Hey pals.
I wanted to write a little bit about my experience in Praha, mostly just so that I don't forget about it...and of course, to share my thoughts with those reading as well.
You know, my intentions of faithfully writing in my journal are always so much higher than the amount of times I actually write in my journal. I do have a travel journal- two, actually- and they are both really nice. One is more of a personal, reflective journal about my experiences and different moments I encounter, see, feel, etc. while I am here. Angie Cunningham and I picked it out before I left the US, and I absolutely love it. It's really a perfect journal for traveling. My second journal is one that my parents gave me for Christmas, and this one is definitely more practical. It has waterproof seal pockets for keepsakes along the way, and a place for envelopes and letters. The pages are lines, like regular paper, and grids on the back for maps or directions or drawings...I guess for whatever I want to use it for.
Anyways... I never wrote about Praha in either journal- so I shall do so for a little bit now!
A few weekends back, 5 of us decided to go to Brno in the Czech Republic
together!
It was Andrew, Jake, Kevin, Hannah and I, and we decided we would meet at the Sudbahnhof (south train station) early Friday morning, purchase our
train tickets, and head to Brno It sounded like a good plan! We were really looking forward to it...so to celebrate the trip that lie ahead, a few of us got together to hang out and have some drinks. It ended up being more than a few of us ( 6 or 7, I think?) and we got some cheap beer and liquor from the stores and headed to someone's flat.
The night took way quickly! We were listening to music for awhile, talking, looking up weird and hilarious things on YouTube, watching Hannah's uncle become a star on YouTube (sorry Hannah, but it was kind of creepy), and playing King's cup. I had bought a thing of 9 Jägermeisters, and had downed 7 of them by the end of King's Cup. Two were drank by other people. :) They didn't seem all that strong at first, so it wasn't a big deal to me...but as the night went on, and I had two beers, some wine, and a few throwbacks of some really, really strong 80% stuff...I realized that I was getting pretty drunk. So we started playing some more good music, singing the Beatles, and taking an endless amount of pictures (which we only recalled vaguely the next day).
On our way home that night, we had an adventure. Jake was drunk, but insisted he knew where we were. We call him "Google Earth", because he originally claimed that that's his nickname, due to the fact that he never gets lost. Well, shit, it turns out, HE.NEVER.GETS.LOST. It's held it's truth thus far and proven to be quite a mystery....but, nevertheless, in my midst of being tipsy and trying to be sober, I sadly yelled "Google Earth is drunk! I am lost..." Because, I was convinced we would never get home in the conditions the three of us were in. We somehow made it to the bus stop alright and the three of us ended up huddling, hugging, and singing the Beatles really loud in unison. I can only imagine how awful we sounded, and how ridiculous we looked, but we obviously didn't care. T'was good times....We got to the stop where we needed to catch a bus back to the Sudbahnhof, which was very close to where we lived, and I think we were zoning in and out of being absolutely wasted, and being rational with the conscious awareness that we had drank too much. Either way, Hannah almost missed her stop, but then didn't, Jake thought our bus was going the wrong way, and somehow, I proudly took on the role of getting us back home safely. Even though I didn't do anything but make sure we got on and off the busses at the right time. I am still proud of myself. This is a huge thing for me. You have to understand my lack of direction in order to appreciate my new role, here.
Soo, anyways, as we all trudged back to our flats to get a few hours of good sleep, we knew we had
to get up early and pack for our weekend adventure to Brno in the Czech Republic...and thus, the real adventure began...
Jake, Hannah and I all show up at the Sudbahnhof early enough to get tickets. We text Kevin & Andrew and find out they are on their way. 10 minutes later...another text. Oops. they're on the wrong streetcar and going the opposite way. We have their tickets, and are about to be late for the train, so we leave the tickets behind and book it for our train. Thankfully, we just made it, and borded our train with one destination in mind: Brno. So, it's us 3 settling in on the train. We swap stories from the night before and laugh a lot about it...because it was much more funny the next morning. We browsed through pictures we didn't remember taking...and there were like 30 pictures of all of us together. I don't know why the hell we felt the need to take so many! It was a lot of fun. I felt great that morning, actually...which was the opposite of the others, but I guess I built a strong immunity to the alcohol the night before! I was suprised I didn't feel sick at all after all that and almost nothing to eat that whole afternoon and night.
Either way, we shared stories and talked about who knows what as we found ways to waste time. Our train ride was only supposed to be a couple of hours, so as the time ticked on, we were starting to wonder why we kept passing train stations that didn't have anything to do with Brno. When the conductor came by to check our tickets a second time, we asked when we would arrive in Brno. He laughed, and told us that if we wanted to go to Brno, we would have had to switch trains a ways back. He said "You're heading to Poland now. But Poland's nice!" Hahaha...and, our reaction wasn't much. We shrugged and were kind of like "oh, shucks, what now? Welp, guess we'll go to Poland."
during this time, Kevin and Andrew were on a different train heading to Brno at a later time than us. so we text them saying we're switching plans and heading to Poland.
then we decide to get off at the next step, which is Ostrava. Ostrava is located in the north-eastern tip of the Czech Republic....and Brno is located in the southeastern part! We knew Brno wasn't that far, but questioned whether to just turn around and go back to Brno. Then we saw trains to Prague. We wouldn't have gone to Prague, except another chunk of the group was already in Prague for the weekend, and we had decided to not join them and do our own thing...until now. The 3 of us decided to screw Brno, screw Poland, and just head to Prague. Jake was the only one who had been there before. To me, I didn't really want to go yet, b/c I wanted to do more family research, but anytime is better than none! so Prague it was. We bought tickets for the next train out of Ostrava and text the boys once more: new destination: PRAHA!
A bit of side information: Prague (Praha) is where my last name originates from. I don't know the whole story on that, but "Praha" and "Raha" sound very similar, do they not? Basically, through generations, the "P" from "Praha" was dropped and eventually my last name just became Raha. Yay! I am also Irish...and many other things...but I know my last name's origin lies within the city of Praha. This has a lot of meaning to me! Family is huge to me...and family history is even more interesting. I'm disappointed I don't know more about it, but am not giving up my search for my identity! Never!
right. so..... we're hungry, and decide to check out Ostrava. We walk around a bit, take some pictures,
and find an old restaurant. Hannah and I order
coffee, Jake orders tea. Something you have to know before I continue: Coffee is my stronghold. Fork is to knife, as Amy is to coffee. We go hand in hand. I just cannot function without it. It is a blissful fix I have; one I look forward to and hold no shame of. So, to continue... Hannah and I get our coffee....and...we stare in disbelief. The cups of coffee had spoonfulls of coffee grounds in them! What is this atrocity!?!?
It wasn't filtered- AT ALL! In fact, at first, I almost laughed...we must have ordered wrong and miscommunicated what we wanted. But then I started to wonder if maybe the culture was so different here that they possibly drank the coffee and chewed on the grounds as well. I couldn't believe I was even questioning these things as I stared at the cup. Hannah and I didn't dare drink it, so we started spooning out the grounds. I decided to try a sip, but ended up chewing on a good amount of very bad tasting coffee grounds that left an aftertaste of dirt and whiskey in my mouth. Was our coffee spiked with whiskey? It was possible. At this moment, anything seemed possible. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if a dragon came walking out of the bathroom, or if Abraham
Lincoln rose from the dead. Did they shovel dirt into our coffee cups? Were these real coffee grounds? What did we do to deserve this...and what do we do with it?!? There were too many questions, and too much to be overwhelmed with all at once. This was outrageous. I had never seen such a thing before, and my eyes were not trained to handle this well. I restrained myself, though, from saying or doing anything incredibly rude, and just quietly continued to scoop the grounds of coffee out of my cup and onto the side of my plate. Meanwhile, Jake is gleefully sipping his tea. He seemed to be enjoying it a little too much. And Hannah and I were somewhat discouraged. We were tired, and just wanted some good coffee. So after we calmed down from the initial shock, and decided to part from the cups of thick blackness without complaints, we went back to the station and ordered coffee inside...which ended up being amazing(ly hot). It was incredible, and I felt as though nothing has and ever will taste that good....because we appreciated it so much more due to the events that took place in the previous 20 minutes.
We board the train heading to Praha, and finally settle down. The guys, meanwhile, had actually gotten to Brno somehow, but were now heading to Praha to meet us as well. We assumed we'd all roll in close to the same time, since we had some major backtracking to do, and the guys were closer than us...so, now we're finally on track (no pun intended).
Fastforward 6 hours... WE'RE THERE!
HELLO PRAHA.
I'm Amy Raha. Nice to meet you. A part of you is a part of me. We should be getting along well the next couple of days, I imagine...
We search the train station anxiously for the guys, who had notified us that they were there and waiting. We looked and looked, decided to meet by the "casino" and rushed up to the casino to meet them, only to see a row of bums sitting on benches and a few people standing at the slot machines. No Kevin! No Andrew! We were tired, it was getting late by now, and we finally realize we're at two different train stations. So, Jake, Hannah and I get a transportation ticket and head to their station to meet them. By this point, I was so incredibly anxious to just see the guys that I was sure I would cry upon our reunion.
We turned a corner...and there they sat, looking just as exhausted and confused as us. Reunited! In Praha! Totally not our plan, but nonetheless, we were excited to be together as a group again...FINALLY. We all hugged, laughed over our frustrations, and then headed to conquer our next steps: Hostel, and then food. Of course, the food really came first, but we needed to make sure we had a place to sleep, therefore, Hostel took precedence.
We found the hostel, Sir Toby's, that the rest of our group was staying at, and decided it would be fun to surprise them, since they had no idea we would be there, except we didn't really end up surprising them. They saw us as we were leaving to get food. We booked our room in the same as theirs, dropped off our bags, and scouted out a close authentic Czech restaurant. We swapped childhood stories and feelings about scary movies over cheap beer, roasted duck, and dumplings. Definitely a great meal, and a great start to Praha. We decided to call it a night and just go back to the hostel to rest. We arrived back at the hostel, only to discover our maties were checking out the cozy pub downstairs. So, instead, we stayed up, drank more beer, and swapped more stories.
We climbed under the sheets well after midnight, and when my body hit my bed, I knew I was out. I ached of exhaustion, even though we didn't do anything all that exhausting. It was a good feeling, though, and once I shut my eyes, I didn't re-open them until morning.
We started out on Saturday morning with a great all-you-can-eat breakfast for only 100 czech crowns! That's like 4 or 5 dollars...which is really cheap. I definitely recommend Sir Toby's as a youth hostel for anyone traveling to Prague! It's seriously one of the greatest hostels you could ask for. It was really affordable as well! I think about 7 bucks a night? The atmosphere was unforgettable. Very comfortable, home like, with a great style. Lots of old photos and furniture. A pub downstairs with a sitting area...lots of board games. It just had a lot of character, and I really liked the feel of it and the atmosphere. It was really cool. I'm definitely going back to stay there again after Vienna! :)
Saturday consisted of walking the streets of Praha, getting familiarized with the area. We walked into what we would call the "town square" and the sun was
out. It was warm, and a beautiful day. There were a group of older men playing music for a crowd of people in the town square, and it was the coolest thing! We stopped and listened for a while, and I just loved it. It was one of those moments that you feel only happen in the movies.....
we went on to see a Salvador Dali exhibit, which happened to be incredibly sweet, and also checked out the Astronomical Clock. We took pictures of the gorgeous view around us, and decided to head up to the famous cathedral at the top of the hill (St. Vitus Cathedral) for a great view. We trecked up some stairs and reached the top of the staircase, only to see this absolutely breathtaking view of Praha before us. I ddn't want to even move. It was incredible. The view was panoramic. It was priceless.
After that, we posed with the straight-faced confederate dudes, and then headed inside the cathedral to check that out as well. It was really beautiful! Nothing beat that view from the very top, though....it was an incredible rush to stand there and be able to see that far and that much of Praha. It was cool.
We walked back down, took a break on the water and listened to the birds and rushing water while we caught our breath for a good 15 minutes or so. We stopped by the Dancing House to check it out on our way to some great dinner food. Our train wasn't leaving until around midnight, so we had the entire night to enjoy ourselves still.
The rest of the night was just as adventurous as everything else we encountered. We stuffed ourselves with pizza, watched soccer, smoked cigars, and drank beer at a local bar, hit up a hidden bar Hannah and I had discovered, drank and smoked some more, and then Hannah and I decided to break off from the guys and go "take pictures"....we ended up getting lost, freaking out, asking guys to buy us drinks only to be rejected, and eventually finding our way back to the guys some hour or so later. We almost lost it...as we were tipsy and didn't know where we were, nor did we speak czech, nor did we have any cell phone service. Let's just say we were more than grateful to see the guys again, and shortly after that, we walked to the train station, hopped on a train to Vienna, and slept on and off until we arrived in Vienna.
I crawled back into my host family's flat around 7am, and crashed. It was great.
