Update from Prague

I've been in Prague for about 2 days now and I'm loving it just as much, if not more than the last time I was here. It has been absolutely amazing! We got in at about 10 pm on Monday night and went to our hostel which turned out to be AMAZING. They told us that we were in room 15 and that it was out the back door and on the right. Well, we walk out the back door and we are in this gorgeous garden/courtyard that even has a Christmas tree, then we find number 15 and we realize that it's weird because it's a separate building. The reason for this is that pretty much it's a cottage, complete with a kitchen and two bedrooms (4 beds in one room and 6 in the other, though only 2 other people are staying in it other than us at the moment, so we have a whole room to ourselves). The whole place is super homey and the people are really really nice and breakfast is even included. The best part is that all of this (plus huge lockers to store our belongings while we're out) only cost us 10E a night!

Our first night we pretty much went straight to bed because we had been awake since 3 am, but we did spend a few minutes going through flyers of things to do and one of the things we found was for free tours ("free" as in they dont charge you, but ask for tips at the end, which is still cheaper than any of the other tour companies in town). We ended up going on all 3 tours that they offer. The first was in the afternoon on Tuesday and it took us around the left bank area (things like the Charles Bridge and the Castle) and then last night we took the Ghost and Beer tour which actually wasn't free, but was only 200kc (about 8E) and included a beer at a pub at the end of the tour. Then we got up this morning and went on the right bank tour which takes you around the city centre and through the new town and the jewish quarter. All in all it was totally worth it. It was tons and tons of walking, but we learned SO much and the tour guides were extremely nice and we got to see pretty much the entire city. It also gave us a good idea of places we'd like to go back to and explore on our own. After the tour we went to a restaurant that the tour guide recommended because you got a 2 course meal for 95kc (a little less than 4E). It was really good and we ended up eating with some other US kids who had been studying abroad this past semester. The first course was a pea soup (which I cant believe I actually liked, but it was delicious) and then you got to choose from 3 main dishes and I got the chicken and pasta in a cream sauce and Amanda (the friend I'm traveling with) got grilled turkey kebabs and fries (the third option was a small potato pancake, cabbage, and smoked meat). Everyone definitely enjoyed their meal. This afternoon we went to a huge Starbucks and sat upstairs in a window that overlooks Vaclavske Namesti (a huge shopping square/street in the centre of town), then we went to the Mucha Museum and after this stop at an internet cafe we're going to make our way over to the restaurant that I went to with my dad when we were here before.

Tomorrow I think we're going to try to go ice skating and to the Communism Museum and also to the Prague Castle to really go into things (we didn't get a chance to go into any of the buildings during the tour, we just walked through it). Now we're off to dinner and I've spent a fair amount of time on the computer. I'll try to update again later!