Mumsie & Me: Prague AKA Praha

HELLO!!!!! Greetings from the Czech Republic! If I could say "hello" in Czech, I would but unfortunately I did not have the time nor desire to learn the complicated language of Czech. I am SO thankful that the Norwegian alphabet is essentially the same as the English alphabet (with a few exceptions) because trying to pronounce ANYTHING in Czech proved to be very difficult. I loved Prague, though!! It was my first time out of Scandanavia since arriving in January so it was quite a change! There were definitely some difference between Prague and Bergen. Firstly, it was SO SUNNY the whole time we were there!! This made everything 10 times better. Secondly, the Czech have an interesting sense of fashion. As in, they don't really have fashion sense at all. When I stepped off the plane, I thought I stepped into 1996. It was crazy. Ladies here LOVE their nylons. Especially with shorts and open-toed shoes. Anyway, it was really interesting to see how different their style was. They also don't smile as much as the Scandanavians. I missed that. BUT they DID have Starbucks (Holla holla holla!!!) which sort of made up for their lack of friendliness. Let's start at the beginning, though.
When we got off the plane, Mumsie and I went to our hotel and then decided to go to the very popular "Wenceslas Square" which was technically about 5 min. from our hotel, but it ended up taking us about...45 minutes to walk there because we took the most difficult route possible. I'm always up for a challenge...ANYWAY, we get to the square and buy tickets for a string ensemble that was performing at the National Museum that night. AND THEN WE WENT TO STARBUCKS!!!!



Then on our way home (after figuring out the metro system), we realized that our hotel was RIGHT by a giant easter festival! The square was filled with food stations, people selling scarves, live music and beautiful cherry blossoms!





After a quick nap, it was off to the concert! It was so great to hear some of the classics performed by some of the Czech Republic's most talented musicians (including Vivaldi's "Spring"-my favourite!)




Then, we had dinner and Mom had beer. (She had dinner too, don't worry.)

The next day, we did a "hop on, hop off" tour which proved to be a GREAT way to see so many of Prague's major sights. It was a beautiful day, and we had a lot of fun listening to our tour guide, Patrick. He was from Chicago and made some REALLLY funny jokes. Usually, my Mom and I were the only ones laughing but that's the story of my life so it's fine.





If I could put up all the pictures Mumsie took of the sights, we would be here all day but basically we saw some pretty cool things. We went on a tour of the largest castle in the world (Guiness World Records will back me up on that one), saw the famous "Dancing Building", walked on Charles Bridge and did some of our own sightseeing in the Old Town Square.
Then, we started heading off to the Monestary for a VERY exciting concert! It was titled "A Night with the Stars", and it was supposed to be an evening filled with soloists performing hit songs from some of the most famous musicals. Obviously, I was excited. I was looking SO forward to this night because I have missed musical theatre SO much and couldn't wait to hear some of the classics! We were greeted at the door with champagne (my Mom drank mine because it tasted like alcohol and I couldn't stand it), and we felt very classy. (see model picture below)


My excitement quickly faded when the singer sang her first note. I really wished I had drank that champagne (or something a lot stronger) that would allow me to tolerate this person's singing. I am not being a music snob, but this lady was awful. I can't even begin to explain how random this situation was. Not only was she the ONLY soloist, but she was randomly joined by a saxaphone player from time to time and my FAVOURITE part was when she sang "On My Own" from Les Miserables in Czech. I wish I could do an impersonation for you, but nothing would compare to the real thing. Nevertheless, it was an experience!

Then, it was off to dinner and then to bed! The next day was a shopping day. I don't have much to say about that day except that I got some GREAT DEALS becuase Prague is so cheap. As a side note-some of you don't understand that my Mom literally takes pictures of everything. The following photo series is just a SAMPLE of some of the shots she got while following me around in stores and taking pictures of me randomly. When looking at these, imagine her saying "Annika! Annika! Look over here!" and me trying to make her be quiet as everyone is looking at us. My favourite is the one of me on the escalator. There was a person BETWEEN us and she wanted to get a picture of me. So I ran away. Oh Moms....they have no shame, do they?




That night we stayed at home because we were so tired of shopping all day. More sightseeing ensued the next day, but the highlight of the day was getting to eat dinner with a friend of mine, Maarja Anderson! She has been studying in Prague since January (and agrees with me about the Czech fahion crisis, by the way)and we got to spend a solid 4 hours catching up, talking about our study abroad experiences and mostly sharing lots of laughter! It was wonderful. SIMPLY WONDERFUL!
Then, we went to the airport the next morning and headed to Oslo! Stay tuned for adventures from THAT trip!!!
Sending love and hugs!!
A