Prague

I arrived in Prague on Wednesday after bawling my eyes out for four hours while finishing Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close on an otherwise pleasant train ride from Berlin.

Prague has been almost disappointingly normal. I've heard more English in this city than in Amstedam and Berlin combined as the streets are nearly 100% filled with American tourists. I don't feel like I'm in Prague, I feel like I'm at Epcot. I can't imagine living here.

My first night in town, Dan picked me up from the train station and took me out to meet some of his friends. Unlike Ben, all of Dan's friends are Americans so my experience with them was completely different from my experience with Ben's friends in Berlin. The next day, I was out wandering the city (lost, actually) when I heard someone say, "... Laurie?" I looked up and it was Dan's roommate! An hour later, I was sitting in a tea shop when a couple walked in and I looked up and it was Dan's friends Dave and Petra. Seriously bizarre.

Yesterday was cold and drizzly and uncomfortably windy which made for unpleasant getting lost weather. Unfortunately, that's exactly what I did and the whole day ended up being kind of a bust as a result. Today I'm armed with a map and written directions.

Last night, Dan and I went to dinner at a "traditional" Czech restaurant (which was suspiciously frequented by only Americans). We're both vegetarian which kind of limits your options since most of Czech cuisine seems to involve things like "pig knuckles". I ate fried camembert cheese with tartar sauce and fried potatoes. We followed up this healthy treat with Lion bars which are candy bars that are apparently too delicious to be legally sold in the United States. It's basically a Kit Kat bar wrapped in a Snickers bar wrapped in a Crunch bar. I thought I was going to be sick.

At dinner, we decided to sit outside because it was such a beautiful evening but about ten minutes after sitting down, the restaurant was hit by some sort of hurricane. The video below doesn't appropriately depict the EXTREME DRAMA of the situation. The roof almost blew off, I'm not kidding you.



Anyway, ten minutes later it was over and we were treated to a beautiful rainbow over the city as compensation.



Tonight is Dan's goodbye party (he's moving back to the States on Sunday) and then tomorrow I'm off to Krakow.