A Paradise called Praha

Day 1

So we started our Prague adventure on Tuesday after getting out from our classes. We double checked our bags and made sure they were the right dimensions for them to let us carry them on, because the cheap airlines are super strict and we’re only allowed one small bag each.Lucky for us, they fit!! So we got ourselves to the train station, onto the Gatwick Express to the Gatwick Airport. Once we got past security, they had a whole freaking mall inside, and since we were in an international airport, there was no tax. Victory!!! And since we were super-duper early, courtesy Elise (love her,) we had time to shop our little hearts out! I love London shopping….

But then we hopped on the EasyJet to Prague! I got to chat with Julie and Elise the whole way over. It was so fun to get to know Julie better, because she's in a different room as us, so therefore, we never really had the chance to talk to her. But we have Tons in common!!

But I knew as soon as we were through the airport that I was going to love it here. My customs dude who stamped my passport was way Way hot, and the guy who picked us up from the airport rocked. It was a sign. Hahahaha! After that, we just chilled in our amazing five star Marriott for the night (which we were able to get SUPER cheap, thanks Paige and her Mom!) I LovE the cheap pampering experience. What a perfect start to a perfect birthday weekend! We were super excited for the Marriott because it had a hot tub, but we got there and it was broken. Remember this fact, because it comes into play later…

Look at our fancy, nice, relaxing, and perfect hotel room!

Haha, nobody knows why I am under the bed. I would.

Day 2

So we woke up Wednesday morning, consulted the concierge, and followed her recommendation to a breakfast place right down the street. We got to eat REAL eggs!!! We haven’t had a hot breakfast since we arrived in London, so that was absolutely heaven. The rest of our day was just super relaxed and low key, which made the day that much more enjoyable; usually we are rushing around to accomplish everything in such a short time, but in Prague we just got to relax. We then walked around the cobblestone streets past the Municipal House, then to Old Town Square where they have the astronomical clock. It was like a monstrous grandfather clock! And at the end, there was a guy playing a trumpet from the top of the tower. And of course this inspired us to pay to go to the top of the tower at the Old Town Hall to see the view of the city.

We were lookin Good in Liz's sunglasses!

In Prague, there are little flower stands all over the place.

Here we are at our luxury breakfast!

This is the Municipal House. We walked by it a million times a day.

We have gotten so dang good at jumping pictures!
And we even found a Hard Rock Cafe :)

The view overlooking Old Town Square was so beautiful, but in the background we could see the mini-Eiffel-Tower and the castle! Walking up the tower was unique, because there was a giant, twisting ramp instead of stairs—how crazy! And in the ground floor of this Old Town Hall, we went into this room with amazing ceiling art. There was an open door, so we went inside. After a quick photo, a lady came in and was frantically telling us in broken English that we had to leave that room and we weren’t supposed to be in there. So of course we said sorry and quickly followed her out. She then LOCKED the door. It was only after the door was locked that we remembered Ramzi had gone down some dark stairwell inside the locked room. Bahahahaha Oh boy.

This is Old Time Square and the Astronomical Clock.

Here we are at the top of the tower above the clock.

Notice the castle in the distance?

It was all so pretty! I loved the red roofs.

We never figured out what this old chapel is but it's pretty!

This ceiling in the Old Town Centre was way cool.

Here's the creepy room where Ramzi got locked in...!

Of course we would ask the little man to pose with us...

Then we wandered in the direction of the Vltava River and the castle beyond it, leading us to Charles Bridge. The bridge is way old, cobblestone, and has massive religious statues of saints lining both sides the entire way down. There were little old men playing Jazz music, street vendors selling art, photography, jewelry etc, and people everywhere. I am not quite sure how it happened, but we girls found ourselves posing in a picture with some young Italian man; of course he did the little “kiss kiss” thing on both cheeks. His sicko super-long stubble wasn’t appealing, though.

Here we are on Charles' Bridge.

After stopping to eat the best bagel known to mankind at “Bohemia Bagels” and “Bohemian churro thingies” we were off again. We made our way up to the Praha Hrad (the LARGEST CASTLE IN THE WORLD) Yeah, we’re That cool We took tons of fun pictures. We took a photo with one of the statue-like soldiers. When Ramzi said “Sorry about this” when he was starting to take the picture, the guard totally slipped a half-smile. Oops! And I saw a massive birdcage that totally reminded me of Dad and his obsession of birds and birdcages.

Oh, Bohemian Bagles...

These Churro things are amazing.

This soldier totally cracked a smile. Victory.

Here's the Birdcage that made me think of Dad..This was the cool Cathedral.

We went in the St. Vitus Cathedral (in the castle) that had amazing stained glass and crazy relics. I have learned tons about the holy relics found in cathedrals, but this one had an entire skeleton inside a glass case. CREEPY! And it was built with Romanesque architecture. Most of the cathedrals here in London are Gothic cathedrals, so it was a change. By now, it was castle-closing time, so we wandered around the exterior for a while longer before leaving. Since it’s on the top of a hill, the view was stellar.

The stained glass was so cool! It colored the whole room.

Inside....

Here was the holy relic. We couldn't find any info on who it was.

Some random alley..
We got artistic with our photos...

Above: Tried to be all serious with our scarfs and sunglasses. Failed.

Below: Us laughing because the first picture looked retarded.

Then as we approached the far end of the bridge, we ran into the Elders! We were so surprised to see them there. Liz and I went to high school with a boy serving in Prague, so we asked them if they knew him. Of course they did, and of course they wrote down a message from us and said they would call him later that evening and relay our message. Bahahaha. Oh, Stanzy (Elder Spencer Stansfield) will be so surprised to hear from Liz Bevan and Flammdunk.

On the bridge again....
and then.. Missionaries!
(It was so funny, we almost went up and posed with them like a normal picture, but then we were afraid of even touching them at all, so we all ended up on our own row. Bahaha! The two closest to me are coming to BYU in the spring.

We love the souvenir hats!

We ate dinner On a Boat that night! Our shuttle-driver recommended it to us. It was ultra fancy and super nice, but it was the same price as any cheap meal here in London. Score!It’s called the Marina Grosseto Ristorante. It was crazy being somewhere so nice on a vacation without Mom and Dad there…. If you’re ever in Praha, it’s a Must. We ended our night with some running/biking in the Marriott gym and a huge card-tournament! Uno and Egyptian Rat screw. Fabulous.

Our restaurant..

Look at our view from our fancy boat-dinner!

Day 3

Since we’re good little students, we started the day off with something historically significant. We went to the Jewish Quarter. A short walk from our hotel, we bought tickets to go to two of the Museums there, the Pinkas synagogue, and the Jewish cemetery. The synagogue is now a Holocaust memorial with the names of 80,000 murdered Bohemian Jews on the walls. It was especially neat for me because it had a monument built for the Jews killed in the concentration camps, and the name of the concentration camp My Grandpa NYLAN ELLSWORTH invaded and freed was listed. I’m so proud of him and lucky to have such a courageous Grandpa. He was sure a cutie and I love him so much.

The walls inside the memorial were painted with all the names of Jews who were killed in Concentration camps.

Look how packed the graveyard was! It's really neat that this graveyard survived years of Nazi occupation in Prague. Most of the Jew cemeteries were not so lucky.

The Jewish cemetery was insane, as well. There are 12,000 tombstones in that tiny area, all stacked up right next to each other and tipping all over the place. This is because there are 100,000 bodies buried there since Jews were only allowed to be buried in that one cemetery. There are bodies stacked under there, and the ground is literally raised.

Then we discovered a souvenir shop that was big, open, and bright that still had the cheap prices. So of course I bought a shirt that said “Czech ME Out.” Remember this store, because it comes back into play tomorrow for quite a dramatic story.

Our Barbarian Feast came next. We had ham that had been roasting on a stick all day in Old Town Square (we saw them hours earlier that morning…) The sausage was good, too, but I was all about the ham. After this, we were absolutely exhausted so we went back to the hotel and took a quick three-hour power nap. Haha, Oopsy!!

We could smell this heavenly feast from a mile away.

We went to the Communist Museum, but after checking out the lobby, decided it wasn’t a very high quality exhibition and moved on. But the poster was cool. Instead, we decided to go to the National Gallery. It was up St. Wenceslas square, so we got to walk up the famous street with huge fancy shopping stores. For some reason, the museum was free just for today, so we totally scored. The exhibits there were totally random; for most of it I felt like I was walking through the National Geographic exhibit! But Mission Impossible was filmed in this building, which was cool. And since some of us were less into museums than others, we split up for a while. My little group left the museum and just let ourselves get lost in the city. So beautiful!

The Museum of Communism ad. We were trying to be scary like the doll. It won.

Here we are in front of the National Galery/Museum.

These are the Stairs from the movie.

Liz & I at the top of Wencelas Square.

This picture is called "Peer Pressure"
Definitely my first taste of Beer. [since that one time when I was 4]
(Non-alcoholic, of course.)

But our virgin cocktails were much tastier!

You can’t go to the Czech Republic without trying any legit Czech food, so we found a traditional Czech restaurant, Cellnice. We had goulash, fried cheese, gnocchi, farmer’s chicken, and some pot roast, complete with many different types of dumplings, etc. It was surprisingly Fabulous! We ordered the six dishes and passed them around in a circle, each taking three bites of each until they were all gone—that was so much fun! And Julie, Liz and I got ourselves some pre-birthday Cocktails! (Virgin, of course, but still..) They were so yummy! Ramzi walked back to the table holding a glass of non-alcoholic beer and tried to convince us that it was real beer. Too bad we didn’t fall for it! We tasted it, and it was seriously NASTY. Like a mixture of home-made roll dough (which is way good in real life) and llama urine. I don’t understand how anybody likes that nasty concoction of sickliness. And to complete our night, we went and played yet another night of card games in our rooms: Uno and Egyptian Rat Screw. And of course, I loved every second of it. I always forget how competitive I am while playing cards…