One last post about Prague

Hello from the USA!!!

That’s right — I’m home!!! The past couple of weeks have been BUSY. I returned to Aberdeen from Prague, finished my final assessments, moved out, and flew home… all within nine days.

Even though my semester abroad is officially over, I’m not quite done blogging yet. There’s still so much I have to share with you all! Let’s start where we left off… Prague.

Here’s a quick recap of my trip to the Czech Republic and Poland:

• Alyssa and I arrived in Prague on Sunday morning (December 11th) & explored the city
• Monday morning, we went to Kutna Hora to see the Sedlec Ossuary
• Then, we went to a Swan Lake ballet performance in Prague that night
• Tuesday morning we left for Kraków… it took us 7 hours by train to get there
• We ate pierogies and explored the city at night
• Wednesday, we went on a tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau
• We took a train back to Prague on Thursday
• Friday, we traveled 3 hours by bus to Český Krumlov & returned to Prague that night

By Saturday, Alyssa and I were exhausted. It had been such a fun but busy week! Looking back, I honestly can’t believe we did all of that. Thankfully, we had done most of what we wanted to do in Prague on Sunday and Monday, so we were able to have a laid back day on Saturday.

For the first time that week, we slept in until 10am. We took our time getting ready and then headed down to the Old Town Square for some crepes and coffee. The place we ate at was called “La Torta Patisserie & Cafe”, and the crepes were some of the best I’ve had! We ended up going back to that café later in the day for gelato.

After breakfast, we went to the National Museum and spent the next few hours exploring the history exhibits. One of my favorite parts was seeing the armor and weapons from medieval times. Apparently, hand cannons were popular weapons of the time, so they had several on display. I didn’t even know hand cannons existed! Alyssa and I also took turns trying on a helmet. It was so heavy that I could barely keep my head up!

Overall, I was impressed by the National Museum. There were so many exhibits that we could have spent an entire day there and still not have seen everything! However, I think I enjoyed the Communist Museum a little bit more because it was easier to understand and retain the presented information. I’m so glad we were able to go to both museums during our time in Prague!

By the time we were done at the National Museum, Alyssa and I were ready for some lunch. We went to the nearest Christmas Market and found potato pancakes and lángos. I had tried lángos in Budapest, but Alyssa had yet to try it. She said it reminded her of a popular Canadian food called “beaver tails” but savory instead of sweet.

Since we were near our hostel, we decided to go back and spend some time packing for our flight back to Edinburgh the next morning. We thought that it would be better to pack during the day rather than at night when our roommates are sleeping. When we returned to our room, we met one of our new roommates! Even though our roommates had changed almost every day, we didn’t usually get a chance to meet them because we had been coming back to the room late at night. Our room was a four person mixed dorm, which meant that our other two roommates were always men. I have to say, it was a little strange to share a room with random men… but it was a new experience (and a cheap one 😉)!

We talked to our roommate for a bit and found out that he’s from Azerbaijan, a small country that is located just east of Turkey. He told us that he has been traveling for the past five years, and one of the reasons he left is because of the war going on between Azerbaijan and Armenia. I can’t imagine having to leave home indefinitely. That would be so hard! Despite his situation, he seemed to be enjoying his travels. It’s amazing how resilient people can be!

Once Alyssa and I were all packed, we made our way back to the café for gelato. It should have only taken us ten minutes to walk down there, but instead it took at least thirty. The narrow street that goes down to the Old Town Square was so packed with people that we were unable to move for the longest time. It was a terrible feeling! We were pressed up against the walls of buildings with people on every side of us. We couldn’t even turn around and head back up the street because there were so many people. Thankfully, there were shops along the street that we could have popped into if we were feeling too claustrophobic. I don’t even know what I would have done if they weren’t there! I cannot handle tight spaces.

Eventually, we made it to the café and got our gelato. Mine was gingerbread flavored! We stayed there until the street was less busy and then kept walking to the Old Town Square for dinner.

We chose a place with outdoor seating for dinner. It was nice to sit outside next to a heater, cozy up with a fluffy blanket and enjoy the atmosphere of the Christmas Market while we dined.

When the bill came, it took me a minute to figure out how much to add for a tip. It’s not that the math is hard… it just always feels strange to add 60-100 and then pay a bill that’s nearly 1000. The value of the Czech koruna is just so much different than that of the US dollar, so it’s difficult to initially comprehend what’s expensive and what’s not! Thankfully, Google makes it easy to convert currencies. Alyssa and I had fun laughing about our “sticker shock” struggles afterwards.

After dinner, we went to the Christmas market and got one last dessert: chimney cakes. Mine was lined with chocolate sauce and stuffed with fresh strawberries and vanilla ice cream. I think it may have been my favorite dessert from the entire trip!

The next morning, Alyssa and I woke up early and caught the bus to the airport. We arrived with enough time to grab breakfast and coffee at Costa before the check-in counter opened. Then, we checked in, went through customs, and made our way to our gate. The setup of the airport seemed so backwards because security was at the gate instead of being right after check-in. Since we had arrived so early, we had to wait about an hour for security to open.

While we were waiting for security to open, a young woman came up to us and started asking a question in a different language. I replied in English saying that I was sorry that I didn’t understand her. When she didn’t reply in English, I knew she didn’t understand me either. She pointed to her boarding pass, and I motioned for her to show it to me. She had been going to Edinburgh, too! I showed her my boarding pass to say that we were going on the same flight. Then, I whipped out my Google Translate and let her select a language. She chose Ukrainian. My heart sank a bit imagining what she has been through lately with the Ukraine-Russia war going on. From then on, she would just type questions into my phone whenever she didn’t know what to do. I’m sure it was hard to navigate that airport without knowing Czech or English!

Overall, my trip to the Czech Republic and Poland with Alyssa was even better than I imagined it to be. All of our travels went smoothly; we didn’t miss any of our flights, trains, or buses… and we took a lot of them! We somehow managed to spend the perfect amount of time in each place. Neither of us felt like we were missing out on anything by leaving when we did! We also compromised to make sure we were both having fun and getting to do the things we really wanted to do. For example, I chose the day trip to Český Krumlov, and Alyssa chose the tour of Auschwitz. It was a perfect trip, and Alyssa was such a wonderful travel buddy!!! I hope she and I can travel together again someday.

Until next time,

Clara