And everyone died of fear, pain, and sadness

Hey gang. So as previously stated, I went to Prague this weekend, and it was awesome. Team Spain & Friends and myself got there at around 9PM on Thursday, but actually didn't get to our hostel until 10PM or so, despite the fact that it was a whopping ~7 minute tram ride from the train station to our hostel. We wanted some food and then had trouble figuring out which was the main entrance. Riding da struggle bus. We arrived at a very, very East European-looking hostel. I forgot to take pictures, so description is the best thing I got. We get in there, and there's a cloud of noticeable smoke throughout the entire entrance/lobby thing. They seemed to have given up on the idea of a reception and combined it with the bar in the next room. The floors are made of old, unpolished wood, as are the chairs and tables. We checked in and went to our room, uncreatively called the Small Room, which was on the German 2nd floor (American 3rd floor), and under its label on the door was called the Rehab Centre. So yeah, that's about the best that I can do for a description of our hostel. 

Anyways, after running on some Spanish time, we managed to buy some wine and make our way into the old city centre to go to a club. And it was really fricking cold. I stupidly only wore a leather jacket. However, this meant that I got cold and cranky rather quickly. After meandering around for what I dubbed was too long, I almost left (in a rather bratty fashion) but then decided to come back. Shortly thereafter, we went into a club called James Dean, which confusingly proclaimed on the windows that "Prohibition has finally ended." We went into the basement and danced for a while. I decided to go home at 4AM, in order to see some Prague stuff the next day. 

I woke up at 10:30AM the next day, fully intending to go to the Prague Castle by myself, as Team Spain hadn't gotten back until almost 6AM. And to tell you the truth, I was a little annoyed with them (probably more than was fair) for the entire concept of Spanish time (it exists) and the fact that they weren't as motivated as me to see Prague. However, they surprised me and wanted to see Prague. This meant, however, that we didn't leave the hostel until 1PM. But in waiting for everyone to get ready, I managed to run into Owen, my Georgia Tech friend on the stairs. Him and his friends had just arrived at the hostel. They even managed to leave to go site-seeing before us. However, we eventually got out of there and onto the street of Prague. I led everyone around the places that I knew, which was limited to the Old Town Square, the Charles Bridge and the Castle. All of these things, were pretty breathtaking though. We went to a restaurant that proclaimed to serve Prague and Jewish food, where I had some pretty delicious goulash with bacon dumplings. Afterwards, we wandered back to our hostel, because everyone wanted to take a nap before the bar crawl. However, instead of going on the bar crawl, I played Cards against Humanity with Owen and his friend Zack for probably at least 3 and a half hours, which was actually very, very fun. The Georgia Tech kids kind of reminded me of my Tufts friends, which made hanging out with them both very fun and nice, as I have been missing those kids a lot. So yeah, Friday night was very fun.

Then Saturday, I joined up with the Georgia Tech kids for a free walking tour, as I was fairly confident that Team Spain would spend the day sleeping. (I was right.) The walking tour was great, because it brought me to all the parts of Prague that I hadn't seem before. We walked around the old town square first. Where our tour guide, a Czech woman named Tatiana explained the astronomical clock to us and how the creator got his eyes burned out and tongue cut off (medieval copy right) and how he later died to fear, pain, and sadness (as everyone did in the medieval times). We then wandered to the National Theater, where they had a dementor statue, then Old New Town, the National Bank, and finally to a church with a mummified hand hanging from a wall. So the story on that, a thief came into the church at night to steal a golden necklace off the statue of Mary. However, Mary wasn't having it and grabbed the bro's hand. The dude screamed bloody murder for hours until a priest found him the next morning. The priest's solution: cut off the hand. Which hand you ask? Naturally the thieve's. So the priest cut off this dude's hand, mummified it, and hung it in the church. And yeah, it's still there and as disgusting as ever. After that, we got lunch, walked around the Jewish quarter, and then ended at the Prague Philharmonic. Afterwards, we walked over the river to the ritzy side of Prague where all the nobles used to live, where we walked along the river and watched some swans and pigeons (which was mildly terrifying...hate birds...). Then the Georgia Tech kids humored me and helped me finally find the John Lennon Wall, which was wicked anti-climatic, but still satisfying after all the time I spent looking for it last time. (I'll put up a picture of us there later--they're on Brenda's camera.) Then we walked back to the Old Town. Upon getting there I convinced the Georgia Tech kids to go to the gelato shop right next to the astronomical clock, because that's where Ali, Adam, Ali G, Shiloh, Short, and I went four time over the course of 6 hours when we were in Prague. It wasn't very hard to convince them, but unfortunately, Danny--our friend that had been there the entire day nearly 3 years ago--wasn't there.

Eurotrip Flashbacks

Afterwards, we wandered for a while, and then ended up eating more Czech food in a lovely restaurant close to the square. Afterwards, we made our way back to the hostel where the four of us hung over and chilled and played Cards against Humanity. It was all very lovely. Although I do feel a little bad for having ditched Team Spain.


On Sunday, the Georgia Tech kids grabbed an early train out, but the rest of us had to wait until later. Team Spain ended up sleeping in the lobby of the hostel for a few hours, while Julius and I meandered around Prague and ate burritos. Julius and I then caught a bus to Munich for the first leg of our journey (Team Spain had to take a later bus, not enough room.) Then from Munich to Plochingen, we were in a compartment train. So cool! I had never been in one before. And then finally one last train from Plochingen to Tübingen. We ended up getting back just a little bit before 1AM. So that's about how my Prague trip went. It was quite lovely. Especially with all the Eurotrip flashbacks. And that's about it on my end. Bis später, Kinder.