Praha, ra-ha-ha

The title of the blog is in reference to Prague, aka Praha, and the ra-ha-ha is a shout out to Alec, since he loves Lady Gags (and we didn't want him to feel left out). Prague is our favorite city in Europe thus far. We were instantly happy with it as soon as we stepped off the train. Liz, Tom-Tom, Travis and I caught a train out of Innsbruck around 12 on Thursday and pulled into Prague around 9 at night. Our first mission was to find the hotel because Thomas's sister, Katie, was meeting him there. We refer to Katie as little/better Lane, but she's really fun and cool and reminds us a lot of Thomas (since they are siblings and all). We stayed at Residence Bologna, which was in the center of all the action. It was a block down from the 5 story club (a fejj favorite), right by the bridge you cross to get to the castle, and only a few streets down from the main square. It even had air conditioning. Although if I'm being honest, I'll admit it hardly worked. BUT the beds were super comfortable and it was the first real hotel we stayed in since being in Europe (other than the Karwendel, our home base). Prague is the cheapest city on earth, so that is why we chose to go with a hotel instead of a hostel-you pretty much pay the same for both. It was also nice being in a cheap city after Italy and Switzerland were so expensive. Because we all spend so much time together and get bored, we like to play this game where if one person sees something they like (say in the window of the store), the other person has to say "Yes, I like that, BUT I like this better...and points out something else," unless they really do like it, then they can just say so. We also like to name what foods we are going to get before we eat. Liz and I also just like to talk about food in general. Anyways, when we all had to name our cities in the order we liked them most, everyone picked Prague. So now you know it is not just my biased opinion. Prague is the Vegas of Europe.

Our first night, we grabbed dinner this little restaurant called Pizza Colosseum. Don't let the name fool you though, it was very good. Everything was closed by the time we were trying to sit down for dinner, so it was quick. We then went back to the hotel and went to sleep because everyone was tired from the train rides. Side Note: we were on train miserable again, but it wasn't as bad because we had our own cars we could lay down in. The next morning we went to check out the astronomical clock that is on the side of the old city town hall. It's huge and always surrounded by tons of tourists. While we were there, we had this random girl come up to us and say, "Wow you girls are hard to catch up with!" We thought we were about to be robbed, but she just wanted to invite us to a bar crawl, which if you read on, we did go on. This girl had come to Prague to teach English, met a guy, and stayed to open a bar with him. Crazy. Another favorite saying of the trip is that when this all blows over, we are going to get an apartment with our Texas friends that is half way between Texas and NC, haha. Anyways, after this, we just walked around the square and some shops. Liz wanted to buy something furry (she loves fur), but I vetoed that. But don't worry, she snuck back in to Zara later and came out with some good picks. We then went back to the hotel to take showers and nap. Tom-Tom had bought some Absinthe, so he wanted to try that out. I think the most we discovered about it is that it tastes gross and no, it does not make you hallucinate. That store clerk worked him. We met up with three more of Thomas's friends for dinner and then we went on the bar crawl. It met at the Drunken Monkey and progressed from there. However, I can't really tell you where because 1. all of Europe is hard to navigate and 2. it was raining SO hard. But we did have a lot of fun when we weren't complaining about being so wet. A lot of people from our program were on the same bar crawl, so it was fun to hang out with them all. In the morning, Liz and I went to eat at Bohemian Bagels-something Frommers, Liz's European bible, told her to do and it was so good. I had chicken salad, which is rare in Europe. Liz and I decided that she could write the day/touristy part of Europe and I would write the nightlife part of it AND we would both write the food section, since that part is always in accord. We then went to the Castle, which was really cool. We wanted to walk inside, but there was a special visitor, so we couldn't. We took pics with the guard though and of the outside. We found Tom-Tom, Katie, and their friends there, so then we went to get cappuccinos/beers and go home for naps again. On our way back across the bridge, we went to the John Lennon peace wall. I got a small print of the wall to frame when I get home. That night, Liz and I decided to do our own roommate-dinner at the hotel and surprisingly, it was one of the best meals we've had in Europe. We had caprese (we pronounce it Ka-pre-see for fun) to start, Liz had beef in a mushroom sauce, I had chicken and asparagus in a wince sauce, and tiramisu for desert. All for like 30 bucks. It was a great meal. Then we went to the five story dance club. We had many recommendations for this place, but also had heard it was for pre-teens, so we weren't sure. Well even though there were SOME pre-teens, we had a great time. I mean, it is Bieber Fever all over the world. The first level was a radio-hits floor, the second was like techno/dance, the third was called "black music" (yea...), and the fourth level was a chill level. I'm missing a floor, but you can google it if you want to see pictures. There were go-go dancers, games in between the floors, crazy lit up dance floors, multiple dj's, etc. We did a lot of dancing, all the way till about 4 am, then we caught two hours of sleep before we took a cab to the train station to hop on the 7 am train. We had a few friends that "played through," but they didn't make their trains! Today wasn't bad, we were all pretty tired and glad to see the Karwendel...as we are every weekend when we return. Another week of classes, I'll be updating later on the efficiency of the European E.R.'s.