I’M IN PRAGUE!!!!!!
Much to my liking, after months of anticipation, over 9 hours on an airplanes, and what felt like miles of dragging luggage through the bumpy streets of the Czech Republic, we have finally arrived and settled down in Prague! Overall, the trip here couldn’t have gone much smoother. In all of our travels, no one in our group encountered any problems with security or customs and our flights both departed and arrived on time!
We left Newark around 9:00pm on Monday night and arrived in Heathrow, England at about 9:00am. Because this was my first time visiting Europe and I was very excited, I found myself unable to sleep much during the flight. I watched a few movies and ate lots of interesting airplane food. I never knew that mango cheesecake came in a liquid form… I must admit I prefer the solid. From my view in the sky over Eastern Europe, the characteristic which surprised me most was the abundance of flat land with very little hills and mountains. I also noticed that almost all of the houses and businesses had brown roofs as opposed to the United States’ traditional grey/black roofing. When we arrived in Heathrow, we were five hours ahead of the time back home and my lack of sleep was beginning to catch up with me. But, I was so excited to be in Europe, and because we had a 6 hour layover, a group of us decided to take a bus out to Windsor!
Windsor, England is home to the Windsor Castle, which is one of the residences of the English Royal Family. On our bus ride over, we were discussing which stops we would need to use when a woman sitting behind us joined our conversation and began to help us with directions. She lived in Windsor and was kind enough to let us know when we needed to get off the bus, give us some advice on what to do while we were there for our brief time, and even recommended a cheap but delicious caf� where we could grab a quick lunch. When we arrived outside the castle, there was a large crowd of people gathered in the street. Within 10 minutes, we were able to see the “changing of the guard” where a group of soldiers marched to the castle to switch guards within the castle. We then took a Top-Bus tour around Windsor and finally ate lunch at the caf�.
After Windsor, we were back to the airport and soon on our second flight from Heathrow to Prague. Before the plane even left the ground I was asleep and I woke up to the plane landing in Prague. After a few hours of gathering the group together, collecting baggage, exchanging currency, and buying cell phones, we were on the bus to our guest house.
The guest house is a small bed and breakfast owned by a woman who is friends with Professor Elavsky. She only recently began to learn English, so our conversation with her is mostly interpreted through Elavsky. After lugging baggage up the stairs and taking a chance to freshen up, we went out for dinner at a restaurant down the street from our house. We were all beyond exhausted and called it an early night to catch some sleep before our travels on Wednesday.
That’s all for now! Can’t wait to travel! Loving life in Prague!