Czechin out Praha for the Weekend

Last week I started my classes. I only had two but I had 3 hours of international marketing on Tuesday afternoon and then 3.5 hours of Finance on Wednesday morning. It is not easy being in class that long, that is for sure. I brought my computer to class this week so I can actually see the presentation slides...and distract myself occasionally to prevent death by boredom.

I didn't do too much in Vienna last week as I was only here for 3 days and began classes but on Tuesday Cori and I met up with Elizabeth and her Mom & Mom's friend to go to a Heuriger near the Vienna Woods. Heurigers are wine-taverns in Austria that serve typical Austrian food and serve the most recent year's wine. We went to two, one of which was the Reinprecht Heuriger that is in a 300-year-old former monastery. The building was pretty cool. We sat outside where they were playing some live music and had sturm, the delicious sweet not fully fermented wine that Austria produces in the beginning of the wine season. Then we moved on to another Heuriger where we ate dinner and I had to have the Wiener Schnitzel which came with a traditional Austrian salad.

Cori, Me, and Elizabeth at the Reinprecht Heuriger with wine and sturm.

On Thursday, Elizabeth and I met at the Wien Miedling train station to take the train to Prague where we were meeting Emerald, my twin in DG, Travis, my friend from Richmond, and Michael, Emerald's friend from Milan. The train ride was pretty comfortable and Elizabeth and I occupied ourselves by talking for almost the whole time. After a short nap, we finally arrived 5 hours later. We were the first ones there so we went to our hostel, Old Prague Hostel to check in and then found a cafe nearby to get Irish Coffees and a piece of cake. Since we live in Austria, we knew that the Czech Republic, Austria's neighbor, would also appreciate the cake and pastry culture that we have come to love. I had an apple type cake that was good and very different and Elizabeth had the tiramisu which was delicious. Then we went back to the hostel and met up with Emerald and Michael shortly after. We went to a restaurant nearby called the Crazy Cow and had some steak and wine, it was quite good. Then we went back to the hostel and met up with Travis. The 5 of us tried to find a place that the hostel had recommended but as we were wandering the streets of Prague trying to orient ourselves to the new city, it began to downpour. So we ended up just going into a nearby hotel and got a drink at the bar and chatted about our abroad experiences.

Travis, Me, Emerald, Elizabeth, and Michael.

On Friday, we woke up early and went to a place nearby called Bohemian Bagel. It was delicious, I had a friend egg breakfast sandwich with spinach, mushrooms, and bacon. Then we ventured over to Wenceslas Square for a city walking tour. It was interesting to hear how Prague was affected during the World Wars and Communism and to see the beautiful buildings. It was pretty chilly but luckily didn't rain. The tour concluded with a River cruise that showed us some of the sights from a boat. The highlight was definitely seeing the Charles Bridge from the Water as well as the Prague Castle. After the cruise we took the suggestion of our tour guide to go to a place called Arcma that was underground and had traditional Czech food. We ordered the fried cheese to share as well as homemade Sourdough bread. The fried cheese was very interesting, the cheese inside had a distinct taste and it came with cranberry jelly on top. Not everyone was a huge fan. Everyone also got the goulash. It did not arrive as we expected it! We thought it would come more as a soup, which was what Elizabeth had tried in Vienna, but it came more like turkey and gravy. It was very delicous and very filling though.

Wenceslas Square

Me sitting against the John Lennon Wall with the writing that describes my life!

After lunch we went to the other side of the River. We walked across the famous Charles Bridge and saw the John Lennon Wall. Emerald noticed this writing on the Wall that said "From Seville to Prague...from NJ to VA...I'll always feel the brightness of your smile!" Which seriously freaked us all out because I was just in Seville this summer, was visiting prague, live in NJ, go to school in VA, and there this writing was! So i had to take a picture with it of course. We then went up to Prague Castle which is like its own village with an old royal palace, a beautiful basilica and cathedral, as well as other things to see. The day cleared up and it became a beautiful fall day, perfect for the wonderful views from the Castle! There were all these food stands in the old town square and we stopped for crepes on the way back from the Castle. I had one with cinnamon, nutella, and banana, it was so delicious. Vienna needs to get crepe stands, they have everything else! For dinner we went to an italian restaurant nearby and then went on a Pub Crawl, which are very popular in Prague! Since it was a Friday night, it was a club crawl and it began in the basement of an old church. It was nice to have a set plan for the night and to see multiple different nightlife spots in prague in one night.

On Saturday, we went to Bohemian Bagel again for breakfast. Then went to the Old Town Square to go to the top of the famous Astronomical Clock Tower. It had great views of the Square but it was freezing up there! Then we went and checked out the beautiful big white church on the square called St. Nicholas. On the outside the church looks so massive but on the inside it is so much smaller! Although the ceilings are still quite tall. Then we went on an underground tour of Prague which was really cool! Prague used to literally be at least a floor below the level it is now, sometimes up to 3 floors, and eventually they had to build above it because of the Vltava River if i remember correctly. So we were able to see rooms where people lived, pubs, even streets! It was very interesting and a nice way to get out of the rain! Afterwards we went to a cafe for appelstrudel and cappuccinos, and then saw the other large church on the square called Tyn Cathedral. It was so different compared to the other church, it was very interesting to see the differences when they were not even 100 yards apart! For dinner we went to a traditional Czech restaurant nearby. I had a potato soup that I could eat for the rest of my life, it was delicious, and then a pasta dish with chicken and broccoli. We went to Chapeau Rouge Saturday night, which had been recommended by the hostel and a guide book, but it was not the scene that we were looking for so by the time we found another club we wanted to go to it was late, the line was long, and it didn't look like they were letting people in very often. So we grabbed some kebabs and called it a night.

The view of St. Nicholas Cathedral from the Astronomical Clock Tower.

On Sunday we got Bohemian Bagel and then headed on our separate ways. On the train ride home I wasn't feeling to great for the last hour of it and as soon as I stepped off the train, I threw up. I thought it was from motion sickness since I get that pretty easily but then I ended up being sick all night. It was not fun at all. Travis apparently had the same thing so we don't know if we had food poisoning or a stomach virus but either way it was probably the worst 12 hours of my life. The bathroom floor and I are now very good friends. But I am feeling much better after lying in bed almost all day yesterday. I made myself some plain pasta which definitely helped.

Today I had a marketing presentation on an article (it was only our second class!) and we have another presentation next week on our progress on our projects. Classes are really kicking in! This weekend I am off to Budapest, Hungary with the Buddynetwork at WU so my next post will have much to tell you about that!