make it home without too many problems.
The weekend was actually a very relaxing and great weekend despite all of the different things that had happened to us. I really enjoyed not having anything planned because it left a lot of room for spontaneity, and we did not have to worry about rushing to make any bookings or miss anything due to a time crunch. One of my favorite spots in the city was the bridge that connected the castle and outskirts of the city to Old Town due to the number of vendors, art works on display, and live music performances going on at the bridge. We also got to see a memorial to John Lennon and several other very interesting sites (such as people streaking among other things) that really made the unexpected trip quite enjoyable. I went with an awesome group of people, and I really enjoyed the much needed relaxing trip. I am really sad that it was the last time that I would travel with the group for a while, and I cannot believe that the trip is virtually over. I will always be thankful for everything that this group has done for me, and I am very blessed to have such amazing friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment