Hola from Munich!
Since I am currently sitting in the airport with a three hour layover before I depart back to Spain, I decided to write my blog now rather than later. I apologize in advance for any spelling or grammer errors, since this German keyboard has some oddities that I am not used to, and I can't seem to find certain keys...
This weekend, I was lucky enough to head to Prague, Czech Republic to meet up for a visit with my amazing boyfriend, Brent, who is studying abroad there for the semester.
My journey was a long one, and I started off by waking up at 6am on Thursday to walk from my house to the bus station that would take me to the Sevilla airport. From there, I flew to Madrid, where I would make another connection to Frankfurt, Germany, and then carry on to the final destination of Prague. Both of my flights were delayed, and I basically spent the entire day travelling, but it was well worth it once I finally arrived and found Brent waiting for me in the airport. It was so nice to see him after over a month apart, since we last saw each other in London.
It was a gorgeous sunny weekend in Prague, 75 and sunny, and we left the airport and took a bus to his house that he shares with 4 guys and 8 girls. Although it is a bit far from the city center, the view is gorgeous and his backyard is filled with flowering trees and grass. Instead of going right home though, we headed into the city from the airport, since it was only about 7pm and still perfectly light outside and very warm. Brent showed me around some of the city, and it really is just as beautiful as I have ever heard that it was. Every building and street are so perfect and precious, filled with churches and castles, towers and clocks. Cobblestones weave through wide streets and spires can be seen on every building top within eyesight. It really is something out of a fairytale book. We walked through the city up to the Prague Castle, which is where the President of Czech Republic lives! Behind/next to the castle is this amaying church called St. Vitus that truly looks like Cinderella is about to open the window any moment and start singing out to all the birds. It was kind of a climb to get to the top, but it was a really pretty view of the city. I also got to see where Brent goes to school, as well as the Lennon Wall, which is super cool and covered in graffiti spreading messages of peace and love.
We took the metro back to Brent's and then we made some spagetthi for dinner, and I got to meet all of his roommates, and they are really fun and nice. We all went out to this place called 'The Beer Museum' where they literally have a menu of 100 different beers! We sampled lots of different kinds and they were all amazing! Afterwords, we headed to the 'Beer Factory' where there are built in kegs in every table that you can dispense your own beer from. And of course, before going home for the night, they insisted that I try some true Czech cuisine: street vendor food. Fried cheese sandwhiches, something that sounds a little weird, but is amazing, quickly became one of my new favorite things! Finally, we headed home for the night, but I got some amaying night time views of the the city all lit up, especially the beauty that is Old Town Square!
Friday morning, we woke up and went to get some pastries, and then set out for a day full of exploring! Brent took me back through the heart of town to see things in the daylight. We saw Old Town Square, which has the astronomical tower and Tyn Chruch (which also looks like a castle where I am sure that Rapunzel lives). We climed all the way to the top of the astronomical tower for another amazing view of the city, and of the sqaure. I love how all of the rooftops are red and there are dashes of color everywhere, from all the gorgeous buildings and houses. After coming down from the tower, we walked through the old Jewish ghetto (which ironically now in modern day is filled with high end retail stores) and saw the oldest synagouge in Europe, as well as a really haunting Jewish cemetery where they had to pile all of the bodies on top of each other because there wasn't any more space allowed for them to expand. It was really sad and crazy to think that Czech was under communist rule until just a mere 20 years ago! After we left the Jewish ghetto, Brent took me to his favorite place in the city: Charles Bridge, which crosses the Vltava River. It is truly a remarkable and beautiful work of architecture and has lots of legends and mystery behind it. For example, the day, year, time, and hour that it was built on all make a plaindrome of numbers. Also, there is a statue about half way down the bridge that has a dog on it, and if you pet the dog, it is supposed to bring you good luck and make you come back to the city one day! I sure hope so!
After walking over the bridge, we saw some cool Franz Kafka art. There are statues by him and another artist (the name I wish I remembered) who put crayz surrealist art sculptures all over the city to undermine the seriousness of the communist regime. We walked through a super nice little park that had amazing smelling flowering trees and lilacs, my fave! We watched the ducks in the pond and a big golden retriever came and splashed through it, chasing them. Then we made our way back towards Brent's neighborhood and stopped for lunch at a really yummy pizza place. It was cool to be able to hear Brent speak in Czech when we went out. So proud of him! After lunch and relaxing our sore feet for a bit, we went to a church called Vysehrad and walked around the gardens and had some ice cream. After walking around for a while and admiring the amazing views of the city, we hopped on the metro and stopped at the store to buy some ingredients for an amazing dinner that we made: greek quesadillas, but with a twist. SO GOOD. After dinner, we relaxed and then went out with Brent's friend Steph. We ended up back at the Beer Museum and just talked and talked for hours. It was a very good night.
On Saturday, we woke up and took the bus to the Prague Zoo! I love the animals (: It was such a nice day outside though, so it was super crowded. But we got to see lots of cool and cute animals, and had a nice morning at the zoo. Since the zoo is built kind of on a hillside, there is a cool ski lift like thing that takes you up and down. It was kind of scary but so cool! The zoo was great, but unfortunatley, I got pooped on by a bat when we went through the open air bat enclosure. Awesome! After leaving the zoo, we went back home to make some more greek food for lunch, and then we headed out to Petrin Hill, which is the highest vantage point in the city, and has nice parks and trees that go alllllll the way up the hillside. We hiked all the way to the top, stopping at several points to admire the view, and then we went to the top to climb the Petrin Tower, which is pretty much Prague's version of the Eiffel Tower, they even look similiar. Petrin isn't as tall, but you can see farther than the Eiffel because Petrin is on much nigher ground. The view from the top was breathtaking. Prague is so very beautiful. Eventually, we descended the hill, and went back to Brent's to make some dinner and get ready for our date night out on the town!
We went to the famous Prague Black Light Theatre, in the heart of the city, right near Charles Bridge, and saw 'Aspects of Alice' which is loosley based on Alice in Wonderland. The performance was without words, only music, actions, lights and sounds. It was definitley something very different, bizarre, and surreal, but I enjoyed it very much and it was so artisticly full of symbolism about life and love and death. After the show, we enjoyed walking through the city at night, and eventually made it home and went right to bed.
That brings us to today, where I regretfully had to leave Brent, and head to the airport. I never like leaving him, even though we will see each other again this weekend in Madrid (yay!)
I am in Munich, using the free computers, and writing this blog, and I still have two hours to wait for my flight back to Madrid. I am so super tired, but all of my travels have been %100000 percent worth it! I loved Prague and seeing Brent, and I really hope that I can go back and visit that magical city again one day. I did pet the dog, afterall!
In other news, I have only 17 (can you believe it!?) days left in Spain until I come home for the summer! Some news regarding the homecoming: I have now got two summer jobs at home! One at Zing, the restaurant/bar that I worked at last summer, and a new one at Uncommon Grounds coffee shop! I could not be more excited!
Love you all, especially Brent, and I am missing you and Prague already.
<3
