Prauge

Another late night and early morning turn around. Bec took us up to the castle district to look around. Last night, when Pearse and I were power napping, Bec handed out our 24 hour metro passes. She gave ours to our roommate, Dan. Dan gave them to Pearse because he stayed in last night, so he was up earlier than me. I had about 5 minutes to get myself ready and get to the meeting spot. At this point, I still had no idea our metro cards were handed out. I got down to the meeting point where we walked about 5 minutes up the road to the train. This is when I realized I didn't have a card and everyone else did. So I asked Bec she told me she gave it to Dan, I asked Dan who told me he gave it to Pearse, so I asked Pearse where it was and he said "oh you didn't see it?" The train we were taking was arriving in 2 minutes, so I just decided I'd get on the next train. I ran back to the hostel and looked at the table Pearse said he put it on and said I should have seen it on. It was just covered in all his shit lol. So I moved everything and there it was. Under his toiletrie bag lol. All good. I grabbed it and ran back to see everyone still waiting at the stop for me. It turns out they put it to a vote, to wait for me or not. I guess they like me lol. A couple of them went into the coffee shop while waiting for me, and unfortunately, it was busy in there. The next train pulled up, and we were instructed by Bec to get on. No vote for them. We just left them behind lol. I did feel guilty but better them than me. When we finally got there, it was so cool to see this castle that can be seen all across the city up close. It's massive. It kind of reminded me of a super mini Sagrada Familia. Outside, there was a cage sitting next to a fountain. We learned the cage was a "shame cage" so if a lady was accused of being a witch, they'd put her in there for people throw things at or shame her in any way they could. Pearse and a group wanted to go inside the castle, but I left to go tour some other stuff. I walked across Charles Bridge and through the city with a different group of people. The group I was with stopped for a classic Czech dessert, trdelník. It looked so good, but I wasn't feeling like straight sugar and ice cream at 11 am. It's a pastry cone that's coated in sugars and stuffed with ice cream, cream, and berries. That's the one I thought about getting anyway. My group met back up with Pearses group for lunch. We decided on a Czech BBQ spot. Even though it was pricey for lunch, it was the best lunch I've had so far. There were 11 of us, and 10 of us ordered 1kg of pork knuckle. All the flavors sounded so good as well. There was a lemon grass, honey mustard, spicy, or BBQ flavors. I got the spicy. I tried the honey mustard one, though, and i think it was better. The meat on my knuckle was falling off the bone and so tender. I was the only one to eat the whole thing lol. I regretted it after cause I was so full and so tired. We walked around for a little while and ended up at the astronomical clock for the turning of the hour by pure chance. The clock itself is beautiful, and the show at the top of the hour was pretty silly, actually. We all got a little laugh out of it. I needed a nap so bad after that pork knuckle, and we had a walking tour called Hidden Prauge, so we trained back to the hostel, and I passed out. It was a weird sleep because I was having really strange dreams as well as sleep talking to our roommate, but I was aware of everything while that was happening, at least I thought I was because Pearse basically had to assault me to wake me up lol. Again, after getting ready and to the meeting spot 5 minutes after waking up, I was on time. We met our tour guide, Bruno, by far the best tour guide we have had on this trip. We started out in a restaurant with a couple of charcuterie boards laid out and did a Czech brandy tasting. Two brandy shots, one was 48% and the other was 34%. I think the stronger one went straight to everyone's dome, even Bruno. After we went to one of the only parks in Prauge, of course it was beautiful. There were bee houses set up with cool engraving on them and more peacocks walking around. We even did a peacock ritual dance just for funsies. There was a random plaque on a wall almost 4 meters up. That was the marking of the great flood that occurred in 2001. The next stop was the river bed so we could look at Charles Bridge and also see where previous floods have risen to. The longer this tour went on for the more I was falling in love with Prauge. It was such a beautiful city. After their biggest flood ever in 2001 they installed flood gates near the river but since they haven't been used lol. After the river, he took us to a traditional pub. It was traditional because it was in a cellar because that's where beer was aged back in the days, it was the only way to keep it cool. We've been playing a drinking game called Buffalo, if you drink with your dominant hand and someone yells Buffalo, you have to finish your drink. Pearse was learning the proper Czech cheers with Bruno, and half the group yelled Buffalo, so he slammed his beer. We were only supposed to stop for one beer, but when I saw Pearse get a fresh one, I had to get one as well. Everyone was chugging their beers, and Bruno just kept bringing them for us. He ended up bringing Pearse and I 3L of beer in 45 minutes lol. We stayed longer than we were supposed to, but even Bruno was loving it. Eventually, we had to leave. We all kinda stumbled down to the Lennon wall next. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip so far. Lots of us lifted Pearse up as high as we could, and he wrote "Contiki 2024" right under the lip of the wall. After we were all given sharpies to right our names on this wall covered in graffiti. I sat on pearses shoulders to write our names up, then he got on mine to add a little love letter under it lol. We got an alright selfie, too. The tour ended after walking across Charles Bridge and going to an underground bar. The bar had this stupid system where you upload your money on a blank card and you scan it when you want drinks. The first thing we were told was don't lose this card because you won't just lose what you put on it, you have to pay for it when you leave. I think I lost mine in the first hour. There was no money on it, luckily. I really didn't want to pay for the card, though, so I made sure to leave with a big group, and I gave the bouncer my hostel key card, which is identical. He took it and said nothing, I saw him try and scan it to verify, so I rushed outside and mixed in with the group. A couple minutes later, the bouncer came back out, yelling about somebody key card. Who could that be? We left and went to the same club I was at last night. Again, prauge is one of my favorite places I've been. It's so hard to choose.Read more