Czech Me Out

Czech? Check!

Seriously, two jokes in one blog post? Y'all are so spoiled.  So Prague was WONDERFUL....after a bit of bad luck on Friday the 13th.

• So it started with me loosing my black cardigan on the metro to work. 
• Then I was searching for flights to England for the next week for work, and I found a flight that would connect in Amsterdam. So I would fly to England on Monday night and fly back Friday morning. Since I already have a flight to Amsterdam for that Friday night, I was thinking I could "miss" my connection in Amsterdam, work from there for the day and then take my already bought return flight to Munich at the end of the weekend in the Netherlands with the guys. I thought that was better than connecting in Amsterdam, flying into Munich around 2pm only to go back to the airport around 6pm for an 8pm flight back to Amsterdam. I okayed it with my boss and was wanted to call the airlines. Dumb KLM. I explained that I was not going to be taking my trip from Munich to Amesterdam but wanted to keep my return flight that Sunday night from Amsterdam to Munich. They would not let me. I was getting super upset and annoyed and was yelling at the person. It's a computer thing and cannot be overwritten by anyone "supposedly". Evil. 



Ticket for my bus (missed) and train to Prague

• After that, we left work to catch out bus to Prague. We got there 40 minutes early and wanted to confirm with someone we were in the right spot because our tickets were in German and that is one language we do not understand. We asked over 15 people, and there was no official ticket place to ask at the bus station, but no one was able to confirm to us we were in the right place. bah! So there was one bus place that was supposed to go to Prague 15 minutes before our bus was supposed to leave but no bus ever showed up. The time passed and the information on the bus time schedule disappeared but no bus ever showed up. We were pretty annoyed, and decided to go to Haufbahnhof to talk to someone. When we arrrived we saw a ticket machine and after debating between giving up our Prague adventure and still going, we bought train tickets to Prague that were almost the same price as our originally bought roundtrip tickets. Bah. 

Church of Our Lady Before Tyn

We got into Prague later than expected. We took a taxi (can I just say our taxi to the hostel/apartment was 680 Koruna but our taxi back to the train station on Sunday was not even 200 Koruna. Ripped off? Most def) It drops us off because the road ends and so we have to walk from building 15 to 9. Then this guy approaches us on the side walk saying, "are you going to number 9?" kinda hesitant, we respond "yes" and he said "oh good. I was just heading home for the night". If we had arrived one minute later we would not have had a place to stay. I think that's when our luck changed. We then walked around Old Town Square at night for a bit before going to bed.

Old Town Square

We woke up and when for breakfast pretty early and walked around a bit before going on our bike tour. Our hostel was like a private apartment. It was so cute and it was literally behind the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn and the Stone Bell House. We saw pretty much all the basic must-see things in Prague. It was GORGEOUS! We saw the Astrological Clock, which I think is a little over-rated. I'm pretty sure it wasn't one of the top clock performance I've seen.  Anyways, after the bike tour we went for a traditional Czech meal at a place that the hotel guy recommended off the main streets. Czech dumplings are AMAZING! We got all the main foods while we were there. Czech food is sooo yummy but really filling. We had the fruit dumplings which were good too. oh man. so good.

Charles Bridge (no we didn't plan to match)

svíčková na smetaně

Trdelníks

After lunch we went on a walking tour of the castle. Except we had a thing that said it was at 2 in front of the tourist office, but when we got there they said it was at 2:30 in front of the Czech Philharmonic building. Since we had about 30 minutes to spare, we just laid down on some grassy area along the Vltava River. It was so nice. But the weather got a little crazy on us. It kept on going from hot to cold to sunny to rainy. It was insane. The castle tour was good, we heard good stories, and we ended up at the Strahov Monastery, where (surprise, surprise) the monks make beer. I've been to so many monasteries here in Europe where the monks make beer. I'm starting to wonder if European monks do anything else. We also met these two sisters who were travelling together and it made me miss mi hermanita who is having an adventure of her own in New Zealand. <3

Then we walked to the John Lennon wall, which is a wall of people writing things...so of course I had to write something :)
10 life points to someone who can guess what I wrote.

Venid, sin miedo, sin temor,
mas con gozo andad.

Aunque cruel jornada ésta es,
Dios nos da Su bondad

It was great. Then we headed back to the hotel to drop of something Lindsay bought only to not be able to get back into our hotel. Seriously. So we called the guy, Donald, and he came to help us. We were turning the key the wrong way. No joke. So then we went to dinner. Another good Czech meal. We had the fried cheese. Literally it was a block of brie cheese that was fried. SOOOO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!

View from Charles Bridge in the evening

We went home for a bit cuz I was exhausted then went out for a bit longer. We got home and I passed out. I was so tired and dehydrated.

On Sunday, we woke up and went to the same breakfast place. Still just as yummy. Fresh squeezed orange juice. Yes please! We went down to Wenceslas Square and the National Musuem to wander around. It was a lovely afternoon.Until it started to rain on our way home. Lindsay got a cheap umbrella which broke shortly after.

We went to the bus station early, and went to make sure were were in the right place. The information lady got super rude and attitude-y with us for asking. *sigh* Then we got to the bus and got our tickets checked and got on the bus. We decided to sit in the front of the double decker bus. We asked a lady nearby if the seats were free, and she informed us that the bus had reserved seating. We asked if she could look at our German tickets to tell us where we were supposed to sit. She looked at out ticket and told us we were on the wrong bus. Blast! We needed the bus in front of the bus we were currently on. ARGH! So we got out and told the driver that we were on the wrong bus and needed our luggage. We had to literally climb into the luggage compartment area and climb over suitcases and throw stuff around to find our suitcases. The luggage about 3 feet high. It was tiny. Lindsay found hers first and went to tell the other bus that I was on my way, but not there yet. I was starting to go into panic-mode. So what do I do in a panic? I paused, said a little prayer, and found my suitcase shortly afterwards. YAY! Prayers work! I got on the correct bus and shortly began a nice 3-hour nap on the bus. We were supposed to be dropped of at the Nuremberg bus station with a 10-minute window to get to the bus station to catch our bus, but instead, the bus driver made a stop at the train station. We had half an our to get fed and some water for the train back into Munich where we managed to catch it with plenty of time to spare and get into Munich around 10pm.  It was an epic adventure of twist and turns. 

A few parting comments:

• I miss USA customer service. We tried to get our feet eaten by little fish for 10 minutes, but they wouldn't let us. The lady was saying that only at 25 minutes would you get the whole relaxation aspect. Trust me, that conversation alone ruined any chance of 25 minutes relaxing me. Later, we went to get some hot chocolate and asked if we could get it in a cup to-go. They said no. So you're saying you can put coffee in a cup to-go but not the hot chocolate? Then add that to the KLM problem I had on Friday, and I was pretty annoyed. 
• Prague is way more touristy than I thought. EVERYONE spoke English. I also realized there is something nice about not having to understand/overhear other people's conversations when I'm in Germany. 
• I bought a super cute trendy jacket in Prague to replace my lost cardigan as a source of warmth. 
• I also ended up buying a direct flight from England to Munich, so I won't have to use KLM again or connect in Amsterdam. 

Yay for happy endings