Prague

What was supposed to be a nice, relaxing trip to capstone the semester started in the most stressful way possible. Our flight was pretty early, but it was also our of Dusseldorf, meaning we had to be up around 3:30. We made the somewhat questionable decision to go out the night before, and I ended up sleeping through two alarms and missing the train. I got to the airport on time via taxi, only to discover that I had forgotten my passport. I was resigning myself to the fact that I might not make it to Prague, but thanks to the good ole Schengen Agreement, no one ever asked to see it. I felt kind of like a fugitive but I was super relieved. When we (Blake, Ashley, Lauren, Caleb, Sarah, Shawn, and I) arrived and got to the Airbnb, things were going a lot better. The apartment was probably the nicest we'd stayed in so far, and the weather was great. Then we tried to get into the city center, and things took a turn again. All-day passes for public transportation could only be bought at ticket machines, which only took coins, which none of us had, and the people at the ticket counters (and everywhere else) had apparently taken a blood oath to never give change to anyone ever. We were very confused by this situation and went down the escalators seeking help. This was a mistake. We were stopped by ticket checkers, who seemed like they were going to help at first but then took all our IDs and made us pay a fine for not having tickets. It was a very frustrating experience, but we paid and got our stuff back and moved on with the day. The rest of the day was great, with a traditional Czech lunch,  looking out over the city from a castle, walking through the castle, eating churro things filled with ice cream, and walking around a bridge that had street art and live music. We didn't have any agenda and I liked it like that. Later we were supposed to take a nap and then get up to go clubbing, but none of us woke up. To be honest I'm perfectly fine with that. We did some day drinking to make up for it and explored the city more. We had more Czech food, saw a tribute to John Lennon, watched some street performers, and just strolled along the river. Even though it didn't turn out the way we expected, it was still a really good trip with really good people.