Biosciences Bonn: Making PRAGUEress Through Europe

4 hours and 20 minutes on the Flixbus later, the Prague (or Praha as it is called by the Czech) chapter of our adventure began. We arrived at 11:50 in the night; the first thing we did was find an ATM to withdraw Czech Korunas. The conversion rate between Euros and Crowns was about 27 Crowns to 1 Euro, so it was quite an odd experience for us to be withdrawing 2000-3000 Crowns at a time. Afterwards, we headed over to the hostel; half of the group took a taxi there, and the other half (including me) walked to the hostel. Walking through Prague at night was quite neat; the central plaza was illuminated, so it was a really pretty thing to see. 20 minutes later, we made it to the hostel; before we got our room keys, we needed to pay for the 2 nights that we would be there. The hostel required us to pay in Czech Korunas; because of the fact that Czech currency is worth less, we had to pay about 780 Crowns each. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but when we withdrew currency from the ATM, all of us received bills of 500, 1000, and 2000. So ya. We stood there thinking to ourselves….can I cut and give them 78% of my 1000 Crown bill and call it a day? HAHA. ß no we didn’t actually think that, but oh my..would that have saved us a lot of time if it worked like that. After a lot of monetary exchanges amongst us and “I’ll pay you back through Venmo,” we were able to get him 780 Crowns each. Hurdle #1: DONE! The next morning, we stopped one of the top attractions for Prague: Prague Astronomical Clock. It would ring at every hour, and a few puppets would pop out and dance around. It was amusing to see! Next off, we ate at Naše Maso, which was a traditional Czech butcher shop designed into a modern look. The 20 minute wait for lunch was well worth it. The meat was extremely tender and juicy; it was the perfect way to have my first meal in Prague! Soon thereafter, we wandered over to the Jewish quarter of the city, Josefov, in hopes of finding the Jewish museum and cemetery. When we finally reached the area, all the stores/restaurants were closed for some odd reason. We didn’t think much of it; finally, we found the cemetery and museum; surprise, they were also closed! We weren’t quite sure of why that was the case, but we kept on keeping on. We made a 180 and headed towards the Charles Bridge; on the way there, we were all on the hunt for some gelato (dessert seems to be a very common trend in Europe). We decided to stop by this dessert stand and bought some Trdelnik! This is a piece of rolled dough wrapped around a stick that it grilled and topped with a sugar and walnut mix stuffed with gelato. LECKER LECKER LECKER!! Now that our tummies were satisfied, we made our way over to the Charles Bridge. We couldn’t see much because of the intense level of fog surrounding the area, but from what we could see, it was a very nice place to take a walk and enjoy the view! Onward to the Lennon Wall; it was a very pretty wall filled with various John Lennon-inspired graffiti art. Last stop of the day: Prague Castle! The entire path there was uphill, uphill, and more uphill….I guess I have to work off the calories somehow right?! When we finally reached the top, we found the castle as well as a massive Starbucks…..so I took a picture on top of it :) . The castle itself wasn’t too visible either due to the fog, but we made the most out of it. Later that night, when all of us were talking…..we realized that Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath (Shabbat)…..welp. now it all makes sense. That’s why nothing was open! That night, we went on one of the infamous Prague pubcrawls (also my first ever pubcrawl). It was tons of fun, tons of dancing, and tons of me learning how to dance on a pole!! 10 by 10 is the motto right?? HAHAHA! The next day, we went back over to Josefov to revisit the Jewish museums and cemeteries, all of which were very insightful. The Jewish cemetery had about 12,000 tombstones and was raised several meters above the surrounding streets; the reason for this was because the cemetery ended up holding up to as many as 100,000 burials. Crazy huh?? 100,000 burials but only 12,000 visible tombstones! After this, we walked around the old town area of the city; we stumbled across every child’s fantasy: A THREE STORY TOY STORE!!! Oh my goodness. Parts of my 5-year-old self were starting to awaken. If I had found Hamleys 10 years ago, I don’t think I would have ever left. There was an indoor slide, a mini water park, toys, life-sized action figures, cotton candy, and an indoor mirror maze! PRAHAHAA can I be a child again!? A couple of hours later, we went back to the hostel to get our stuff and make our way to the airport. Time to Czech outta here!