My birthday and Prague!

June 4, 2009 was a day full of exciting beginnings and ends. Firstly (and most importantly!), it was the start of the twenty-first year of my life! It was also the beginning of Corey’s and my summer. However, it was the end of my parent’s trip to Amsterdam, yet the beginning of their week in the most romantic city of the world, Paris. Now, to say June 4, 2009 was the beginning of Corey and my summer might make it seem like the day was as relaxing as one would envision summer to be. On the contrary, however, on this day I had to turn in a final project paper that amounted to twenty-two pages with an appendix of seven. Corey, on the other hand, had one final and two papers due that pages amounted well over my feeble twenty-two. However, by four in the afternoon we had both checked CIEE Amsterdam Program and schooling off of our lists of accomplishments. While we scrambled to clean our rooms and check out, we also had to make a run around attempting (and failing) to sell back my school books, and to get some links removed from the beautiful watch Corey gave me as a birthday present. After a nice birthday dinner on the 3rd with my parents and Corey, he surprised me with the softest Pooh Bear stuffed animal I could have ever imagined, and a fabulous Fossil watch. I guess all those times per day I have been asking Corey what time it was for the past almost-three months helped him to realize a piece of jewelry I was in dire need of.

After getting through the logistics of my birthday present and turning in our keys, we said goodbye to Amsterdam and hello to Prague. After an hour and a half flight with four other students from Amsterdam, we obtained some monopoly money (also known as Czech crowns) and made it to our hotel, the Courtyard Marriot. After checking-in and getting some snacks from the lobby store, Corey and I got settled in our room while the first half of Sex and the City, The Movie played on my laptop. After a much needed good nights sleep, in the morning of June 5 we enjoyed the most amazing breakfast set up either of us had seen in months: made-to-order waffles, eggs, and omelets, along with a sandwich bar, bacon and sausage, a fruit bar, pastry bar, and about six different types of juice and cereal, with actual cold milk. (For those of you who don’t know, usually in Europe the milk available with breakfast is luke-warm, unrefrigerated, and…unpleasant). We enjoyed a breakfast made for Kings, and then left the hotel to walk around Old Town Prague and the Charles Bridge before the walking tour we planned to go on at 2 pm.
Because I have been to Prague once other time, last summer actually on a different school abroad program, I soon recognized the old stomping ground I had once spent a week on, and led Corey around to the Astronomical Clock in Old Town Square, The Charles Bridge, John Lennon Wall (which had disappointing additions and changes since my last viewing) and a few other areas, including the strip I stayed on last time, where I rediscovered an amazing Thai restaurant for later.

Note: The John Lennon wall is supposed to be a tribute to Mr. Lennon himself, and therefore is a stretch of wall that people can freely graffiti and create masterpieces on. Last summer when I was here, I could honestly say the wall was one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen, with beautiful designs including writing, like a large peace sign with the word “imagine” inside, as well as cute sayings like “Love is Free,” “Revolution,” “Make love as Much as Possible,” etcetera. However, when I returned to the wall a week later before I left Prague, I found the wall in disturbing remains, as someone had come sometime in the past week and drawn thing and large white stick figures across all of the beautiful graffiti, only leaving the “imagine” peace sign. Now returning, the wall looks like more of a graffiti mess than a tribune with inspirational and meaningful messages. The only part that remains how I left it was the “imagine” peace sign, which now even has a strange black face in-between the lines and word, which significantly decrease my love for it. Sad.

A little before 2 pm Corey and I grabbed a quick Starbucks drink (it’s okay, we haven’t had it in weeks!) before meeting up with our walking tour guide. After three and a half hours, and a stop into Bohemian Bagel (a wonderful bagel sandwich shop that I had wanted to return to anyway), we were both exhausted, but had a much greater knowledge of the architecture and city, and a new appreciation for the area we would be staying in for the weekend. After the walking tour, we took another loop around the Old Town and Charles Bridge, and into some stores along the way, before making it back to Noi, the Thai place I mentioned earlier. After a delicious dinner for two with a preset menu including an appetizer with a few different options, three small entrée choices, and a dessert chocolate fondue with fruit- yum! Also, the thing about Prague is that many beers are brewed here, thus, not imported, thus, beer is cheaper than water! So we also both enjoyed a brew for the pity equivalent of something like two dollars. Whoa!
After dinner we returned to the hotel briefly to change before heading out for part two of the walking tour, also known as a “Pub Crawl.” While the name might make it seem like there is crawling involved, both Corey and I kept only our feet on the ground (obviously), but I guess the name is to suggest some people might be crawling home from enjoying so many beverages throughout the night! Ha! We stopped into four different bars Prague is known for, and while in line to pay and get in, we met some guys who were doing a summer program in Rome- the place we are off to on Monday! So, we were able to make some friends, get some travel suggestions, and ideas for our daily itineraries by the end of the night. Quite the success!

Saturday morning started beautifully as the previous one, with an amazing breakfast, conveniently included in the great-deal-hotel-package we (by we I really mean I) had found online. After lounging around gaining the energy the previous night stole from us, we eventually made our way our to explore Day 2 in Prague. We went to a “Music Bar” restaurant recommended by the hotel, Infiniti, for an early dinner, and enjoyed a soup, Caesar salad, and Asian chicken and rice dish, along with some wine. After dinner, we walked through the nearby shopping center and decided it would be nice to relax a bit more (as if we hadn’t relaxed enough already that day!) and see a movie! Neither of us had seen a movie in theatres in months, so we decided this was a great idea. After checking times and languages, we decided on “I Love You, Man.” This turned out to be a great and entertaining choice, for the movie was funny and we got finished with perfect timing to grab a coffee and go get ready for the night.

After returning to the hotel room for a quick rest before the night ahead of us, we ventured to Prague’s O2 Arena for a Europe’s whitest and largest music festival. Corey, dressed in white soccer shorts, a white tee, and a white headband escorted myself, dressed in a white tube top cut off, a white skirt, and fuzzy white boot covers with blue accent coloring in my bathing suit top and eye makeup. We made quite the white, “under water” themed team. We arrived at the O2 Arena, and walked through the metal detectors, slyly smuggling in a flask of Jager. We were set! After exploring the arena and stage area, we eventually found some supplies to fulfill our night’s desires. By an hour later, we truly felt like one with the music and were entranced by the lights projected from the stage. This truly was an once-in-a-lifetime experience, for the night was perfect and it was as if we were in a dreamland and floating in a sea of white clouds.

Sunday morning we were able to sleep in a bit, and catch the end of the breakfast offered by the hotel. Because we were up late and exhausted, a nap followed breakfast we eventually made it out early afternoon to check out Prague Castle. The weather seemed beautiful in the morning when we passed the large glass doors in the lobby, but by now the sun was hidden and the raindrops had come. This, however, did not stop us as we still ventured to the Castle’s metro stop and made it almost perfectly-dryly to the Castle. We decided the “short self-guided tour” would be sufficient, and we were able to see a large cathedral and three other areas of the castle. After the castle we tried to find a fondue restaurant to continue our fondue-date-in-every-country tradition, but we were unfortunately unable to find one. (Fortunately we had that dessert fondue the first night, which we will have to count in this case.) Later, we returned to the Music Bar for another meal, and then returned to the theatre for another film, this time, “State of Play.” As the movie concluded around 9 pm, we decided that since we were off to Rome the next day we should call it a night, pack up, upload the trip’s pictures on the computer, and get a good night’s sleep. And so we did!

The morning of June 8 we checked out of the Marriot at 7:30 am, enjoyed our last buffet-breakfast made for Kings, and headed to the airport. After a bit of a struggle trying to figure out where to go and which terminal Wizzair flew from, we eventually got checked in and through security, exchanged our extra monopoly money, and said goodbye to the Czech Republic.
Corey and I arrived in Rome around noon, and ventured to our bed & breakfast, Downtown Accommodations, in the city centre about 30 minutes from the airport.