Week 12: 11/11 - 11/17
Czech-ing out Prague!
The riverfront in Prague.
Officially 3 months into living in Italy!
I spent my Monday morning getting a few things done — homework for this week’s classes, changing my sheets, doing some laundry — before heading out for the afternoon. I stopped at Ditta Artigianale, which is a cafe chain here in Florence. They’ve got a few by my classrooms across the river, but they also have one just a few blocks away on my side. I enjoyed a hot latte and a delicious bowl of greek yogurt with green apples, kiwi, and their homemade granola. So good! Based on the other customers typing away on their own laptops, it seems like it’s also a good study spot, which is rare here. They typically view public computer work as rude.
Yummy Ditta lunch!
Ceramics was pretty relaxed today. Our groups got to work shaping each of our clay chess pieces, and then two people volunteered to roll out the slab of clay we’ll be using to form the actual chessboard. You can see the finished pieces below — quite nice!
Our finished chess pieces!
On Tuesday, I spent my morning finishing my homework for class later, and then I headed towards my class and then continued north to see if I could find any new stores that I haven’t been in yet. Success! I found a sweet older woman’s store offering all kinds of knick knacks, and I managed to grab a gift for one of my friends. Virginia and I made it through history, and then on our (very dark) walk back to the apartment, we stumbled upon a cat cafe! It’s not the type of thing that would normally pique my interest, but I’ve missed my pets a lot since being here, and Virginia loves cats. We paid 5 euros to sit, eat a pastry, and find each of the seven sleepy cats curled up around the cafe. It was such a funny little evening!
Wednesday included HR Management, a quick nap, and then a quiet evening preparing for my trip the next day. I’ll be going to Prague this weekend and not getting back until late on Sunday night, so I wanted to get homework done for next week and grab a few snacks from the grocery store.
On Thursday, I survived Mafia class, and then I went home to pack for Prague. My friend Sienna and I are going there together with a program called SmartTrip; it’s a company that works with our study abroad programs and offers fun budget weekend trips for students. I shoved some warm clothes into a duffel bag with a towel and some granola bars, and then I headed out to meet Sienna at the bus station. We arrived just before 9pm, and after our whole group was accounted for, we clambered onto the bus and settled in for our 13 hour ride to the Czech Republic.
It was not a glamorous trip, obviously. My knees hurt from being folded up for so long, and I had a hard time settling into a good sleeping position. We stopped for the bathroom every 4 hours or so, so as soon as you would drift off, you’d be woken up by the guide’s omnipresent voice echoing through the speaker system.
We finally made it to our hostel at 9:30 the next morning. It was a really nice facility — beautiful rooms and bathrooms — but ours weren’t ready yet, so we dumped our bags into the holding room and had breakfast in the lobby. It was dry, lacking protein, and generally odd, like most European breakfasts, but it did the job. After our meal, we rounded up to meet for our walking tour of the city. It did feel ambitious to embark on a two-and-a-half hour activity only an hour after our bus ride, but we were determined to try. The city itself was beautiful — it was gray and cold, but that didn’t overshadow the stunning buildings and the smell of delicious food. After a half-way break at a cafe, Sienna and I decided to quit, so we peeled off and hit up a few stores before walking back to the hostel for check-in. Our room was really nice! There were four bunk beds for a total of eight girls, but we were the first to arrive. I did a quick sweep for bed-bugs and then we hopped into bed for a nap before dinner.
After waking up at the pitch-black hour of 4:45pm, we slowly crawled out of bed and made our way downstairs to call a European Uber (Bolt) to dinner. We made our way to an Asian restaurant by the river and enjoyed the restaurant completely to ourselves. I got a Thai red chicken curry and a California roll. Nothing tasted like I wanted it to (European Asian food is always just a touch different) but it was really good for what it was. Sienna and I hung out there for awhile and watched as a few more patrons came in. There was even a large aquarium full of brightly-colored koi fish; at one point, the owner’s young children came out from the back to tease and feed them.
When Sienna and I returned to the hostel, we changed into pajamas and had a glass of wine in the lobby bar. We were still exhausted from the bus ride, but it felt better to hang around until 9pm and try to seem at least a little bit cool. The bartender was nice — he made us some sweet crepes with our drinks! We munched and sipped and chatted for as long as we could manage, and then we retired to the room.
There were two girls already in the room when we made it back up there, so we got into some conversation as we were getting ready for bed. They were Jules and Greenlei, both from New York — Albany and Long Island, respectively — and they were just the kind of funny and casual that Sienna and I get along with. We chatted for awhile, and ultimately decided to invite them to our day out the next day. The more the merrier!
What a difference a night’s sleep in a real bed can make! Sienna and I woke up well-rested and ready to run down to the lobby breakfast bar at 9am. We sipped on some coffee (the first drip coffee we’ve had in Europe!) and I had some buttered bread and yogurt with granola. After primping a bit for some pictures that we’d take later, the four of us piled into another Bolt and headed over to the Prague Castle.
We arrived to the royal property just a few minutes shy of 11am, so we caught the changing of the guard! After that funny little show, we headed into the courtyard and snagged a ticket for all of the buildings on the royal property. We visited the St. Vitus Cathedral first, which was a stunning example of Gothic architecture. It’s funny how things correlate here: our unit in history class this week was on Gothic architecture, and suddenly I was standing in front of one of the world’s best examples!
We checked out a few other parts of the property, like the St. George’s Basilica, and their palace. I will say, the Czech royal buildings are decidedly… humble compared to some of the other royal estates we’ve seen. There were almost no paintings or decor, and their sparse furniture looked nothing like the ornate pieces we’ve seen in Italy or Austria.
After our time spent at the castle, we walked for hours to explore a few other classic spots: The Charles Bridge, the John Lennon Wall, and even a sweet little gingerbread shop we stumbled upon. Everything was gorgeous! It was still cold, but the sun was out, and we had a really lovely day exploring and chatting with each other.
We made our way back to the hostel for a quick rest before dinner at Kyvadlo, a sweet little Czech restaurant by our house run by a husband and wife. We even tried some of their homemade wine! Not great. But it made them smile! After dinner, we headed out to the famous Karlovy Lazne, which is a five-story bar downtown. It was hilarious! Each floor had a different theme — Ice, Robotic, Oldies, R&B, and Latin — decorated to the nines and featuring different drinks. We explored them for a while before heading home and turning in for the night.
Sunday — the big bus ride home. We piled onto the bus at 10am and settled in for the thirteen-hour ride, but only a few minutes in, the back of the bus erupted. Sienna and I whipped around and saw possibly the worst thing you can imagine: a girl had projectile-vomited onto the girl in front of her. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to schedule the pub crawl the night before the road trip? We watched in grossed-out fascination as the bus pulled over and some of the staff members headed back to clean everyone up. The smell… the thirteen hours left with vomit seats… the fifty people trying not to turn and look… this is budget travel!
Luckily, the rest of the bus ride went by without incident. Sienna and I slept a lot, and then we finally rolled back into town at about 11pm. We had made it back to Florence! The girls and I said our goodbyes, and then we parted ways to try and get a good night’s sleep.
What a trip! Prague was unexpectedly stunning. Their unique blend of German, Russian, and even some Asian culture was so cool to explore. I’m also so glad that Sienna and I decided to do the budget student trip; it’s probably not something I want to repeat for awhile, but we made so many memories! The hostel was a cool experience, we made two great friends, and most of all, I’ll probably never forget vomit girl. I’m thrilled to be back in Florence now! We’ll be hanging out for the next few days before our next trip this weekend.
Bye for now!!
Charlotte