Prahahaha- 3 Days in Prague

I finally landed in Prague on Monday August 13th right around 11pm. I once again had set up a taxi through my hostel (35 euros… so.. Kind of steep but it meant a direct 30 minute transport from the airport to the hostel instead of figuring out the hour long public transportation option… worth it).

After grabbing my bag I headed out towards Ground Transportation again. THIS time, though, I DID find a man with a sign that had my name written on it!!! I had never had my name on a sign like that before, so I got very excited and made him stay still for a picture. He was quite embarrassed but let me do it :-)

After getting dropped off at the door, I buzzed up to the best hostel I will ever stay in...

RoadHouse Hostel Prague

Located about a 3 minute walk off the Vltava river on the Old Town side
Founded just a few years ago by a bunch of expats
Also in a residential building, so you need to be quiet in halls and such.
There is unfortunately no elevator, but… oh well
Smaller, so only has beds for maybe 20 people or so?; this creates a much more homey atmosphere
3 full bathrooms
I stayed in a room with 7 other people… 4 bunk beds
Each bed has an incredibly comfortable mattress, a little shelf, a personal light and outlet, a privacy curtain, and there are actually walls on the ends so if you close the privacy curtain people actually can’t see in
You also have a HUGE drawer underneath the bunk bed to place your luggage and such
The rooms have AIR CONDITIONING
There are hilarious little signs all over the hostel
The main area has a little kitchen with 2 fridges, one for the staff and one for the guests; the fridge for the guests is kept stocked with eggs and milk, and jars on the shelves above the sink are stocked with cereals and rice- you are free to use all at your leisure
There is also a long table where family dinner is hosted every night at the cost of 100 czk per person(Czech Republic is another country in the EU that doesn’t use euros) = about $4.50 USD
Every night after family dinner, they take anyone interested out to a local spot in Prague
There is a little nook with coffee and tea that you may help yourself to
There is a mini fridge between the dining area and the living room that is kept stocked to the brim with beer; first beer is free and then each beer after that is 30 CZK, or 4 beers for 100 CZK….
The living room has a huge comfortable couch, a TV, and Wii for games like Mario Cart or watching Netflix. Also board games.
This is the cleanest hostel I have ever and will ever stay in; the lady came EVERY morning to clean the bathrooms and kitchen and linens (and I saw her come each morning)

After Howie buzzed me up, he welcomed me at the door and told me to take my shoes off and get comfortable. I walked past 3 people talking on the couch like old friends who all said hi and introduced themselves to me. Howie offered me a beer or a cup of tea, and then spent half an hour with me to walk me through the details of the hostel, the general activities, where everything is, etc. And then we sat and chatted for another half hour about me living in Italy and my experience in Sweden (he was from Norway) before I went to bed. It was amazing. I had never felt like a hostel was ‘home away from home’ before, and within 1 hour here it felt like I was just visiting friends I hadn’t seen in awhile.

I knew I could take my time over the next 2.5 days to wander and see the city, so the next morning I didn’t worry about popping out of bed at 7am. I slept past 10am, and even then took my time grabbing some cereal and coffee, showering, getting ready, and chatting with a few other guests that were there. It was so nice to not have to rush. I think that casual approach also helped me feel like I was somewhere familiar- I’ve never been anywhere outside of my friends and family’s houses where I could walk around barefoot enjoying a cup of coffee and talking about plans for the day.

My day started by walking across the famous Charles Bridge, built between the 14th and 15th centuries, towards the Prague Castle.

There are I think 30 statues along the bridge, and vendors set up their carts selling art and jewelry. When I walked across, it was pretty busy, but not terrible. I was told that at certain times of day or times of year, it can take half an hour just to cross from one side to the other due to the amount of people.

After crossing the bridge, you walk through just a bit of the town on that side before heading uphill towards the castle.

The castle in general is free entry, so you just have to go through a line for security (metal detector and checking bags) which then empties you out into a main courtyard. If you want a tour or entrance into certain areas, you do have to buy a ticket. I tried to do a bit of quick searching to see which areas required a ticket and if it was worth it. Reviews were mixed, so I just hopped in line to buy one. The way I figured, the Prague Castle was one of the big ticket items on my list, so I might as well.

Ticket prices without a tour vary depending on exactly which areas you want to access, but generally cost about 13 euros or less.

General Prague Castle Info:

The castle is actually a very large complex of buildings, some of which date back to the 9th century; apparently one of the largest in the world
This castle was a seat for the King of Bohemia and Roman Emperors
Contains the humongous and gorgeous St. Vitus Cathedral as well as a few smaller churches

St. Vitus Cathedral

St. George's Basilica

Defenestration

Final Review? If you really can’t or don’t want to spare the 13 euros for a ticket, don’t worry about it.

Another note… Bohemia! So, I don’t know about you, but when I think bohemia, I essentially think of RENT ha. Starving artists, vagabonds. So where is the connection?

Actual ‘Bohemia’ is generally the area of the Czech Republic. It is named after a Gallic tribe which lived in the area around the 2nd century BC. Fast forward to the early 1800’s when a group of French artists started concentrating in cheaper Romani neighborhoods of Paris (where the gypsies lived). Apparently the Romani people were mistaken for having come from the area of Bohemia (though they were actually from India)… and therefore they and the artists that lived there were called Bohemian. And then through the solidification of this view through plays and novels, the term “Bohemian” has stuck with the starving artist, no rules, free love kind of stereotype that we see today.

Fascinating, huh?

Anyway. After I felt I had sufficiently wandered the castle, my next stop was Petrin Hill and Petrin Tower. My legs were already tired (really it’s my hips that start to hurt) from walking around Budapest, so even on day one in Prague it did not sound like the best time ever to climb up a big hill and THEN climb a big tower. But. I could not imagine a better view of the city, so I started walking.

Petrin Tower:

To get to the top of Petrin Hill, you can take a funicular, or there are a couple of walking paths depending on where you are coming from.
If you walk from the castle, it is a decent ascent, but on a well maintained path and stairs.
At the top of the hill there is Petrin Tower, but also some beautiful gardens, a church, and a planetarium
To go to the top of Petrin Tower it costs approximately 150czk to take the stairs and 210czk to take the elevator (about 6 and 8 euros respectively). They do not accept Euros or credit card, so you must have some Czech kronos on you.
If you take the stairs to the top of Petrin Tower, there are approximately 300 steps with a couple of benches and a mid-way platform you can stop on to look out and rest

From the top of Petrin Tower

Absolutely worth it.

After coming down from the tower, I took a few minutes to wander through the gardens, feel the sun shining down, listen to a duo singing some American song I can’t remember now, and enjoy another perfect moment.

I decided I wanted to take the funicular down to save a little time and a little wear on my hips, so I headed in that direction. There was already a line of people waiting for the next one to arrive. I saw a ticket machine inside, so I walked over with confidence to buy a ticket and get in the back of the line. Turns out… the machine sucked. It lets you “translate to English”, but I felt no more informed after I hit English than when I was staring at Czech. Somewhere along the line (at least a solid 10 minutes into the event) I figured out that it only took exact change... which I did not have. WHAT KIND OF MACHINE ONLY TAKES EXACT CHANGE?! It’s 2018, people!!

So I walked out in a bit of a huff, scolding the funicular in my head, and started to walk back down the hill on a different path than the one I had come up. Of course it ended up being a gorgeous path through a quiet orchard on the hillside that caused my heart to feel overwhelmingly calm.

Fine fine fine. Haha.

After I got back towards town, I walked over to the Lennon Wall. The Lennon wall is a wall (duh) which has been covered in graffiti representing love, peace, and equality since the 80’s. People will to this day write poems or paint pictures on it to promote these ideals.

There was a small French bistro right next to the wall, so I decided to try and stop in just for a beer and some soup. It was mid-afternoon. I had had a late breakfast, so I wasn’t terribly hungry, but I knew that I would not be eating until 8pm with family dinner at the hostel, so I wanted something to tide me over. I walked into the mostly empty building with a bar to the right and a restaurant to the left. I popped my head into the bar thinking that the restaurant didn’t look open yet, but when I said I wanted soup she sent me over to the restaurant. When I walked over and told the restaurant I wanted soup and a drink, they sent me back to the bar. So I left.

I gave up on food and started walking over to the Kafka museum. I passed back by the Lennon Wall again and immediately happened upon the Lover’s Bridge. I read that people started calling it this as couples put locks on the bridge railing, kissed the key, and threw the key into the river, but I think all of the locks had been removed by the time I was there ha. Regardless, it was a cute bridge with a quaint view down a little canal.

Just on the other side of the bridge was a restaurant called Velkopřevorský Mlýn. There were a few people already sitting outside so I decided this would replace the French bistro. They sat me right away with a view of the canal and the watermill, and I had a beer and soup in a bread bowl! Delicious.

After I finished, I continued on my journey to the Kafka museum. This museum is fairly small (essentially the upper floor of a large house), and it gives the history of the life of Franz Kafka. Franz Kafka was a writer from the Czech area in the late 1800’s early 1900’s (before it was the Czech Republic). He studied at the University of Prague, and died in 1924 of complications from tuberculosis. He had left ALL of us works to his friend, Max Brod, when he died with a request that he burn them all. Max ignored the request and published them all instead hahah. And now the work of Kafka is critically acclaimed, and they have museums about his life haha.

Even at this point it was only about 6pm, so I walked across the Manes bridge and then spent an hour or more wandering around the Jewish quarter and more of Old Town.

Really disappointing. Just like Big Ben in London, the Prague Astronomical Clock was covered in scaffolding going through maintenance.

Finally I made my way back to the hostel to plug in my phone and clean up before dinner! I ended up sitting around the living room area with 4 or 5 others around my age, having a beer and talking about music we listened to growing up (and how Taking Back Sunday is STILL performing… whaaattttttt????). Three of the folks were Americans so we kind of instantly bonded. One was a younger guy from Holland that had us in stitches for 2 days straight, and the other guy that night was … Danish?

Two of the hostel workers cooked a delicious vegetarian curry for dinner, and I think there ended up being about 10 of us there eating. After we finished, we all went to a bar called Zamzezi in hopes of finding live music. Apparently they do not have live music on Tuesdays, but we sat and had a couple of beers anyway. The girls all sat in chairs around a table and immediately started talking about life while the guys played foosball.

It’s hard to say if it was just the fact that we were all from similar kinds of places at similar points in our lives (4 Americans + 2 Australians, all between 25 and 30) but we all just clicked. We were talking about careers and travel and love and marriage and kids and individual growth. It was incredible. Even when the guys finished their game and came and sat with us, they joined right in. I haven’t had that kind of instant connection with a group of strangers since COLLEGE. My goodness. I was in such a happy place.

Somewhere maybe around midnight, most of the group decided to head back. One of the younger girls, Sam, wanted to go to a club from the night before for one or two more drinks, so I joined along. We walked to Chapeau Rouge (Ooohhh my dear Chapeau), grabbed a drink and went to the dance floor. In Prague, many of the bars and clubs etc. are actually downstairs below street level. Apparently Prague has some fairly strict noise ordinances so late night venues go underground to keep the noise down. This bar has the main floor at street level, and then it has 2 or 3 more levels BELOW. Pretty neat actually. Other than that, it’s essentially like any other cliche club. Not exactly my style, but I was in such a good mood I didn’t much care.

We stood off to the side, half dancing and half talking. Eventually some Irish guys came over and started talking to Sam. We chatted with them for a bit and somehow decided we all wanted burritos. I have to say, I haven’t had a burrito since leaving the states, and when they said they had gotten burritos the night before, I could think of nothing else hahaha, so we walked about 15 minutes to a place called Burrito Loco.

These were actual delicious burritos, too. Not some trick Czech version of a burrito with pickles and cole slaw (I had one like that at Sziget…. That is not a burrito, people… do not trick me with “burrito” on the menu if you’re going to put pickles on it…. jerks). I was in heaven. The rest of them wanted to go play cards and keep drinking in their hostel, so I walked Sam there, finished my burrito, made sure she was safe, and headed back to my hostel to go to bed. What a bizarre and lovely night.

(taken the next day)

The next morning I got up a smidge earlier, and while getting my coffee and talking to folks I found out that one of the American girls, Sara, and a guy from.. Norway? were headed to the Prague Free Walking Tour. I saw an opportunity for friends and jumped on it! I scarfed down my breakfast and joined them.

Similar to Budapest, we met at a specific point in town where they then split everyone up into 3 or 4 groups. Our tour guide ended up being this super passionate redheaded American man who has lived in Prague for 11 years. You could REALLY tell how much he loves history and/or how much he loves Prague. He gave us SO much information, which for me was fantastic. I did my best to take notes, so here is the history I can piece together from what he told us…

Czech Republic / Prague Middle Ages History (I only took minimal time to back check and fill in details in this part soooooo it’s kind of vague and loose and may be wrong… if you’re that interested, check it out yourself and let me know):

There is a legend that the people that originally inhabited Prague were led by a woman with the gift of prophecy who told them to build a city there
Even though they loved and respected her, they told her to get a husband if she wanted to rule, so she found one and they ruled for 600 years
Around 1300: Fast forward a good few centuries… Wenceslas III became the King of Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland at 12 years old but was assassinated in 1306
His sister than took over and was married to John of Luxembourg (also known as John of Bohemia or John the Blind); John then ruled as King of Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland. He became blind around 1336, but died in 1346 during a battle
His son Charles IV (born in a building still on Old Town Square) then took over as King of Bohemia (but not the other countries); he was also chosen as “King of the Romans” around the same time
In 1355 he was elected Holy Roman Emperor and decided to make Prague the capital of the Holy Roman Empire
During his rule in Prague, he expanded the city and brought in a lot of wealth
Unfortunately when HE died in 1378 and HIS son took over, Wenceslas IV, he was kind of a jealous, greedy, drunk and started the Dark Ages.
During this time…. enter Jan Huss, a priest in Prague and outspoken critic of the church calling for reform; He was key to the development of Protestantism 100 years before Martin Luther
Huss had many followers (called Hussites)
He was burned at the stake in 1415
After he was killed, the angry Hussites came to town hall, broke down the doors, and threw the council members out the windows (the first Defenestration...at that time apparently throwing people out windows wasn’t attempted murder… you got in a small bit of trouble for throwing them out the window, but what happened to them after that was ‘ Up to God’)
Wenceslas IV then died of a heart attack in 1419
Basically after this, things got rowdy and led to 15 years of the Hussite Wars where the hussites used completely new war tactics and could not be defeated
Then Prague and Czech had about 100 years of calm and tolerance until the Habsburg Monarchy took over in 1526
Then in 1618 some folks started the Bohemian Revolt against the monarchy and started the Thirty Years’ War
Fast forward… during all this time, Jews who had been settled in the Prague area for centuries had been persecuted. There were many executions, and from some time in 15th century forward, all Jewish people were buried in what is now the Jewish Cemetery in Old Town. They were not given more space, and due to Jewish beliefs, bodies already interred cannot be moved, so they continued to add more soil on top and layer the graves. It is estimated that 150,000 people were buried here over the centuries
At some point, maybe as early as the 13th century, they were all forced to live in a small quarter within Prague and were unable to live or work elsewhere. In 1781 (or maybe 1850?… I found both dates), Joseph II emancipated them and allowed them to leave
Most who could afford to move out of the Jewish Quarter did so, so then the area truly became impoverished and a true “ghetto”
This area contains I believe 6 beautiful synagogues including one of the oldest functioning synagogues in Europe

Czech Republic / Prague Modern History:

The time between the world wars was seen as a golden age with a great economy
In the 1930s, Adolf Hitler demanded that Sudetenland (which consisted of the areas of Czechoslovakia bordering Germany and Austria inhabited by Sudeten Germans) be made autonomous from Czechoslovakia.
The Czechs did not want to give up these regions because they provided physical protections and barriers from oncoming threats, like the Nazis, and they stood little hope without it
Because everyone was trying to avoid another war, and Hitler did not want to be in the same room as a Czech, the Czech’s French and British allies met with Hitler instead to discuss the territory in the presence of a “neutral” moderator…. Mussolini. This was the Munich Conference
In the Munich Agreement, the entire territory was essentially handed over to Hitler, and Czechoslovakia was told they either had to give in or fight alone; Germany occupied the area soon after and eventually occupied all of Czechoslovakia
During World War 2, Czech and Slovakia separated, but then recombined after the war.
The country was ‘liberated’ in 1945 by the Soviet army
While the soviets occupied Czech, their secret police were executing people and seizing them from their homes. They had ‘Rank 1’ and ‘Rank 2’ officers which performed different duties. I think Rank 1 were actual soldiers where Rank 2 were essentially everyday civilians that acted as eyes and ears for the army... Listening to their neighbors, spying on their friends etc.
Most people were not allowed to leave the country and lived in constant fear
The archives listing the members of the soviet Ranks were never destroyed, so you can still go and find out who was in the secret police (apparently our guide’s girlfriend’s family had their neighbor “tell on them” and even after soviet occupation ended, they had to continue living next to them and still do.. I can’t imagine)
In the late 60’s, Alexander Dubcek took over the communist party in Czechoslovakia and tried to reform the government through the Prague Spring; he allowed citizens to leave the country, and he lifted censorship on art and media… his slogan was “Socialism with a human face”
Our tour guide described Dubcek as a sheep in wolf’s clothing; he apparently ran his campaign with a tougher exterior and more hardline appearance, but then when actually elected he implemented the above reforms to help slightly liberate the people of Czechoslovakia
Unfortunately later that year, the Soviets disliked what was going on, thought the country was becoming too liberal, and invaded
In 1969 and beyond, many people burned themselves alive in the middle of town squares as protests to show the hopelessness of the country. Although the media was suppressed, news still got out to the rest of the world, but nothing changed
Unrest and dissident movements continued to rise in the 70’s and 80’s until the Velvet Revolution in 1989 where 400,000 people came to protest in Wenceslas Square in Prague alone (other protests were happening all over the country) and the government peacefully transitioned into a democracy; this coincided with the fall of communism in many surrounding countries as well
A few years later in 1992 they went through the “Velvet divorce” where the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic peacefully became two separate countries

Czech Republic / Prague Fun facts:

The metro system in Prague was used as a nuclear bunker during the cold war
The Czech Republic drinks more beer per capita than any other country
It is also apparently one of the most atheist countries in the world now
Mozart, though he was Austrian, said that the people in Prague were the only people that understood him; his opera Don Giovanni actually premiered in Prague
Charles University in Prague (named after Charles IV) is the oldest university in central Europe (founded 1382)

…………...told you he talked a lot………

PHEW!

Ok. So. This Free Walking Tour which taught us the entire history of Czechia was about 3.5 hours long. At that point, Sara and I wanted to head up towards “the metronome” where there are some beer gardens and a decent view of the city for lunch. Unfortunately the metronome had randomly stopped working not too long before, but some shady beer gardens still sounded pretty nice. We grabbed a drink and some food from a cart (what they call kebab… I would call it closer to a gyro.. But kebab is more fun to say) and sat at a small picnic table overlooking the city while talking about life. Perfect.

After our late lunch, we walked back down the hill and parted ways. The description our guide had given of the Jewish cemetery and museum had really intrigued me, so I decided to go see that while it was still open. Basically when you buy a ticket for 350 CZK (~$16 USD), you get access to a few of the synagogues plus the cemetery and the museum (If you want to include the Old Synagogue it goes to 530 CZK or $24).

The synagogues are obviously beautiful, and the Pinkas synagogue/museum has an incredible tribute to the Czech people who perished in the Holocaust. They also have a small room filled with artwork by children who had been sent to concentration camps. Completely moving, heartbreaking, and inspiring to see that so many children could continue to find the beauty in the world while going through unimaginable experiences.

After hearing some of the background of the Jewish Cemetery, seeing that was also incredible moving for me.

After spending an hour or two wandering through the Jewish Quarter, I walked over to the Museum of Communism. It is open until 8pm so I thought it would work perfectly to walk through that before Family dinner.

Right in front of the museum, a small market place had been set up with food, clothing, and jewelry vendors, and a random 13 person band (like jazz band with trumpets, saxophones, trombones, etc.) was playing. I spent maybe 15 minutes wandering through there before heading into the museum.

I honestly thought this museum was incredibly well done (ticket = 290 CZK or ~13 USD). It was engaging, it had good visuals and lots of information put in a simple way that anyone could understand and relate to. I really, really enjoyed it. However, later on when I told one of the hostel workers that I really enjoyed it, he hesitated and told me it was done by an American. To me he was implying that it was maybe not that great or not completely accurate or from a biased viewpoint? I’m not sure exactly, but I guess take my opinion with a grain of salt.

I finally went back to the hostel for family dinner, and a group of maybe 10 of us sat around the living room having a couple of beers and talking while we waited. I cannot stress enough how incredible this experience was for me. No other hostel I have stayed in had this kind of welcoming and warm atmosphere.

After dinner, we ALL went out together. We started at a bar called Al Capones so that we could get Chupito’s (a type of shot). I missed part of the story that made this a joke, but I think it came down to the fact that the 18 year old I mentioned before had a few too many the night before…. And it was fun to say. Basically, at this bar at least (though my internet searching showed some varieties in the term), it was a shot with clear rum, lime juice, and a cocktail cherry in the bottom. I’ve had way worse shots (thanks, Matt), but I have also definitely had better.

We moved on from there, made a stop at a small convenient shop so that we could all buy a couple of beers, and then walked down to a spot by the river that is apparently a common nightlife hangout. There was a bar on a boat on the water, but most people (including us) were just standing around on the side of the river drinking. Even after 6 months of being in Europe, I am still not used to being able to drink in public places. I did learn, though, that the outdoor drinking laws in Prague are actually quite complex. There are very specific streets where you are NOT allowed to drink (because they are residential I think?), so you have to be really careful or be with someone who knows. At one point while walking to the dock, George (from the hostel) stopped and told us, “Hey, so up here, once we cross the street, you can’t drink anymore, so either finish your beer or hide it, please.” Haha. Makes no sense.

We then moved from the riverside location to an underground bar called Usudu. It felt like we were walking through old mining tunnels- I swear we went down 3 sets of stairs and made 4 turns down different corridors to get to the table where we ended up sitting down. My phone didn’t even have service, it was pretty cool haha. A few people had another drink here, but we mostly sat around talking and playing “guess everyone’s age” haha.

At that point about half the group split off to go back to the hostel, and the rest of us headed to a “salsa bar” that one guy had seen. Turned out the “salsa bar” was not fun, so we left there and went back to the good ol’ Chapeau. At that point there were 4 of us girls and I think 3 guys still out. We didn’t even order a drink at Chapeau before the girls decided we were hungry and would prefer to go find food ha. So. The guys stayed out dancing, and the girls went back towards the hostel in search of food and sleep. Ha. It wasn’t until about 3am as we sat around the table at the hostel eating our food when the irony hit us.

The next day I really had nothing left on my list I felt the need to go see, so I REALLY took my time. I slept in a little, said goodbye to a few others leaving that day, showered, coffee, packed up, etc. I took a couple of hours to find a semi-traditional Czech lunch and have one last Czech beer before I left.

Afterwards I went back to the hostel and hung out on the couch watching Netflix for half an hour with 1 or 2 others. It was super nice haha. A new girl named Ashley was checking in, so I chatted with her and Lewis and just tried to soak in my last few moments before I left this home I had found.

Then finally the time came and my taxi called up to take me to the airport. I grabbed my big suitcase, gave Lewis a hug, and started lugging myself down the stairs (remember, no elevator). I made it from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor, but as I continued from the 1st floor to the ground floor….I stumbled. Probably some combination of the stairs being semi-slick, me wearing sandals, and me not necessarily paying as much attention as I should have while carrying a huge, heavy suitcase down stairs. I stumbled hard enough that my immediate thought while it was happening was “Wooowww this isn’t going to be good.” Haha. But I was able to catch myself and my suitcase without more than a bruise and scrape… or so I thought :-)

I felt that I had scratched my left arm on the railing when it shot out to balance myself, but when I looked at it… it was more than a scratch haha. It didn’t even hurt, but...hmm… how to put this in a delicate way… Basically it had completely broken through the skin which allowed it to… open up a bit. So. It wasn’t great. Even though I wanted to think, “Ok, just need a bandaid,” I knew this was worse than that. I finished taking my suitcase down to the taxi while trying not to bleed on the steps haha, and then asked him to wait while I got some bandaging. I buzzed back up to the hostel, and told Lewis I had cut myself pretty badly. When I got back upstairs, I was honestly still pretty calm and in a “I’m handling it” mode. Lewis tried to be strong and help but got pretty queasy hahah. I think seeing him so affected by it then let my brain know that I SHOULD care a little more, and I came pretty close to fainting myself. So, I sat on the floor until it passed. As I held a paper towel to the wound, I decided I really did need to go to the hospital to get stitches.

Lewis went down to the taxi and told him he needed to reroute to the hospital instead of the airport, and Ashley… oh my dear, sweet, angelic Ashley… the girl I had JUST met and who had JUST arrived in Prague… offered to go with me. Under most circumstances in my life, I would never inconvenience a stranger like that, but considering I was sitting on the floor, sweating, had almost fainted, and had a sizeable open wound, I agreed.

I called Matt on the way to let him know what was going on, and when we arrived at the hospital I took out my credit card to pay the taxi (because.. Yes.. I still had to pay the man even though I was literally bleeding in front of him hahah). I had paid the taxi TO the hostel on Monday night with a card, but this guy… “Oh.. no.. I don’t accept card.”

I laughed in his face. Seriously? I had rationed out my cash to make sure I didn’t get stuck bringing home $50 USD worth of Czech kronos, so I literally had zero cash. Zero.

Alright. Well. I guess I will find an ATM… with an open wound covered by a paper towel and some tape. No problem, sir. Your convenience is what matters to me most.

So I did a quick Google Map search to see if there was anything nearby (I wasn’t sure if there would be one in the hospital, or where it would be so I thought staying outside would be better). It APPEARED there was one about a 4 minute walk away. I left Ashley with my suitcase and navigated that direction. I don’t know what drugs Google Maps was on that day, but the location it had marked as an ATM was like a guard shack for a neighborhood.

Alright. Let’s try again.

I wandered another 10 minutes or so trying to find another one showing on map, and I ended up walking into the hospital from some side entrance. I felt like I really was not supposed to be in that area, but as I very obviously wandered aimlessly, no one said anything. I tried to stop a couple of people and ask if they spoke english, but they said no and kept walking. Ok. Eventually I asked a man in overalls for a “bancomat”, and he waved to have me follow him. Down a hall, turn right, turn left, up some stairs, turn left, turn right… and finally.. An ATM. Excellent. Ok. Got my cash, but now I needed to find my way back to the taxi from my location in middle earth.

I think a full 30-45 minutes had passed in total by the time I returned to our drop off point and paid the taxi (for the ride PLUS the time he had to wait for me to find cash...goodness gracious).

Alright, now for the ACTUAL task at hand- figuring out where in this Czech hospital to go to get me some stitches!

We were at an Emergency Room entrance, so I felt like that was a good start, but at the first desk we saw, the lady (who spoke no english) communicated that we were in the pediatric wing and we needed the adult wing. She tried to tell us where to go, but...after the first door we were lost again. We tried a left turn and walked down a hallway, but it still didn’t feel right. I tried to translate a sign or two, but no go. Luckily someone walked by that was ACTUALLY able to direct us to the adult wing.

I again went to the first desk I saw, and that woman then directed me to a desk across the room. The woman THERE had me go up a floor to the Foreign Medical Services office. Good grief. Funny thing.. It was right by the ATM I had been to, and I hadn’t even noticed :-)

So I checked in with the office, and she then sent us back downstairs for actual treatment. That original lady then gave me a number to sit and wait. Making progress. Within a few minutes the doctor called me back so he could take a look and understand the extent of the injury. He spoke EXCELLENT english and immediately made me feel at ease. He put proper gauze on it and told me he would call me back after he treated one other patient. We only had to wait about 45 minutes before he had me back there again.

Then in all of about 15 minutes, I was cleaned, stitched, and bandaged. The amount of bandaging seemed way overkill, but I didn’t mind haha. He told me that in 2-3 days I needed to have a surgeon inspect the stitches to make sure they were healing properly, and in 10 days the stitches would need to be removed. Awesome, because foreign hospitals are my new favorite thing so… let’s just do as much of this as possible.

Ashley and I made our way back outside, but again had to wander a bit so that we could both catch Ubers- me to the airport and her to the hostel.

Yes, I had missed my original flight, and yes, I bought a ticket for the last direct flight to Paris from Prague while on the way to the airport.

The Prague airport is super small, so checkin and everything went very quickly, but they did have to do an extra scan and substance test on my bandage hahahah.

I finished my last couple of hours in Prague having a beer and goulash at a restaurant near my gate while reflecting on the ridiculousness that is my life sometimes.

There is absolutely no way that I will ever forget this city, this hostel, this experience, or the people that I met here. Prague may not have the most exciting ruins or oldest castles or most diverse population, but for me it felt very much like a home away from home that completely captured my heart.

I love you, Prague!!

[Life Is Art]

See you soon!!!