We woke up at 8 a.m. Saturday morning to shower and go down for a complimentary breakfast. When we all heard breakfast we thought eggs, bacon, sausage and pancakes. No. The cake was good, and I ate bread with honey. But everything else was just different. I think we’re all beginning to realize how much we miss our American food. At the end of breakfast, while a friend of mine ate his turkey bologna meat thing, I mentioned waffles with butter and syrup. We had a moment of silence.

It was a bit of a cold day and looked like rain. Thank goodness Abby brought her umbrella!

We had two tour guides on our bus as we drove into town. They talked about the scenery around us and how monotone the colors were. There were definitely many grays and browns. As we entered town, the comments they made became a little ridiculous. For instance, she spoke of this wonderful museum that we were going to see, but only from behind. If we were to be in the front, then, wow, it would be pretty! Good to know!

We got to Prague Castle and split into two groups. Each tour guide had these awesome poles with fabric at the end so we would be able to find them in a crowd. Never did I think I would be so reliant on some blue and red fabric.

The Castle was absolutely gorgeous. It was on a mountain that looked over the town and the river. The cathedral was huge and took 200 years to build. We joked that the people making it would get frustrated after awhile knowing they would never see the end. Our tour guide didn’t like that very much.

Our tour guide was our first introduction to the Czech people and boy was it an interesting one. Apparently they are very fast, impersonal people. We had to run to keep up with her because she would never wait for the 25 people in our group. By the time we found her (the stick didn’t always help) and got close enough to hear her, the story would be done. So we never knew what we were looking at! Luckily one of the girls in our group, Megan, had a Prague guide book and read what it said.

The only ornate rooms we saw were parliamentary rooms and places of worships. I was really hoping to see sleeping quarters and such. When I see where the kings and queens ate and sleep, then I feel like I’m in a real castle. For instance, the castle I saw when I was visiting my family was fantastic. I learned a lot, such as how we have the saying, “the walls have ears.” The walls were thick enough so that servants could walk around inside them in order to serve the royalty. They had little doors that blended in with the wall, and they would go in and out of them.

After Prague castle we went to a shopping area for a break, and long story short, completely lost our tour guide. There were about 15 of us, including a FUBiS employee, and none of us knew where she was. She left without us! When we finally went to the bottom of the hill and found her, she yelled at us for being too slow. Our friend Sam had not shown up at the meeting spot. We were looking for him!

I mention how crazy and unorganized things were throughout this trip, but I must keep you in mind that I had a blast with the people around me. I met knew people and got to know the others better. I laughed so much this weekend. I was really happy. It also helped to have others to complain about frustrations with. I wasn’t the only one!

We went further into town for our lunch break and had the option of staying on the tour after lunch. We did not. We felt that we hadn’t learned much of anything with this woman, so it was pointless! Instead we had a nice sit down lunch with a Czech waitress who embodied all the previous mentioned characteristics. The bill was 3,600 Korunas (for 11 people). We took pictures of the bill!

After lunch, all 11 of us walked to the King Charles Bridge and in that process about 4 of us made it out. We lost everyone! There were tons of people, and Abby and I stopped often to shop. Abby, Francis, Mica, and I were left of the group. The others kept going to the Old Town Square or went back to the hotel.

Walking along the streets of Prague was amazing. I truly felt like I was there. We stopped a few times to look at shops, take pictures, and drink beer. Life was good.

At one point we all went into a book shop because the boys wanted to go in there. Abby and I looked around at all the books and found many books from a writer named Kafka. So many that we were puzzled. Abby said, “Jeez, this place should be his bookshop or something.” I said, “Yeah, you’d think that.” And just as I said that, I looked up to find his picture all over the place and the words, “Kafka Bookshop” at the entrance. We left quickly and burst into laughter outside.

We all wanted to go to the Torture Museum – at this point there were only 3 people. We went in, got totally freaked out and ate pizza at a place nearby. Really good pizza!

There was a store nearby where a friend of mine bought Absinth. While purchasing my own bottle (for a certain someone’s birthday coming up), the guy ringing me up looked at me, and said with huge creepy eyes, “You like alcohol?” Just then Abby said “Look behind you,” and there was a huge cucumber on a chair sitting randomly in the middle of the store. I was scared. We ran away.

Then came the night!