My time here is winding down!
I can’t believe I am less than two days away from being back in the states again after all this time.
Of all the traveling I have done this summer, I am glad that Prague is where we’ve spent the most time.
Earlier this week I visited the Prague Castle.
More like the Prague Village.
The castle was huge and surrounded by cathedrals, small living spaces, and a lot of pretty buildings in which I have no clue what purpose they served… but they were pretty.
The castle was on top of a hill that allowed you to overlook the entire city, and since all of Prague is beautiful, the view was incredible.
On a separate journey, I also went to the observation tower that was built to model the Eifel Tower. The tower was built on a hill even higher than the one the castle was built on… so we of course took a tram up it. We climbed all 300 steps to the top and I took about million pictures of the view. From the top you could see for miles- it was awesome. After trekking back down the tower (not as exciting as going up it, though easier on your calves) we went to the “maze of mirrors” and the Rose Garden. We also saw the “Hunger Wall” which was built to keep Mongol invaders from pouring in over the hill and attacking.
Apart from sightseeing, I have been keeping myself busy
:-).
On Tuesday night we went to a bar with taps at the table.
We drafted teams, set up tables side by side and competed against each other as to who could consume the most beer in 25 minutes.
My team lost.
Still bitter about it seeing as I was the one who wrote the poem in the facebook invitation and reserved the tables.
On Thursday we got together and played against the Czech U-19 National Team. We won the game and were thanked afterwards with a box of Czech cookies... which one of our players assuredly dropped all over the turf during high fives. We still ate them... our Global Peasantry has turned the 5-minute rule into a 3-day rule.
We did another pub crawl on Friday night—this one started with us befriending a group of Brits out for a bachelorette party and ended at the 5-story club, which we have been frequenting lately. We went to the 5-story again on Saturday…. 5-Story of my life.
On Sunday morning we all boarded a bus… a short bus again, obviously, and headed to Cesky Krumlov.
Cesky Krumlov is a small village about 3 hours from Prague and is the cutest place I’ve ever been to.
We had to split into 5 different hotels because there isn’t one that was big enough to accommodate all of
us.
My hotel was from the 14
th century and filled with old antiques.
Everything from the bed to the room key was legit old school.
On Monday, before we left, 5 of us rented a raft and went rafting down the river that circles the town.
We weren’t good at it, but every now and then there is a drop that you have to go down…. So basically we were at a water park.
I sat at the front of the raft and was El Capitan, naturally.
Well, now it’s Tuesday morning and I am packing for the States. It’s weird to leave my new home away from home.
I am now officially back in the US of A! My 7 weeks abroad were amazing- from Amsterdam, to Den Haag, to Cologne, to Dresden, to Prague, to Vienna, and back to Prague- I had a blast. My last day in Prague was extremely eventful as well. In the morning we visited the “Dancing House” which is a building in Prague that has just about zero historical value but was recently built with a very modern design. Since the building is so modern, it caused a lot of controversy, which made the building infamous. 
Luckily, when visiting the “Dancing House” we noticed where we could rent paddle boats and go paddle boating down the Vtlava River. Later that day, after an intense packing session, myself and two others decided to rent a paddle boat and enjoy the weather. With what started with splitting a casual mini-wine bottle quickly turned into a water-bar-paddle-boat-hopping experience. Since at the beginning of our adventure we decided to rent the boat with a slide on the back, we of course, in time, began to threaten going down the slide. NOTE: no one swims in this lake, especially when it’s cold out. There were many people on the water, but nobody in it. With that said, we decided to post up near a bridge, because paddle boat sliding is a spectator sport, and down we went. One, two, three girls down the slide, fully dressed, and making the most of our last day. All is fun and games until somebody gets hurt. My friend, while video taping my other friend going down the slide, slipped and fell overboard. Into the water she went with her dry clothes in hand (she had worn a bathing suit underneath, just in case- smart), and her camera. To our excitement, the video she recorded survived the fall, though her camera did not. It was successful.
We also decided it was necessary to symbolically dispose of the horrendous Global Player Polo shirts that we were forced to wear on multiple occasions. The first shirt, mine, was sent of on the river. We laid it on the surface of the water and watched as it floated past the “forbidden area” and down the waterfall. The next was placed on a monumental statue in the middle of Old Town Square. My friend climbed the statue in pure daylight, left the shirt on the top of it, and climbed down. The next was thrown off the top story of a major tourist spot, the Clock Tower. Every hour, on the hour, there is a production at the Clock Tower in which many tourists gather around to watch. My friend ran to the top and threw the polo shirt into the crowd. The final polo sendoff involved a manican at a souvenir shop. My friend stopped in front of one of many souvenir shops on the main road and dressed a manican in our GP Polo. All send offs were creative and necessary, and a great way to end the trip.
I was sad to leave Europe and all its interesting places and people, but I am also glad to be back home in the United States. Since my life is bound to get far less exciting now, this is goodbye loyal readers. It’s been fun.
