As promised, here is the last leg of my Fall break journey! After leaving a snowy Salzburg Erin and I had quite a journey to Prague. The truth is, you should never travel from Salzburg to Prague by train. When we got our tickets at the Salzburg train station the man at the counter was very helpful and he spoke English. We thought it would be an easy journey since he only gave us 1 train ticket. When we got back to our hostel we realized that the paper he gave us about all of our train connections was in German. Luckily, we knew the basics for train travel in Italy so it was kind of easy to figure everything out. We also saw that we only had 5 minutes to get to our first connection in Austria (yikes!).
Needless to say, I was panicked the morning we left for Prague because it was snowing and our first train was delayed by 10 minutes due to the weather conditions. Things were not looking good at that point but we pressed on and made it to our first connection thinking we'd missed the train. Despite that we ran to the platform anyway praying the train for the Czech Republic was still there and miraculously that train was delayed 10 minutes also so we just made it! We spent about 2 hours on the second train and we made our third connection with plenty of time to spare. We got on our third train thinking it would take us straight to the main station in Prague. But when the conductor came around to stamp our ticket she started speaking Czech and the only word we recognized was "bus". We didn't really think anything of it so we went back to what we were doing. The train stopped at a station a few minutes later and everyone was getting off and the conductor came to us yelling "bus"! We ran off the train and these people pointed to us where to go. We got on a coach bus thinking we were going to the main city of Prague. Nope, this 15 minute bus ride took us to yet another train station where we got on our 4th train of the day. We finally made it to the main train station about an hour later. I was so thankful to make it to the main train station!
We made it to our hostel around 7:30 pm and we decided to get some dinner and just go to sleep. We had no idea where anything was and we were tired so we went to the first place we saw which happened to be Subway! Having not had subs since we arrived in Europe it was a nice change from all the pasta we eat in Perugia. Luckily, the people spoke English and were very nice to us. We got our subs and went to sleep shortly after.
The next day we decided to explore the city and get a feel for what is in Prague. We crossed the Charles Bridge and headed to the Old Town Square, the main square in Prague. Once we got to the square it was a glorious sight. We saw all of these old, gorgeous buildings and a food festival that was going on that week. Our timing could not have been more perfect. Since it was around lunchtime we got ourselves some kielbasa sandwiches (the sandwich that turned my stomach upside down) and sat on a bench and just enjoyed the moment.
After lunch we decided to continue with our theme of going to high points in cities and we went up the bell tower in the old town square. It was nice because we could take an elevator again and we got amazing views when we got to the top. We saw Prague castle off in the distance and it was yet another beautiful day. Chilly, but very beautiful. Here are some pictures atop the bell tower in beautiful Prague!
At that point it was getting pretty late so we went back to our hostel to get warm. We went out for dinner that night at a local restaurant where I had the best sauerkraut I have ever tasted! We had a wonderful first day in Prague.
The next morning we slept in a little bit because we didn't have a tour until 2 pm. We took our time and made it to the Old Town Square once again. We signed up for a walking tour of Prague castle and i was so excited. The castle was far away but we took a tram to go up the hill (thank goodness!) and got out where our tour guide took us to a great spot for photos. We got a great lookout at the entire city and it was a crystal clear day yet again.
After lots and lots of picture taking we walked up to the castle entrance. We immediately saw the castle guards and it reminded me of Buckingham Palace. The guards were still as statues and just like Buckingham Palace you can take pictures with them. So what did we do?
We went through the entrance of the castle and learned we weren't really going into the castle at all. The President of the Czech Republic occupies a majority of the castle and you can actually walk right up to his residence. You can obviously not go in but I was surprised as to how close you could get to his residence, it was definitely different than the US. We walked a little more to St. Vitus Cathedral which is on the grounds of the castle. The cathedral was started in the 1700s and not finished until the 1920s. Having been in plenty of cathedrals in Italy I was expecting the same old thing. But in fact, the Czech style is much different than Italy. They use a type of architecture called gothic architecture and it was really neat to see a change in style. Here is St. Vitus Cathedral and since no photos were allowed of the inside I have none.
We ended our tour by seeing the changing of the guard at the castle. I thought it would be a big production just like at Buckingham Palace but in fact it wasn't much of a ceremony. The guards changed and that was pretty much it. It was different, but still very interesting. We went to the final photo taking spot and ended there. Here are some pictures of that location. You will notice my hat in the one photo. Erin and I both bought 100% wool hats in Prague because we were both freezing and trust me these hats were nice and warm!
We went to the square to hear the glockenspiel ring. It rings 3 times a day and we were lucky enough to hear it considering our limited time there. We then walked to the English Gardens which we heard great reviews about. The gardens were fantastic! Since it is Fall all of the leaves were magnificent colors. We walked to the end of the park and saw an area called "the surf". It is a little portion of the river that runs through the gardens and the water is really choppy there. So the locals take their surfboards and ride this section of the river. It was very cold that day but there was still one guy getting out of the surf when we got there. Here are some pictures of the English Gardens and the final picture is of "the surf".
We made our flight with plenty of time to spare and it was time to head back to Italy. We flew on Ryanair which for those who don't know is a low cost airline based out of Ireland. Erin and I booked this flight because not only was it a good time it only cost us about 15 US dollars to fly! It was only about an hour flight and even more amazing than our cheap fare was the fact that we flew over the Alps the entire way to Pisa! The view was incredible and I couldn't stop smiling at this beautiful view.
We started classes back up today because yesterday was All Saints Day which is a national holiday in Italy. And I have realized it is the beginning of the end. All of my professors were talking about finals and it made me so sad. My finals are only 6 weeks away and I know time is going to fly away from me way too quickly! I am just trying to live in the moment and enjoy everyday here in my temporary home. I am also counting down to my field trip to Florence which is only 2 weeks away and my 3 day weekend in London that's only 3 weeks away!
Right now I have to get back to studying because I have a lot of papers to prepare outlines for. I also have to sign up for my classes next semester at LVC early next week so I am preparing for that as well. This Saturday I am going to Pisa to do nothing more than take pictures of the leaning tower! A few of my roommates and I are going so plan to see many pictures of that leaning tower sometime next week!
I hope everyone has a wonderful week and I will update again soon. Here is the link to my Facebook pictures from Prague and Munich..enjoy!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=243915&id=604955888&l=55c98b216a
Italian word of the post:
buongiorno - good morning
Morgan :)
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