Given I woke up smelling like an ash tray from the night before, the first stop was a hot shower. I borrowed a hairdryer from the front desk and got ready to tackle the world, starting with a 9 am breakfast. Stacy was back in action, so the 6 of us enjoying breakfast in the hotel restaurant. We checked out after breakfast and stored our luggage with reception.
Our plan was to head to the Prague Castle. It was kind of a far walk and another crisp morning, so Stacy decided it would be best if she stuck it indoors for the day. We dropped her off at the Communism Museum (conveniently located by two symbols of capitalism- a McDonalds and a Casino). We headed towards the river and asked some policemen the best way to get to the castle. They spoke little English and just pointed so we headed that way.
We crossed the bridge and into Castletown. Immediately we were surrounded by more beautiful Czech architecture lining cobblestone streets. The cobblestone was not good for my feet which had been cramping up, but I powered through. We hiked up the hill and towards the castle, the hill was steep and our legs were burning. But it has been my experience that the hardest climbs lead to the best views. We were not disappointed.
The Prague Castle was beautiful. It out-shown Buckingham Palace but had similar looking guards, serious faces, stupid outfits. Except these guards had a bayonet or machete looking gun, one with a big knife at the end. Time was short so we didn't have much time to spend at the castle. It was so beautiful, but more beautiful was St. Vitas Church behind it. Magnificent, intricate. We had a nice man take a group photo and like all the photographers thus far, he bent down, committed to the photo, and got a great shot. I think it's on Stevie's Camera though.
We headed down the hill and Jen and I shared a sugar roll. A traditional Czech sweet usually served with hot wine. Claire had some bartering to do for her garnets, so me and Laura looked around a bit and headed to pick up some souvenirs. Nothing for me, just some souvenirs for momma. Laura and I hit the grocery store to spend the remaining crowns and get some snacks for our train ride. It was hard to figure out what I was buying since all the names were in Czech. We checked out where Laura got yelled at in Czech for having a ripped bill, a little scary, but harmless nonetheless.
We congregated at the hotel, picked up our luggage, and headed to the train station, like travel warriors, ready to take on another city. Prague had been good to us, minus the hospital incident (even that went remarkably well considering). We grabbed lunch at the station, and were grossed out by the numbers of pigeons flying around near the Burger King. That and all the dogs inside. A definite Europe thing. We boarded the train and searched for seats, which proved to be slightly diffiicult since most of the cars were first class. Ofcourse the only few seats happened to be by a woman and her fluffy dog with a barrette in its hair. Ridiculous. Luckily we all found seats and when the train emptied out at different stops we were able to move closer together so we could chat. We talked about things you talk about when you've been with each other for 6 days, like top 5 songs of all time, or if you are Claire and Jen, favorite musical numbers. Undoubtably we are six very different people, except for our general weirdness. Which became apparent when Claire became to re-enact her favorite Youtube video about energy drink that makes mother nature tell you to slow down. As ridiculous as it sounds.
We arrived in Vienna at Wein Miedling at 7:30 and once we got our bearings straight, we searched out for Alyssa and Diana who we were meeting there. Both are studying in Vienna and fellow Illinois students. Alyssa is another girl in my business fraternity and also a sophomore in the Honors Program. And Diana is one of the girls who went to Turkey with me and roommate of Stevie. Small world seriously. Alyssa had offered for us to crash on her floor and while a hard floor wasn't appealing for my back, it was for my wallet. Stevie was staying with Diana. Laura and Stacy had a hostel and Jen was staying with an old family friend who she hadn't seen since she was 4. Alyssa and Diana pointed the other girls in the right direction. We headed in the direction of the Eramus Haus and got settled. Alyssa has a big room which she shares with a girl (actually she is like 26) from Singapore who is a music major- the recorder to be exact. Fantastic. Claire said she mastered it in the 2nd grade.
We headed up to Diana's room and met some new friends. David and Chris, fellow U of I guys. We met Diana's roommate Kailin who also goes to U of I. It was like Champaign all over. Stacy and Laura came, and we ended up playing this game called 21. Part of the game I had to bust out my sweet running man moves, since Laura loves those. More team Illinois arrived, including Sean, another MHS grad and fellow Honors kid. We all headed out, like a mob of 25 Americans. Laura was feeling like she was in America. That's how we roll, in swarms. Kailin and Alyssa made sure that Laura and Stacy would be able to get home, by writing the directions on their arm.
We headed to the Proterdome, a Vienna club that is a Thursday Night favorite of Alyssa and Diana's. We checked our coats and got our ID cards. They took our picture (overkill much?) and got our "tab cards". You buy your drinks with the card and then pay at the end of the night. Sounds like a great way to get people to spend more than they want. The place was smart, I could tell you that, and they even had a place to buy pizza instead the club. Ingenius for sure. Laura and I had a cosmopolitan and hit the dance floor with the rest of our friends. The place had like 4 rooms with different types of music from Barbie Girl to techno. We danced it out and me and Laura did our favorite Australian dance moves.
After a while, we decided to head home. Long day. We caught a cab with David, who spoke German to the cab driver, and Alyssa and headed back to Alyssa's to crash on the floor using an extra blanket she had and a pillowcase I had brought stuffed with clothes as a pillow. Ingenius, creative, you do what you got to do.
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