I know, I know... it's been a month since i've been to Prague and i'm just barely writing this. Things just caught up with me like helping people move out of dorms and making a few trips to Frankfurt. Then I found myself in one of those, "too lazy to really do anything at all" moods that follows when you finish a semester. It wasn't until I finished my marathon of Xena: Warrior Princess that I decided I should probably, you know, DO something.
Alright then, shall we begin?
Nicole, Katie, and I took a train from Frankfurt to Nürnberg where we then caught a bus that would take us to Prague. The journey itself was only about 5 or so hours and I slept most of the way. When I woke up on the bus I found myself driving through the countryside of the Czech Republic. The trees were lighter and more feathery than the trees i'm used to in Marburg, and the grass was yellow and matted (kind of like dreadlocks). It was a raw beauty that I've never seen in a landscape. As we rolled into Prague my first thought was, "Huh... this looks a lot like East Berlin." Everything was made out of stone and tightly packed. As we arrived at the main train station a computer voice said, "Please remain seated until we come to a complete stop." And without missing a beat Mamma Nicole says, "i'mma stand up." Perhaps it was one of those, you had to be there moments.
We made our way into the Metro where I met the LARGEST ESCALATOR I HAVE EVER SEEN. It was so steep and so long that I didn't dare try to walk down it. After slaughtering the pronunciation of every street name, we found our hostel. Even though we arrived in Prague around 19.00, we were incredibly exhausted and not willing to go creeping around after sunset. In our hostel, we encountered the first television set we've seen in four months. We went to the grocery store not far away and brought back our food and situated ourselves on our beds. We ended up watching some Asian News program that was in English. I had a bit of a funny thought when I realized we were watching an Asian News program about Europe, in English, with an Indian anchorman, while in Prague. Multiculturalism.
As we sat there becoming the physical representation of sloth, we started hearing loud booms coming from outside. I went out the hostel and down the street a bit where I saw the most amazing display of fireworks I've ever seen. I do not know what the occasion was, but i'm sure it was Prague welcoming me. They heard of the Great Maddie, and wanted to wish her welcome to their fine city. *cough*
The next day we set out to the Old Town where we were going to take a free tour of the city. As I saw Prague for the first time in the daylight I thought, "How am I ever going to describe this?" That is another reason why i've prolonged writing this particular post because I am having extreme difficulty using my words when relating to Prague. The best way I can describe it, is that it looks like a box of Christmas chocolates. You open the box and every chocolate is elaborately colored and decorated with each looking completely different from the other. And so were the buildings of Prague. Everywhere you looked you wanted to take a picture because everything was beautiful. I didn't know how it could get any better, until we reached the Old Town. CATHEDRAL EXPLOSION. There are little churches and giant Cathedrals all over the place, and I didn't know what to do with myself.
While on the tour I was anticipating when we would arrive at a certain location, this location being on my bucket list, this location being the hypocenter of my Mozart-loving life. And then we finally arrived to The Estates Theatre. It is the only theatre in the world (still standing) where Mozart performed, and the debut spot of Don Giovanni. I made all sorts of spaztic noises that scared a few of the people in our group (my apologies to you, fellow travelers). Not willing to continue the 3 hour tour, we left and had lunch at Subway (a little taste of home, and it was cheap). Katie went back to the hostel to rest while I dragged Nicole to a torture museum. The torture museum was soooo great. You accessed it by descending this really narrow spiral staircase while the sounds of screams echoed up from below. The whole museum was set up like a little medieval village with lifesize mannequins placed among certain torture devices. It was dark and musty and full of over 225 torture devices, completely satisfying my fascination. I loved it so much that when we reached the end, I forced Nicole to go back with me and go through again. She wasn't very happy about this, I think it was the atmosphere that made her uncomfortable... can't imagine why.
Afterwards, Nicole and I walked back to the Hostel to get Katie so we could all go to the Christmas Market together, but something else drew my attention. ANOTHER TORTURE MUSEUM. So, Nicole and I went into this one and I must say I was a bit disappointed. It was a normal museum with torture devices behind glass cases. Siiiigh. When we walked in, Nicole said with much enthusiasm, "Now THIS is my kind of torture museum! Not like that creeper one you pulled me into." I dragged my feet behind, but was soon cheered up by the dozens of etchings and engravings of the Spanish Inquisition.
We met up with Katie and went to the Christmas Market. It was set up just like the dozens we've been to in Germany, but the food was to DIE for. It was absolutely incredible. I ordered some ham and this man took a machete and sliced a chunk right off a roasting pig, put it on a plate, shoved a fork into it, and gave it to me. Then we got trdelník's and Grog. Trdelník's is a type of cake made of rolled dough which is wrapped around a stick and then grilled and topped with sugar and walnut mix. Grog was one of the oddest drinks i've ever had. It was hot and golden and smelt like butterscotch, but tasted like whiskey. I was happy to sit there all night eating Trdelník's and drinking Grog. We sat around the square for a majority of the evening after walking around looking at all the booths and the GIANT christmas tree. I got a chocolate covered apple and we all went on our merry way back to the hostel. On our way we passed by a bar and decided to go in and try some Czech beer. I ordered a Kozel (black beer) and I expected it to be similar to an oatmeal stout. I was completely wrong. It was rich and dark but went down smoothly and was strangely sweet. I was an instant fan.
The next day we decided to walk around and take a peek inside all of those cathedrals and chapels we had passed the day before. We started with The Church of Our Lady then went to St. Nicholas', and then made it St. Clements where we walked in during the Eucharist. It was one of those, "wow" moments. The priest was singing as everyone was going to the altar to take communion, and the air was thick with incense. It was one of those times where you feel like you've been zapped back a few hundred years. I also realized that I had never been to a Catholic service before, what a better place to be introduced to it? Next we set off across St. Charles' Bridge and up to the St. Vitus Cathedral (one that I have studied many times in school). The top of the hill could only be accessed by this EVIL EVIL EVIL, I say it again, EVIL staircase of DEATH. It was halfway up that I became grateful for my few months in Marburg with all of its hills and stairs. The cathedral was larger than I had anticipated and was completely packed with people, it was almost like a Catholic mosh pit.
Katie left to warm up in the hostel while I, yet again, dragged Nicole on a haunted underground tour (though of course I did not tell her it was supposed to be haunted until we were back in Marburg, she about killed me). I'd like to say that I was thrilled with the whole thing, but I can honestly say that I met my match down in those catacombs. You were given a map and they sent you down ANOTHER creepy looking narrow spiral staircase that had noises coming up from the bottom. Being the excited one, I went down first and almost stepped on the hand of a headless plastic mannequin situated at the bottom of the staircase (covered in "blood" for drama). Nicole hesitantly came down after me and held on to me with each hands on my shoulders (I figured this was some what of a survival instinct so that if anything pops out, she can push me at it and run). We started edging along and realized that we were the only ones down there, well... the only LIVING ones down there. ;) Nicole decided she needed to pump herself up before continuing and we went back up the spiral staircase. I convinced her to go back down, and we did. We made it a bit farther and then Nicole retreated back up the staircase. After desperate pleas, we went back down and I said, "Okay... we'll just go through this quickly without stopping." So we started speed walking and passed all kinds of creepy looking mannequins and weird dark alleyways and then... Maddie met her match. I turned a corner and found myself facing a 7 ft tall hooded figure that we could not bypass and that's when I said, "NOPE" and we went speed walking back up the staircase. Pathetic, indeed... but I kind of drew the line at 7ft tall hooded things.
There was no chance of Nicole going back down there. I wanted to go back down, but I didn't want to pass by that hooded thing by myself in case my life turned into a horror movie. We saw a group of people come in (with a little kid) and waited for them to go down the staircase before we entered... for the fourth time. I faced that 7ft tall hooded guy and when I got close enough, I realized it was a priest wearing a cloak. We got out of there after about 20 minutes and returned to the world of Christmas Markets. It was really fun in retrospect. We got a 14 inch crepes and sat down to watch the Christmas Market at work. Then we returned to meet up with Katie and get another round of Kozel beer.
The next day we were set to leave at 13.38 and check out was at 10, so we decided to drop our bags off and let the hostel lady know that we will be back for them at 13.00 after she informed us that she has a 2 hour lunch break from 11.00-13.00. We went back to the Christmas Market and got trdelník's and hot chocolate and returned precisely at 13.00. Hostel lady was not there. After much drama of the hostel lady being 23 minutes late, we ran to the trainstation so we could catch our bus (this running also included running up that really really large escalator). We missed the bus, but luckily there was another one leaving 20 minutes later so we had to buy another reservation and take the later bus causing a train reaction with all of our other travel plans. We made it back to Marburg around 22.00 and got a burger at Fiona's just to conclude our little adventure.
Overall Prague was a surreal experience. I need to go back so I can go to the Kafka museums and other art galleries. Even with that short trip, many things were crossed off ye ole bucket list.
