Well, after my semester came to a close I had pretty much the best winter vacation ever. Rachel, Betty, Jessie and I all flew into Prague from our respective locations and then went through Vienna, Berlin, Paris and London (I was just drawing a superimposed route on a map when I realized it looks extremely phallic, so y'all can just do without)!
So I got to Prague and waited in vain next to the little conveyor belt for thirty minutes trying to will away the reality of two and a half weeks of European traveling without ANY of my possessions except the clothes I wore on me, my laptop, my travel guides, and my camera. I spent the next week calling that damn Czech office and staying Prague was a little stressful because of it. I also came a couple of days late because of airfare pricing, so I didn’t get as much out of the city as everybody else. But Prague was pretty awesome at Christmastime! There were markets everywhere and the city is perhaps the most beautiful I’ve ever seen (especially as seen above the rooftops).
From the top of the old square.
Christmas market
We had a room with just the four of us in a hostel and it was amazing (other than Rachel and I always frantically calling for our baggage (she lost hers too). The Prague Castle was amazing and the cathedral is breathtaking… maybe the coolest gothic one we saw in Europe (although I’m partial towards the one in Segovia).
So Christmas Eve is the important day in Prague so everything was closed: we got pizza to go and wine and hung out watching Christmas movies in our hostel after which we went out to this hilariously amazing and unbelievably boisterous family restaurant/bar. There were random interjections of a four person band with typically awkward eastern European/Germanic instruments and the beers were bigger than your face. Christmas evening we had the normal/tasty affair when everything was open and whatnot.
see? they really were.
Oh, yes, and Prague was the coldest thing ever.
Misc. Photos
Amazingly beautiful bridge across town complete with...
a good luck charm for unsanitary rubbing!
Church where we saw a Christmas concert.
Christmas postcard image #1!
