24 hours in a bus: 48 hours in Prague. Worth it.

Prague (located in the Czech Republic) was quite an adventure. i took an overnight bus with a travel agency to Prague from Florence. It took about 11 hours to get to Prague, but once we got there, the bus drivers got lost trying to find the hotel - for almost two hours. Although the start of the trip wasn't ideal, we still ended up having a pretty great time.

We got a late start on Friday, but got to eat beer and sausages, saw the John Lennon wall, the Astrological Clock, and ate a delicious meal of goulash with potato cakes (oh, and more beer).

Saturday was sight seeing day. We woke up early to rush out and see the local communist museum, the Prague Castle (the oldest in Europe), the Lennon wall (again), and the Jewish Quarters (where the Ghetto once was during Nazi power). Unfortunately, the Jewish Quarters were closed, but we did sneak a peak at the cemetery which holds thousands of bodies stacked on top of each other.

There was a Starbucks in Prague, which we happily sipped down Saturday morning, but we still got our share of traditional Czech food. At little stands placed everywhere, there were sausages, cinnamon bread, cinnamon covered almonds, beer, pretzels and more. We stopped for bagels for lunch, which were delicious as well. I ate way too much all weekend, but was happy it wasn't pasta for once.

That night we went to a bar which actually had beer taps at the tables. It was cool to tap our own beer, but the service was awfully rude, so we left after one drink. We had assumed that the bar would have food, but they'd stopped serving by the time we arrived. Thanks to our poor planning, we began looking for dinner places around 11 p.m. after we left the bar. Thus, dinner was KFC. I wish I could say I was bummed about not eating more Czech food, but the coleslaw, french fries, mashed potatoes, and fried chicken were pretty dang good. Thinking about it now makes me hungry.

We left at 10 on Sunday morning and got back to Florence around midnight. The bus ride was quite unfortunate, but the trip itself was really enjoyable.