Prague

Europe » Czech Republic » Prague
September 24th 2007

Published: September 24th 2007

Edit Blog Post

stsa0501

Prague

The train station

Friday, September 21:

We left Ingolstadt on Friday at about 6:30. We had to catch the bus at 5:50 am to make it to the train station by 6:30 am. That was rough! We took the train from Ingolstadt to Regensburg (Germany), which was about an hour ride, to Prague, Czech Republic. We had about a 45 minute layover in Regensburg, so we ate breakfast. We were all still pretty tired so I am sure we were a sight to see, 16 people all exhausted trying to get on a train on time. Once we boarded the train for Prague, we were all pretty exhausted. But, like always, a group of us sat together and played Phase 10, which took about 2.5 hours up of our 6 hour train ride. The long train rides are not that bad, not as bad as car or plane, because you are free to get up and move and also eat.
Right after we crossed the Czech border, the train stopped and the border patrol got on to check everyone’s passport. That was interesting because they just stopped the train for 15 minutes so they could check everyone. When we asked them

Prague Plus Hostel

Our hostel in Prague- it fit 8 of us

for stamps for our passport, they did not seem too happy. We got them anyways, but mine was a lousy “departing Germany” stamp instead of “entering Czech Republic.”
Once clearly into the Czech Republic, it was very obvious that we were not in Germany anymore. Many houses looked like they were the size of tool sheds, and they were not kept up real well. It was pretty rundown, at least from what we could see.
We reached Prague, and got out. The station was had a lot of people, way more than what I had seen so far in Germany. It felt like I was in New York City again. But one other thing, I do not know what it is, but people have a distinct musk smell. It’s bad- like they don’t shower. So having all these people crowded together trying to get out of the train station- yuck.
We got out and no one knew what to do or where to go. To make a long story short, the guy who said he knew where to go clearly did not. We had to go back in the train station to buy tram tickets for the street

Prague

car to get to our hostel, which was a little ways from the city center. Then we went to the ATM and got crowns (Kc), the Czech currency. It is kind of hard to figure out exactly how much each Kc is worth, as the exchange is close to 27 Kc to 1 Euro, and then we try to figure out how many American dollars it is to us. So it is a little complicated. The ATM would only let us take out 3000 max, so we all thought that 1000 would be sufficient. As we found out later, it was not. They say that the Kc is lower than the Euro, but it doesn’t mean that it is cheaper there!
After walking around for awhile, we finally made it to our hostel, Prague Plus. It was in a very shady part of the city, definitely. But once we got into the hostel itself, it was very nice. It was like a hotel, very clean and the staff was very friendly. One of the workers gave us all maps and showed us cool places to go and stuff to do at night. And the rooms were great. Only complaint

Garnet

Apparently the Czech are famous for their garnet. I decided to buy Amber instead.

is that there was only one shower and toilet for all 8 of us (there were two rooms of 8, a room for the girls and boys). I recommend anyone to stay there just for that, but to get downtown we had to take the tram. Also, since I said the location was poor, I would only go in a group, not alone. They gave us sheets, which were clean. And there was a pool and sauna!! And a bar/restaurant connected through the back.
So we got settled in and a few of us wanted to go catch the Jewish quarters cemetery before it closed. So we took the tram there and discovered that you had to pay to get it. I have heard it is cool, but I was not about to pay to go in and see a cemetery, so I passed and everyone else decided to as well. We walked around Old Town a little bit and were hungry so we went to the first restaurant we saw, which was a bad decision. Worst service of my life, cheap-ass food. The Waitress would shoot dirty looks at us and charged us incorrectly, but were very nice

Prague

to the boys table. I ordered a Hawaiian pizza, which turned out to be frozen. No one else’s food was much better. It definitely put a damper on our impression of Prague and our first day there.
We headed back to the hostel to find the rest of our group. We did and hung around the restaurant for awhile. Then a few of us headed to the pool and sauna. The pool was pretty chilly, but the sauna was very warm. It was a lot of fun, and I am really happy they had the set up for us. After that, we went back to the restaurant. We always planned on going out later, but we were all much too tired, so we all just went to sleep instead. We are a bunch of party poopers in Prague, I guess.

Saturday, September 22:

We all woke up fairly early on Saturday morning. The hostel provided us with a continental breakfast at the restaurant, so we all went to go eat there. It wasn’t anything exciting, but at least it was free! We decided to all meet up at 9:30am to get headed out sight-seeing.
It was

View from Restaruant

We ate at a really bad restaurant, but at least the view was amazing!

beautiful out, so we did not need jackets at all. Just sunglasses! We took the tram to Old Town, and started exploring. I do not know the names of all of the places that we saw, I will have to look into that. But we walked up a bunch of steps and ended up by the Cathedral with guards. We took a few pictures, and then we separated into groups. I ended up with 5 other guys for the day, which was a good choice. We had a lot of fun and there was no B.S.ing around. We did what we wanted to do, and got in and out.
We wondered around for a bit, and then decided to head over towards the Prague version of the Eiffel Tower. It was quite a hike, but we saw many cool things along the way. For example, we stopped at a gift shop, and one of the boys bought a Russian hat made from Rabbit fur. It was very warm and since he is quite a character, it was very funny. He wore it for a good chunk of the day, so we always could see him.
We reached the

Prague

Tower and we paid 40 Kc to get in, a student rate. We walked up all the stairs to the top, and I was pretty scared. It was high and kind of shaky. It was stable for the most part, but there were a lot of people on the tower and I was getting nervous. But once we got to the top, it was worth it. We had a great view of the whole city. We took several photos and group photos, and I believe that I posted a few of those photos.
After that, we met up with two of the guys who had not gone on the tower. Just as we met up with them, one of the boys got pooped on by a horse. I did not see this happen, but I saw his pants covered with horse poop. Apparently the horse had explosive diarrhea and it ricocheted off of the ground onto his pants. It was very funny. We all felt a little bad for him, but it was funny. To make matters worse, about 20 minutes later, we were walking through the grass to get to a path, and he stepped square on to

Me, Christine, and Amanda our first night in Prague

a pile of dog poop. That just added insult to injury and it was hysterical. Poor guy could not catch a break all day. We joked that he would have to watch out for pigeons letting lose on his head. So he had to walk around all day with soiled pants and shoes. Poor guy!
For the rest of the day we pretty much walked around to look at everything and we ate. We had a great meal and great service. I put up a picture of my food- so I guess I like Czech food now. We walked all around Prague and saw several cool things. We took many pictures and were exhausted.
We went back to the hostel and rested for a bit then went to the restaurant/bar again where we stayed for the night. We again were too tired to go out, so we did not experience the Prague night life. Oh well, we had fun where we were!
There is however, something I should mention. Prague is by no means clean. It is very nice, in some parts, but there are some parts that are flat out disgusting. At night, just walking to

Prague

Downtown Prague

the ATMs, we saw a few people going to the bathroom on the sidewalks. On several different occasions. Grown adults, young toddlers- it did not matter. Also, there are many prostitutes around. Brothels are legal, and we saw plenty of those too.

Sunday, September 23:

On Sunday, we split up into groups again, but smaller. I stayed with two boys, Garrett and Brian, which was another good choice, as you will read later!
We separated from the group and ended up in this cool forest with a path along a hill that lead us up to the palace and cathedral that we had been at the day before. So we walked along that for awhile and took in the views. It was all very secluded and cool, like no one else knew it was there. That might have been one of my favorite things that we did on the trip.
We walked up near the cathedral, and saw that we could get in for free at noon, which was an hour away. So we bummed around the area until then. We were just in time for the Formal Changing of the Guards in front of

Senate

We wandered into this garden, which is apparently the backyard for the Senate (or something similar). Morgan, me, Amanda, and Scott

the palace. That was very elaborate and interesting to see. I imagine it is a little like they do it in England. The guards were not that good though- when we went to take pictures with them, their eyes would move.
Then we went in got in line to go into the Cathedral. We stood in line for about 10 minutes and went in. It was very beautiful, as all cathedrals are. We walked through it, and were about to leave when we saw him- David Hasselhoff. I did a double take at first, because I was not sure that it was him. But Garrett and Brian recognized him as well, as did another American within our proximity. The Hoff was with a girlfriend, and they were making out all over the place. We got a few pictures of him and for some reason left. We were in shock- we could not believe that in all places of the world, we see David Hasselhoff in Prague in a cathedral! After we fully realized what we had done, we tried to get back in to take more photos. We were trying to get in through the exit, but it wasn’t

Senate

More of the Senate

working- the security wouldn’t have any of it. So we waited around for about 30 minutes to wait for the Hoff to come back out, and when he didn’t, we made a break back into the cathedral when the guard wasn’t looking. We walked all over the place but could not find the Hoff. But at least we saw him at all! I would say we had the most exciting day of the whole group for that alone!
We spent the rest of the day wondering around, again, and bought a bunch of souvenirs. We met back at the hostel at 4 pm and headed back to the train station. Just as we were about to load the train, an old man walked out of the train through the station. Which would be fine, except he was stark naked! Gah! That was certainly interesting. That definitely was an appropriate ending to our weekend in Prague.

Additional photos below

Photos: 29, Displayed: 29