Czech Mate

I have successfully survived my first weekend trip and Prague was an excellent city to kickoff a plethora of more adventures! “Holy Czech!” were the first words I blurted out when I stepped off the airplane into the freezing cold and snowy atmosphere.  The first culture shock I endured was when I took money out of the ATM and a 2000 crown bill fed out of the machine. The exchange rate was roughly 23 crowns equal to 1 euro. Initially I was pumped for everything to be dirt-cheap, until our dinner that night didn’t only leave us with a full belly, but a 2500 crown receipt for the 6 at our table. It was one of the most frustrating payment processes I have gone through when all of us were flashing around 1000 crown bills. But all was well because we were at the Beer Factory filling up our own beers from the keg on tap right at our table! Friday and Saturday were spent walking all over the city to find the famous sights, including the John Lennon Wall, Prague Castle, Old Town and Wenceslas Square, and so much more. We took a 3 hour-long tour that not only sparked my knowledge on the former communist country, but numbed me from head to toe. We all violently shook with shivers for every minute of those 3 hours, so we warmed up in our hostel’s very own free happy hour before we ventured off to find a traditional Czech restaurant for a good meal. I am afraid to admit that Saturday night for dinner we ate Subway. We were so pumped to find American places around that we splurged for the comfort food. There is only so much pasta and pizza you can take and there is not much else to work with in Italy.

The bar scene in Prague deemed to be bi-polar in my opinion. Cross Club was a club of many tastes with lounging booth areas filled with smoke connected to a room with a DJ rapper and techno dance party. Most bars we went to were underground with multiple rooms and levels connected through tunnel passageways. I noticed the smoking to be even worse than Rome, so you can only imagine the odor my clothes came out of the non-ventilated underground bars in. Our last night in Prague we went to a place that was recommended that had 5 stories and each floor had a different genre of music playing. There was the “radio hits” level, “disco tech”, “90’s/oldies”, which we spent the majority of our time, and my personal favorite title, “black music”. We couldn’t believe what we read on the flashing sign was real. That would not have gone over too well in America…

The venture home became national public transportation day. We took the metra to the bus to the airport, flew to another airport to take the train to the tram back to our apartment. On the train little children came right up to me begging for money and it took all the will power I had not to look at this cute little boy that was straight out of Slumdog Millionaire. The things I have heard about pick-pocketting in Europe were so frightening that everywhere I go I have a constant death grip on my bag you would thing they were sewn to it. Although I am always cautious, I have not noticed it to be as scary as I was expecting. Until next time… Ciao a tutti!