Abstaining from the obvious pun, my trip to Prague

I have returned from Prague with a babushka doll and Percy Pigs in hand, enamored with my time spent with the Czechs. (Not enamored with their language though...that stuff is ridiculously hard. I'm more thankful for my German now).

Prague is almost too beautiful. There is so much to look at, and with wide eyes I tried to look at everything I could. My walking speed (some have compared it to the speed of light) aided me in that venture, but one could not possibly see all the beautiful things in Prague in any short time there.

I arrived on Thursday evening and immediately had the sense I was somewhere quite different. Navigating the train station and figuring out how to buy metro tickets was a bit schwer with my nonexistent knowledge of Czech and its crazy letter signs, but I managed, and had a nice evening with Sarah's Czech roomie. Sarah was on an unexpected business trip for the first couple days of my stay, but I was well taken care of.

Friday brought the whirlwind sightseeing tour...Prague castle, Charles Bridge, St. Nicholas Church, aimlessly strolling around the old town. As I strolled I also ate, and I, unsurprisingly, love Czech food. It's similar to German food with lots of meat, bread and potatoes, but better. (Maybe just for the novelty...I've had probably too much German food in the last four months). My favorite was a potato pancake from a street stand. nomnomnom

The Czech Republic is the first so-called Eastern European country I've visited (although I think Czechs consider themselves in Central Europe?) and I definitely enjoyed soaking in the culture. The streets seemed livelier, the people a bit louder, and the food definitely cheaper. Now I think I have the Eastern Europe travel bug...Budapest, anyone?

On Friday night one of Sarah's friends nicely met me for a great Vietnamese dinner (spicy food at last!) and then we went to a local club and had lots of fun dancing it up. Only Amerikaner music, of course. I asked Sarah's Czech roommate to play me some Czech music, but it definitely isn't approp for clubbing. Very happy music, though.

Sarah returned Saturday, and we did a pub tour of Prague and had an amazing Czech dinner. It was so nice to see her and catch up on what has passed since we last saw eachother at USC...we are girls on the move. I can't remember or pronounce the name of what I had at dinner, but it was basically meat in some sweet vegetable sauce  with bread dumplings. Washed down by a delicious dark beer. Beer in Prague is even cheaper than in Germany! A half liter bottle at a grocery store will only set you back 50 cents. I'm not sure Czech beer is the best beer in the world as some say, but it may be the cheapest.

That night we went to another club with Sarah's friends that all the internationals frequent. It has a difficult Czech name but is known just as "five story club"...I wonder what is lost in translation? After which we tried another Czech speciality, fried cheese. Tasting just as one would expect, nuttin bad to say there.

The next day Sarah and I did another walking tour of the wunderschön Stadt and trekked up to the top of a tower with a great overview of all the buildings and spires below.  I also managed to find a lovely Babushka stacking doll (ya know...those dolls with all the little ones inside) and also a Marks and Spencer from which to yet again feed my Scottish obsession for Percy Pigs!

Full of pigs and friendship I boarded my train back to Erfurt...look out East cause I'll be back.

And as always, check out more of my pics here.