Day Six: Prague / Return to Paris

View from the climb to the Castle

Friday (the 20^th) was my last day in Prague. Patrick and Chris were staying in Prague an extra night, and Brandon was staying an extra three nights with family friends. We woke up, checked out of the apartment we rented, and headed to the hostel that Patrick and Chris were staying in that night. We dropped all of our luggage off there so that we didn’t have to haul it around all day. Since we had done separate things the day before and were all leaving at different times, we decided it would be best to do our own separate things. I took the metro to the bottom of the Prague Castle, which sits atop a giant hill overlooking the city. I hiked all the way up and stopped a few times to take some pictures of the beautiful red rooftops. Once at the top, I walked around a bit and admired the massive church that sits there.

I walked back down (so much more pleasant than the walk up) and made my way back over to the Charles Bridge. I walked around that area for a bit until I couldn’t put off my stomach growling any longer. The authentic restaurant we went to the night before was supposed to have amazing goulash, so I was devastated when I got there to find that they were all out. It was my mission to have goulash for lunch- I didn’t want to leave without trying it! The night before, we went out and I met a very friendly Czech girl named Lenka. I asked her where to get some good goulash, and she recommended a restaurant called Lokál. I walked over there for lunch and ordered what I had come for. Within minutes, the plate of tender beef arrived at my table. After just one bite, I knew that it was the best thing I’d tasted in months. The beef needed absolutely no knife; just one poke with my fork and it fell apart into the rich pool of sauce it was sitting in. It came with a mixture of bread and potato dumplings on the side- both were good, but the bread ones were my favorite. Just as I was finishing and thinking to myself “that was awesome, but didn’t fill me up enough”, a mind-reading waiter came over to my table and said “Would you like more dumplings and sauce?” Would I ever!? He came over with a big gravy boat of sauce and filled my plate up along with some more of the fabulous bread dumplings to soak it up. This meal was phenomenal- even writing about it makes me want to hop back on a plane and get some more. My only complaint is that it only came with four small pieces of beef. There really wasn’t much meat at all, but it was so tasty I was willing to overlook that fact. In typical Prague fashion, the hearty meal came out to be under $6.

 

While I was sitting by myself at the restaurant, I decided to tap into the wifi and FaceTime my family. It was around 8am their time, so I figured they would be up. I wanted to see and talk to them just before they left for the airport. They were so excited to leave for Paris in a few hours and I loved seeing them. Video chatting astounds me. It was almost as if my family was right there in the restaurant with me. I probably looked crazy talking to my iPod, but I don’t care- it was so worth it.

 

I then headed back to the hostel to grab my bags and get going to the airport. I took the metro then the city bus all the way to the airport, where I waited for a couple of hours until my plane came. I flew EasyJet (a budget airline) for the first time, and it was all very smooth. Getting back to my homestay was, unfortunately, nowhere near as easy as the flight. I booked a shuttle in advance, and the confirmation email told me to go to Terminal 1 then call the company for further instructions. After I got to Terminal 1 (around 11:45 pm), I called, only to be told to go back to Terminal 2, exit  10, where I’d come from. I begrudgingly trekked all the way back and waited for the shuttle. After about 20 minutes of waiting outside the dark, abandoned terminal all by myself, I called the company to see where the taxi was. Of course, nobody answered any of the seven calls I made. I was getting approached by some shady characters asking me God knows what, which made me start to get a little panicky. I decided that I would take the next taxi that passed by me. As luck would have it, no taxis came. It was half past midnight, I was stranded at the airport, and creepy men were trying to talk to me. I did the only logical thing I could think of and started crying. When I finally found a cab, the driver told me he didn’t accept credit cards. Of course, I didn’t have any euros on me since I’d just come from a non-euro country. Between sobs, I asked him what I was supposed to do, and he pointed me in the direction of two people (one of which worked for the airport). I walked over to them and explained my situation. After about 10 minutes of hysterically getting my point across, the man that was standing there said “Well I can just take you home”. Of course, this made me panic even more and I started to back away. The airport official who was with him laughed and explained that the man who just offered me a ride was a taxi driver who was willing to drive me to an ATM so I could pay him with cash. I gladly accepted the ride, and the driver was so incredibly nice. The entire time, he kept telling me that it was okay and that I was safely on my way home. He also kept asking me questions about my vacation to try and get me to calm down. Once we arrived to my apartment, the total came out to be 65 euros. That’s almost 90 dollars. The price was way more than I’d expected, but I had to remind myself that my safety was at stake and any price was worth getting out of the situation I was in an hour before.

 

Our good ol’ pal William Shakespeare reminds us that All’s Well that Ends Well. Bill may have been on to something, because I am safely back in Paris, my family arrived on Saturday, and I’ve been spending every minute with them since. I haven’t had much time to update my blog since they’ve been here, but I’ll get around to it. We’ve been having the time of our lives and I couldn’t be happier. Despite the airport horror, this is shaping up to be the best spring break ever.

Affectueusement, 

Katie