Eating our Way Through Europe, brought to you by Project Runway: Prague

(Back from a wonderful weekend in Roma and wishing I could blog about that...but I'm determined to stay in chronological order, so here's the story of Prague! Get ready for a long one.)

As the train pulled away from Koln Hbf train station on Saturday night, I don't think we could have been happier. Or more excited to get to Prague. We had three beds in a sleeper car on an 11-hour overnight train and after a little snafoo (I don't know if that's spelled right, but you get the idea)--a kind of strange older man who didn't speak English was in our train compartment with us, but the conductor had her eye out for us and moved him to a compartment with other guys, instead of three young girls traveling alone--we were off to Prague!
Sleeping on the train was not bad at all--not the most luxurious bed I've ever slept in, but it was equivalent to a cot and I was so tired that I probably could have fallen asleep on the floor without any problem. That is one skill I have definitely acquired this semester--the ability to fall asleep anywhere, at any time (and its definitely useful on the many planes, trains, and buses that I've taken all across Europe). But before we dozed off to sleep, we managed to have a bit too much fun in our minuscule train compartment. The three layer bunks are just built for goofing around, and gymnastics in our case. We acted like a bunch of third graders on the playground, I'm slightly ashamed to admit (Ok, not really. It was too fun). I'm a fan of swinging from the guardrails designed to keep you from falling out of the bunk. Kaitlin prefers sleeping in the luggage rack, a throwback to past family vacations, I'm told.
Post-gymnastics, we were able to get a solid amount of sleep before the train conductor woke us up about 40 minutes or so before our arrival in Praha, as Prague is called in Czech. One of the more hilarious moments of the trip occurred before we even got off the train that morning. Even Kaitlin admits that it was pretty funny, although the poor kid is the butt of the joke. The bathrooms on the train were a little wacky...the doors reminded me of something from Zenon, Girl of the 20th Century. You had to press a button and then it whizzed open with a loud swooshing noise, and then you had to press another button for it to lock. Well, Kaitlin missed the memo about pushing the second button. As I watched helplessly while I waited in line for the bathroom myself, this British guy walked right up to the bathroom door and pulled it open. With Kaitlin inside. Naturally, she freaked out a bit and ran to try and shut the crazy Zenon door, while the British guy's friends shouted, "Don't worry! We're not looking! We're not looking!" from out in the hallway. I'm not going to lie, it was so ridiculous I had to fight the urge to laugh. Even Kait laughed. And everyone was definitely more awake after all the shouting. And with that, we hopped off the train to begin our explorations of Prague, Czech Republic.

I had heard from so many people that Prague was a beautiful city, but it was even more gorgeous than I expected. I took literally hundreds of pictures, but I don't think my camera did it justice. All the buildings are beautiful pastel colors and the architecture is so unique and old-fashioned. It's not your typical capital, with high-rise buildings as far as the eye can see. It definitely felt like stepping back in time. Our hostel, the Palace Hostel, was in a really cool older building right on the road by the river. This is the entryway:
The hostel was awesome (shameless bragging: a great find by me, via hostelworld.com). We had a private room for the three of us, even though we had only paid for a six bed female dorm, and the beds were comfy and the showers clean. The owner of the hostel was so helpful: he gave us a map and pointed out all the best landmarks, as well as a grocery store, some restaurants, and an ATM. Armed with all that info, we set out for day one of exploring the city.
Our first stop was my favorite thing in the entire city (the bread dumplings come in a close second, though). The Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius, an important WWII landmark, was right up the street from our hostel. During WWII, Czech rebels were trying to organize a resistance to the Nazis occupying Prague, so they developed a plan to assassinate the head of the SS in Prague. They sent in seven paratroopers for the mission and the Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius became the paratroopers' hideout after they succeeded in their mission. The Nazis were conducting a massive search of the city, but didn't discover them in the church until one of their own gave them up. A standoff ensued, with the Nazis bombing out the church and all the paratroopers dying in the crypt. We went to the exhibit in the basement of the church and even went into the crypt itself. It was so eerie to be in a place where such violent death had occurred. And of course the history nerd in me loved to learn more about WWII, which has always really interested me, and to hear the stories of these brave men. Definitely my favorite thing in all of Prague.
After the church we wandered around the city, just taking in the gorgeous architecture. We attempted to take the tram (Europeans love trams as part of public transportation for some reason) up to the Petrin Tower, Prague's mini version of the Eiffel Tower, but we somehow missed the stop and ending up climbing a giant snow-covered hill (don't worry, there was a path) up to the tower. Between the tower and the hill, we took in some AMAZING views of Prague!! I love all the red roofs. I bought a beautiful painted print of the city to put in my room (This will be evident after future blog posts, but I now have quite the collection of prints and am planning am abroad wall for my room in the fall). Next we wandered across the Charles Bridge, site of Kanye West's video for the song, "Diamonds from Sierra Leone." Watch the video, not because Kanye is any good, but to see the amazing bridge built by Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV in the 1300s: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92FCRmggNqQ
It was getting a little chilly in Praha by that point, and we were ready to sample some traditional Czech food at dinner. We went to a restaurant near our hostel, that had an English menu, just to be safe. But the bar/restaurant was obviously a Prague hotspot (at least for the over-30 male set who wanted to watch football/soccer), because it was full. We went back to the hostel to kill some time, thinking we would head back in a bit to see if a table had freed up. When we got back, there was only one table free, so I headed in that direction, only to see a little yellow "Reserved" sign on the table. We were just about to leave dejectedly when the waitress came running over. "Wait, wait, I saved it for you!"
And that's when I knew I loved Praha.
We had a great meal of traditional Czech food and the waitress was so kind and patient explaining all the foods to us...I tried spicy chicken and Pilsner beer. The chicken was great...the beer, not so much. After dinner, we braved the freezing temperatures to go see Wenceslas Square, where the famous statue of King Wenceslas himself, riding on a horse. And that's when Kaitlin and I discovered that our Canon PowerShot cameras are incapable of executing a powershot at night, because all of our pictures are awful (False advertising, Maria Sharapova...). I was so bummed, because the city looked beautiful as a light snow was falling and it was just a moment I didn't want to forget, snowflakes falling on my head in Prague. But Megan's fabulous camera, however, captured the scene perfectly, so I've stolen a photo from her to illustrate the beauty that is Praha by night.
We were pretty freezing by then, so we headed back to our hostel to get some rest (and a much needed shower...after a night on the train we probably weren't looking too pretty) before day 2 in Praha. We woke up and stored our luggage at the train station, since we were leaving on an overnight train that night. By the end of the week, we were pretty much pros at using those luggage storage lockers and maneuvering the beast into them.
Day two consisted of more wandering around this beautiful city. We saw the Old Town Square and watched the Astronomical Clock chime the hour, with its cute little figures dancing around once the chiming was over. And seeing as this was the food tour of Europe, we had some good meals: pork and beef goulash (I'm a fan of pork, but both were delicious), and all sorts of dumplings (fruit, bread, and potato). We also spent several hours exploring Prague Castle, which was basically its own little town, complete with cathedral, shops, houses, and palace. It wasn't like a traditional castle; it had pretty much the same architectural style as the rest of the city...simple buildings in beautiful colors. Very different from the stone castles in the UK.
We also spent far too much time in the afternoon searching for the John Lennon Wall. Why its in Prague, I'm not quite sure, but its this giant wall of graffiti that used to pertain to John Lennon, but now is pretty much whatever people feel like writing. It was cool to see "All you need is love" and other Beatles lyrics on the wall, though.
We met up with some other ND London kids for dinner, which was lots of fun. We went to this traditional restaurant where they were playing an accordion and where double shots of some sort of cinnamon-y alcohol are a pre-dinner tradition. The waiter just wouldn't take no for an answer, so we all ended up taking this shot that we decided tasted like Christmas. Then the waiter tried to force another one on us, but one was more than enough for me, and I was ready for some dumplings by that point anyway!
After dinner it was a quick stop for McDonald's McSundaes so we could use up our remaining Czech Crowns before hopping on the train to Vienna!

Here's the link to the Prague photos, if you want to see just a selection of the fabulous scenery: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=404844&id=538960556&l=83efc35794