¡PRAGUE!

I don't even know where to start with Prague. We laughed, we cried, we sang...

We got there on Friday afternoon and decided to explore the area around our hostel a little bit. We came across this really nice park and just sat, all thinking about how we were finally there. We'd all looked forward to this trip all semester. But we were all pretty hungry, so we went into the older part of town, near Old Town Square, to find a sushi place. Sushi! Yes I know, we were in Prague and got sushi, but I've craved it all semester. My friend Joelle and I decided to split a platter, and we figured we got to choose what we wanted. Well, a little while later, our waitress comes back and says, "Do you realize you ordered like, 100 pieces of sushi?" We were like, what?! We explained we wanted the platter, and she said, "Oh, that's chef's choice. I just figured you were really hungry." So we almost had to eat 100 pieces of sushi... :)

The next day, we started the whirlwind that is sightseeing. :) First, we went back through Old Town Sqaure on the way to Bohemian Bagel, more affectionately named BoBagel. It was our favorite place to eat in Prague-- we went 3 times. :) Then, we made our way over the Lesser Side, which is where the Prague Castle is. There's also a cathedral, royal gardens, and a street called Golden Lane around the castle. The views from the castle were amazing. :)




We left the Prague Castle and headed back down toward the river to see the Charles Bridge. We stopped along the bank for a few minutes and watched a little boy play with a swan and some ducks. He was too cute! Then we headed up to cross the Charles Bridge. Unfortunately, it's become such a touristy place that there are a ton of vendors on it. It was cool to see the artwork, but it took away from the bridge itself-- there are some really pretty sculptures along it.

On Sunday, we visited the Jewish Quarter, the famous Astronomical Clock, and the John Lennon Wall. We went in one synagogue that had the names of 80,000 Jewish Czechs written on the walls, honoring them as victims of the Holocaust. We also went into an old Jewish cemetery. As I was walking through the cemetery and thinking about WWII and other things, something occured to me. I was in Europe. Where they fought WWII. I have been to places that were devastated because of the war. In the U.S., I feel like a lot of people (myself included) often look at WWII as something that happened in Europe, that even though we were involved, it still happened "over there." And I realized that I was "over there." It's hard to describe the feeling I had-- it's just one of those things that you have to experience for yourself.

We were planning to go to a concentration camp on Monday morning, but the only bus that went would've have gotten us there late, and we wouldn't have had time to get back in time to go to the airport. So instead we just kind of wandered around Old Town, seeing random places we hadn't had time to see before. It was rainy and gross, but hey-- how often are you in Prague?