my time in Prague

Like I said in my last post, I made it to Prague successfully on Saturday. I took a train with 5 of my friends from school. On our 5 hour journey, we laughed, slept, and ate on the restraunt part of the train. From the train station in Prague, we took a taxi to our new home of three days, Hostel Elf. Not knowing what to expect, I walked in to the entrance of the buliding that took over 50 stairs to get to. The building resembled one of what you would think of what a hostel might look like. There were 10 rooms on each floor, 8 beds in each room, and 2 bathrooms per floor. So pretty much 80 people sharing 2 bathrooms. Wow, was I excited to sleep there... not. So, we put our things away in a locker and headed out to see Prague. That evening we walked around the beautiful city, ate authintic czech food and listned to a jazz band. After dinner, we decided to meet up with Marie and Nick (my friends from Trinity) and have some delicious hot chocolate and gellato. It was rather cold that night, but it was clear and crisp. After our late night snack, we decided that we try out a club that we had heard about. The club was 5 stories each with its own theme and music, and was called Karlovy Lazne. We had such an awesome time. It was almost surreal. We met some Polish guys that were a blast to hang out with and had the most hillarious dance moves I have ever seen. When we arrived back to the hostel, we realized that the other 4 beds in our room were filled with men. Upset with the situation, we went up to the desk to see if we could change rooms. They said, no, for it was a co-ed hostel... where ever there is a bed, anyone can sleep. So, we crawled into our faded disgusting sheets and tried our best to sleep the night away. I, however, could not, and stayed awake most of the night. The next morning, we faced the bathrooms, and all took showers. Heather (my roommate in Vienna) whispered to me that she did not like the living situation, and I totally agreed with her. So, we vowed that if we could find a hotel room by the night, that we would leave, and if we couldn't, we would be strong and get by. Well, luckily we found a hotel room, an extremely nice one for a reasonable price. It was called the Hotel Carlton, I suggest it if you ever come to Prague. It was so so so nice to have our own bed with our own bathroom and shower plus included delicious breakfast. After we made the decision to get a new place our attitude drastically changed. We were excited about Prague, not dreading the whole day about going back to our hostel. On Sunday, we trecked through the crowds on to the Charles's brigde which led us to the Prague castle. On the way up to the castle we stopped in to see St. Nichols cathedral, and ended up walking 300 stairs to the top for a bird's eye view of the castle. It was a horrible climb, but def. well worth it. We then went to the Prague castle, walked around, and actually ran into some people who were also visiting from our school. We then went into the Basillica of St. George and ended up walking up another tower, this one much much worse. It was a tight circle the whole way up the 287 stairs. It is amazing what people were thinking when they built these insane staircases in the early 14th century. We then headed back for dinner and went to bed for our next long day of sightseeing. On Monday, we pretty much just shopped and spent sometime getting to know the city. That evening we went to a really great reasturant called the Louve and then made our way to a black light theater performance downtown. It was an enjoyable evening. On Tuesday, I took a taxi from our hotel and met my friend Anna at the Prague airport. We got on a Sterling plane for 40 Euro and made our way to Copenhagen. The flight was so short, only lasting an hour. Melissa, my amazing friend from Trinity, picked us up from the airport and rode the train with us to town. That evening we hung out, and walked around town. Anna went with her boyfriend, and I back to Mel's apartment. We ened up watching 2 episodes of Lost and falling asleep. She was so nice to share her bed with me. It was a little crammped considering it is a twin size bed, but we managed. This morning, I woke up and am enjoying my time off, while Mel is in class. This evening we are going to do some sightseeing and cherish the day. It is beautiful ourside and about 56 degrees. Well, I hope all is well. Love, Chelsi