When I left the United States, I told my family that I loved them very much, but I would be missing Christmas and New Years this year. This was my first time in Europe, and winter break was my first opportunity to travel. So I took the chance to make it an experience that I would remember forever. And that it was. It started with a plan. I had some American friends who would be traveling to Europe for the holidays and what’s better than traveling Europe? Traveling Europe with friends. So, since November I coordinated with them to take on Czech Republic. We chose Prague, Czech Republic for a couple different reasons. Firstly, the living expenses and flight were cheap. Secondly, Czech is one of the most aesthetically pleasing places in the world. Don’t believe me? Google image of the city buildings. They also have really good food and are very festive around the holiday season. All great things for a couple friends wanting to enjoy Christmas abroad.
Getting there was a little tricky. My friend and I were on the same flight traveling from Dublin to Prague with a 3 hour layover in Amsterdam. It seemed like a pretty easy journey until we got to the airport in Dublin to check in for our first flight to find out the flight to Amsterdam had been canceled, wonderful. We scratched our heads and stood in the check in line with other distressed passengers for about an hour before speaking to a flight representative. The bad news was we had no way of making it to Prague on that same day. However, the good news was we were headed to Paris for the night with a free hotel, drinks and meals for the night and next morning and would be on the first flight to Prague out of Paris. I thought it was pretty good trade off. So, that night we flew to Paris, stayed the night in the hotel, enjoyed some free meals and prepared for our flight the next morning. When we landed in Prague the next morning, we started an entirely new journey of getting to our Airbnb without English translations.
Luckily for us, the Prague transportation system from the airport to where we were staying was very straight forward and easier to understand than the New York City MTA system even though it’s in English. During our four days in Prague we were able to try a ton of different beer. (It is actually cheaper than water). We saw some of the city’s best tourist attractions like the Charles Bridge, The Old-New Synagogue, and the Museum of Communism. Honestly, the city felt like a museum itself with all the different colors and shapes of buildings. The buildings were definitely my favorite part. We enjoyed some communist style food which was delicious. We had no clue how to go about ordering for about 10 minutes, but, if you’re hungry enough you’ll eventually figure out how to eat in any restaurant. Prague was amazing. I did not want to leave and I will definitely be returning. Here are some pictures!
