Prague, Czech Republic

Prague was a fantastic trip even before we made it to the city. At 3 AM on the sleeper train to Berlin, I decided that I needed to go to the bathroom and could do it without turning on the lights (I didn’t want to wake up my friends). I came back to the pitch black room and was preparing to climb into the middle bunk when WHAM. Something big and heavy hit me in the face. My glasses flew to the ground and when I reached down to grab them, WHAM. I got hit a second time. With blood pouring down my face, I stumbled back to the bathroom to check out the damage.  Less than a week earlier, I went skiing in the Alps and didn’t even get sore. This week, all I had to do was sleep on a train and I managed to get mauled by a ladder. Yes. A ladder fell on my head twice and left a deep, inch long gash above my eyebrow.  At CMU, I would have called my mom, who is a pharmacist, and asked for an over-the-phone diagnosis as to whether or not I would need stitches. BUT I didn’t have a phone AND I was on my way to the Czech Republic, so that wouldn’t work. Instead, I sat in the hall and laughed at myself for a full thirty minutes.  Thanks to some well prepared travel buddies, I eventually found some tape and Neosporin and lived happily ever after (with a scar and a black eye).

Prague (Praha) is a beautiful city, but terribly overrun by tourists. In large European cities, you can usually find companies that give free walking tours. I highly recommend keeping an eye out for these because it’s a great way to have a personal experience in an overwhelming city. Four of us walked around Prague with a local student for about 8 hours on Saturday and had a blast. The nightlife in Prague is fun, but not my favorite. We went to some cool live-music pubs, but I was a little disappointed because I feel like I could only find other Americans to talk to. Highlight of the night: I almost got in a bar fight because some girl from Virginia tried to tell me that she loves the Steelers AND the Patriots. Clearly she doesn’t watch football.