As we excitedly set out for Prague from Berlin, our plans got de-railed a bit. After researching the train online, we concluded that this particular route was usually fairly light on passengers, and that a reservation was not necessary. However, as we boarded our train, every single seat had a reservation!

We found a seat and hoped nobody would claim it, but unfortunately we were asked to move from two different sets of seats as the train started moving, and we joined the hundreds (!!!) of others standing in the aisle. As far as we could see, every aisle of every car, as well as the spaces between cars, were completely full with people. Rumor had it that the train was missing two cars that were supposed to be attached to the back, but it was more likely just a result of summer holidays and hundreds of like-minded travelers.

Seeing as it was a five hour train ride, we knew that seats would have to open up at some point, right? Wrong. As the hours wore on, most people were forced to remain standing, all the way until we reached the border of the Czech Republic! Even then, we were unable to navigate our way to any of the remaining seats before they were snatched up by those better positioned.

While we were peeved at having to stand for the long journey, it was even more annoying to see a group of boy scouts claiming 7 seats to themselves and failing to offer them to any of the numerous older passengers who were forced to stand as well.

All things considered, it could have been much worse. We made our way to Prague and avoided the all-to-common sedintary lifestyle that we’re used to in our regular lives (really grasping for silver linings, we know).

Our first order of business upon reaching Prague was to meet our Airbnb host, Rick ‘From Down Under’ (this is how he signed off all of his messages, he is Australian). We met him in a small coffee shop near the apartment and listened as he began talking about anything and everything at once – ranging from sight-seeing advice to hearing about his plans for a gathering in the forest later that evening.

After finishing our coffees and absorbing all the information that had just been thrown at us, we walked to the apartment with Rick, getting a little more in-depth guide to the layout of the city. After getting settled in we decided to walk around the old town to get a sense of the city. Then we went to a spot recommended by our host, Lokal, for dinner. The food was tasty semi-traditional Czech food, while designed for tourists.

After dinner we went to a fun bar to watch the England v Croatia game which was really great! Unfortunately the TV in our bar was a minute or so behind the TV in the bar next door so we could magically predict when goals would be scored based on the cheering we heard, but it was still a fun game.

The next day was pretty rainy unfortunately, so we began with a little bit of sightseeing and went to Cafe Louvre for coffee and their famous hot chocolate (it is basically just melted chocolate with a side bowl of whipped cream, yum!), but then decided to spend the majority of the day inside of the National Gallery. Rick had recommended two exhibits there as well as the cafe for lunch, but we stayed to see a few others too.

Becca really enjoyed seeing the Gustav Klimt exhibit because she had studied his work in AP Art History. The Katharina Grosse exhibit really stole the show though. The piece consisted of two massive canvases covered in really colorful paints, hanging on opposite sides of a large hall. The sheer scale of the art was incredible, with some strokes of paint spreading out over 5+ feet. We got very lucky when looking at this exhibit, as we were alone aside from the security for almost ten minutes, allowing us to absorb the artwork at our own pace, without any distractions. The kicker to the entire gallery was that it only set us back $4 each! Talk about value!

After visiting the gallery, we continued exploring the city – winding our way across the different districts before finding ourselves back in the thick of the touristy areas. Like any good travelers, we had to try the local street food. In this case, it was the Trdelnik pastries which we had been smelling all day. They consisted of tube-shaped churros, which were filled with anything from icecream to nutella. It was well worth the mess it left.

We wandered towards the National Library, but did not end up going in as we couldn’t find any way to see it without requiring a guided tour. Making the best of the situation, we wandered towards Dancing House, an interesting piece of architecture along the river.

Following our noses to food proved ineffective, and we opted to go with one of our host’s recommendations, a local Italian spot, where we got our fill of pasta and pizza.

Our final day in Prague was a lot more sunny! Woo! We started the day at a coffee shop where Ryan read and Becca worked on catching up on her journal. After a hour or so we headed to the old town and wound our way up to the castle – which was at the top of a very high hill, and it was so hot out! We explored the grounds, but opted out of a tour because it did not look that interesting and there were so many people it didn’t seem appealing.

Instead we made our way over to a monastary for food and blueberry beer which Becca had read about online. Unfortunately there were multiple restaurants at the monastary and the one we ended up at did not serve the famous blueberry beer (not sure why?), but we had already committed by the time we figured that out. We ate some nice hearty food and then found the place with the blueberry beer afterwords and realized our mistake (we initially thought it was out of season and not offered). We tried to get the beer again, but again we were foiled by a poorly run operation which left us too frustrated to stay. Instead we headed back to the airbnb.

Becca had messaged our host to ask him for a recommendation for a good tea room and he replied quickly with a place and offered to meet us there. We set off for the tea room which was a bit of a trek – about 45 mins walk away, but we realized when we got there why he had recommended a place so far away. The tea room was very peaceful with platforms and tables surrounded by seat cushions to enjoy the tea from. Everyone in the tea room had taken their shoes off and left them at the door and Becca wished her socks were not so smelly… eww!

Rick joined us and asked for whatever tea that the woman working there recommended. We quickly began talking about a huge range of subjects from UFOs to parenting to Rick’s hopes for the future. While we didn’t agree with everything that he said, we learned a lot and enjoyed opening our minds to hear what he was explaining. We completely lost track of time and spent almost two hours drinking tea and talking.

After the tea room Rick suggested we get a drink and tried to take us to his favorite place for beer (it was closed for renovations) and his favorite place for wine (it was too crowded). We finally settled on a place and enjoyed chatting more about various subjects.

We finally ended the evening with a second beer and watched the sunset from a park with many others from all around the world. We could hear so many different languages being spoken and it was really neat.

Spending time with Rick was a really different experience than we’ve had so far on the trip and it was a great way to end our time in Prague! We’re in Munich now, so hopefully we will have more stories to share in a few days!