Praha/Prague

Wednesday, November 7th

Went to the John Soane Museum, which was one of my favorite museum experiences I've had here. The museum itself is simply the house of the eccentric architect John Soane, he basically built it as a monument so he would be remembered - and it worked. The house is still in its original 19th century layout with "nothing added nor taken away", which made it feel a bit like stepping back in time. One of the nice features was that I could just download the audioguide to my mp3 player for free, and it made the museum all the more interesting. I wandered around the relatively small space for about two hours and thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience. After leaving the museum I took the Tube back to campus and tended to items on my "to do" list until late evening. Then a group of 6 of us went to the Imperial Student Union, where I was delighted to see my friends from Boston University - whom I hadn't seen in about a month. So after about an hour or so of catching up over a pint Tim and I headed back to our room to prepare for Prague. But that was when Tim realized that he couldn't go because of financial reasons, so I was traveling to Eastern Europe by myself.

Thursday, November 8th

Got up too early. I say that because when I'm going to be flying anywhere, I leave an extra hour just in case something happens. I think it's quite interesting that I have come to the point where I expect the District Line to go down, my shuttle to arrive half an hour late, and have some problem at check-in. I used to be excited about the whole flying experience, but now its just morphed into a necessary evil. There's nothing like standing in queue after queue, being interrogated at passport control, and for some reason feeling as guilty as a criminal at the security screening, even though I have nothing to hide. I was never taken aside and searched before I grew the beard that I have now, and since it passed the stubble stage I have been searched every time. It has become so commonplace that on the way back to Stansted I didn't even bother taking off my watch or belt. I understand the need for such strict security measures, but I wish there were an alternative approach in which you are treated like a dignified human being. So after running the air travel gauntlet I was finally seated on a Boeing 737 bound for Prague. Half of the people on the plane were from my study abroad program, which would have been nice if they weren't such an embarrassment. Here are some verbal gems that I heard from 15 rows away. "Do they still speak Communist?" "Why are you guys reading books? What are you, intellectuals or something?" So needless to say, once we got to baggage claim I escaped the mass of American students just looking for a party, and who all packed large suitcases for a three-day jaunt. Luckily I ran into my friend Michelle and some of her friends, and I took the bus and Metro into the city with them. I was staying at a different hostel so we agreed to meet later for dinner. My first impression of Prague was walking out of the Mustek metro station into Wenceslas Square, and I immediately fell in love with the city. So I dropped off my things at my hostel and went exploring. I was just taken aback by how unique Prague was in comparison to the other European cities I've been to. It all felt so rich, how the burnt-yellow street lamps cast the streets in sepia tones, how every street or storefront seemed to possess Western optimism and Eastern European bleakness simultaneously. If I could pick two words to sum up Prague by night, it would be hauntingly beautiful. I found my way to the meeting point an hour early and simply explored Wenceslas Square for the remaining time. There was a touching exhibit at the foot of the Wenceslas Monument that memorialized the Czech victims of Communism that I was captivated with for about half an hour. I spent the rest of the time wandering and snapping photographs, but I was mainly just trying to let it soak in that I was actually in the Czech Republic.

I found Michelle and her group of friends and we went to find a restaurant to eat at. They chose the first restaurant we walked by, which is something I hate doing, especially when it turns out to be a swanky dress-to-impress restaurant. I ordered a steak, I was excited because I haven't had proper meat since my dad cooked some up on the grill in August. The waiter brought me a plate that supposedly contained my steak, but I couldn't see it. It was rather hard to find, it turned out that what I thought was a speck of black pepper was my $30 steak. It was officially the most expensive three bites of my life.

After dinner, Michelle and her friends decided to go back to their hostel and go to bed. It was only 10pm, so instead of retiring for the evening, I roamed the night streets of Prague until 1am. The highlight was walking down Narodni street towards the river, and when I turned the corner, there was the looming Prague Castle illuminated on the hill and the Charles Bridge shining across the Vltava. If I would have had someone to talk to, I would say that the scene left me speechless. After attempting to get lost and take a few decent night pictures I finally headed back to my hostel and went to sleep. Well kind of, between my coughing fits and the drunk Americans stumbling in and out of the room, I fell asleep at about 4am.

Friday, November 9th

I set out to tackle the city rather late, at about 9:30. I walked across Charles Bridge to Prague Castle, and realized that they were much more impressive with darkness as their backdrop. I made it a point to visit the Winston Churchill statue that was marked prominently on my map, but laughed out loud when I found the "statue" hidden away on a steep side street, which was a bust roughly the size of my head. I'm just glad that it was on my way. I met up with Michelle at the Castle and then we proceeded to spend too much on tickets that were a waste of money because St. Vitus' Cathedral - the highlight of the Castle - was free. After the Castle we walked back to the Old Town Square and ate lunch, which for me consisted of a 25ck/$1 hot dog. I had heard that Prague was so cheap, and it was compared to London, but it just felt like I was back home without an atrocious exchange rate. I managed to stretch $100 over four days, which I assure you is an achievement. We went our separate ways after lunch, and that was the last time I had travel buddies on the trip - which was fine. I then walked to the Jewish Quarter, and then retraced my steps back to the Communist Museum, which was located next to McDonald's and above a Casino - viva la capitalism! It was very interesting to see how they dealt with such a dark part of their history, and while they did seem to oversimplify the politics into good and evil, it was a very informative and poignant experience. By now it was nightfall, so I did the same thing that I did on Thursday night - I just wandered, got lost, and somehow found my way back - which is essentially this four month adventure boiled down into one phrase.


Saturday, November 10th

I accidentally saw everything that I wanted to the day before, so it was a rather laid back day. I took the Metro to the outskirts of Prague and went to a run-down and probably long-forgotten Catholic cemetery, it was eerie to say the least, walking alone through an enormous, dilapidated and empty cemetery. I spent about an hour walking up and down the rain-soaked paths, and then caught the Metro to the other side of Prague and walked about two miles in the cold rain back to my hostel - and had a blast doing it. I had a $2 hamburger with cabbage for dinner and did one last walk around Prague.

Sunday, November 11th

Okay, so here's the backstory. I usually use my phone as my alarm clock, but the battery died and I had forgotten my power adapter. So I searched Prague for three hours on Friday night and finally bought one for too much money. I figured I was now set, I set my alarm for 6:30 on Saturday night because I had to be at the airport by 8:30. So you can understand why I was a bit stressed and frantic when I awoke to look at my watch which read 8:45. I dressed, packed, and checked out in three minutes flat. Hailed a taxi in the snow, and luckily made it to the airport by 9:15. Where I again waited in four queues, was interrogated by passport control, searched by security, but was rewarded for my tough morning with a seat in the emergency exit row. Two hours later I was getting my passport stamped at Stansted, hopped on the Stansted Express and was back in my dorm room by 2pm. The rest of the day was devoted to doing nothing more than going to Pizza Hut (it's our Sunday night routine), watching movies, and spending time with my good friends Tim and Danielle.

Monday, November 12th

Woke up far too early because I was on my travel sleep schedule. Went to class where I broke out into a wonderful coughing fit for the duration of the class, went to my next class and did the same. I skipped my Parliament session because I didn't want to be the fool you can hear coughing off-camera on C-SPAN. I've been sick for the past three weeks, maybe I should test out socialized medicine.