Prague It Like It's Hot

I love a lot of things about Baylor University. But the fact that through this place I have now gotten to have TWO European adventures has to be at the top of the list.

Some background: When I was a sophomore, I distinctly remember standing at Sub dinner one night and hearing Whitney say that she wouldn't be there next week because she was going to be in Prague with her class, and Baylor was paying for it. I said uh wut I want that. Well lo and behold, two years (and another trip to Prague) later here I am: Praha Round 2! 

BEST is a class in the business school comprised of various business majors under Dr. Marlene Reed. Our main project for the year is creating business plans to spur the revitalization of Elm St. in East Waco. But the highlight of the class every year is the week long trip to Prague (all for only $300, I might add).

Packing for Europe when you know exactly what to expect is 600 times easier than when you think you need clothing for every possible season and a small pantry to survive the trip across the Atlantic. So, naturally, I threw everything in a suitcase Friday night (with help from my personal fashion assistant, Taylor Brock) before leaving Saturday morning. T dropped me off at the business school, we loaded the bus, and headed to Dallas to catch our flight to Amsterdam. 

After a lengthy overnight flight sans sleep, we landed in Amsterdam at 8am and set off to Anne Frank house. This museum was just as moving the second time as it was the first. We made a quick loop through the tour then took some selfies by the canal before my friend Elizabeth (who did Baylor in Maastricht this past summer) and I ran in Albert Heijn to get our favorite stroopwaffles before getting back on the bus. Good news: I still love the Netherlands and stroopwaffles as much as I did 13 months ago.

The Amsterdam train station

We took a short bus ride to a little town on the bay called Volendam where we had some classic fish and chips and got to spend some time sightseeing. I'm finally rebuilding a collection of Christmas ornaments of all the countries I've been to since for some reason I totally slacked off on that the first time around, so I got to get a pretty little Dutch ornament while we shopped. This town was precious, and a nice little stop off the beaten path.

We boarded the bus yet again and drove back to the airport for our flight to Prague. This one was quick, and the majority of the group slept through the whole 2 hours (we'd been awake for roughly 22 hours at this point). I was quickly reminded the pains of traveling in huge groups. You walk everywhere in enormous clumps to where no one else can get by, not to mention the inevitable volume. Those and many more "LOOK WE'RE AMERICANS" moments unfolded between deplaning and luggage pickup, but we finally made it to our hotel around 7pm. We dropped our stuff off in our room, grabbed dinner with a group of about 7 of us down the street. We were asleep by 10, exhausted from a straight 30+ hours of traveling.

On Monday morning we kicked off sightseeing with a tour of the Skoda museum and production plant. We had read a case study on this in class a few weeks ago, written by our professor. Here's the link for the article: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ldromk3i6jny1sz/Skoda%20Article.pdf?dl=0 to give some background. Biggest takeaway: after a summer with Phillips 66 stressing safety in every possible sentence, touring this plant was eye opening. There was literally oil spilled on the floor. Pretty sure that would not fly anywhere west of the Atlantic.

After lunch at the mall across from the factory we got back on the bus for a nap ride to the concentration camp nearby, Terezin. I didn't know much about this until the other night when Taylor taught me that this was actually the camp used by the Nazis as the propaganda camp to show the rest of the world, specifically the Red Cross. For a class sophomore year, she had read a collection of poems from the children held here, which we actually got to see in the second part of the museum. Like my visit to Auschwitz, this was humbling and heartbreaking, but important for all of us to see and understand.

After the museum, we got back on the bus for the ride back home and freshened up before dinner in Old Town Square. We had our first taste of Prague crepes, which past BEST kids kept telling us we had to try. We found a great wine bar close to our hotel and our resident G Troupe member taught us one of their improv warmup games to play. When we hit midnight, we celebrated Jin's 22nd birthday then headed back to the hotel for the night.

We got to sleep in a little later on Tuesday morning before grabbing breakfast at the hotel and walking to a nearby university classroom to hear from entrepreneur Jeff Welker. His was another case study written by Dr. Reed that we read a couple weeks ago. He wasn't quite everyone's cup of tea, and there were some sleepy eyes (namely mine), but we finished there by noon and took the metro for the first time to lunch. Things I will never attempt: taking 28 college seniors on a metro and keeping track of all of them from point A to point B. God bless Marlene Reed.

After lunch we finally tried the cinnamon desserts that everyone had raved about and were not disappointed. Think pretzel + churro. Aka my favorite food groups wrapped into one.

First Metro ride

Dr. Reed took us on a walking tour of her own invention, to the American Embassy (no photos allowed in case you take them home and use them to figure out how to break in, of course), the John Lennon Wall, a funicular up to a beautiful rose garden, and ending at the Charles Bridge.

Perfect 22nd birthday: holding a snake

Jin, Arden, and I walked a looooong way to the train station (CityMaps2Go came to the rescue, yet again) for Arden and I to get our train tickets for Thursday afternoon, then we took the metro back to the hotel for a quick nap before Jin's birthday celebration that evening.

Wednesday got off to a confusing start when Dr. Reed changed the schedule and left it to one person to tell the other 27 of us, but we eventually made it out the door to the cathedral/castle that overlooks the city. After every cathedral and castle I've seen, this one didn't particularly have anything unique about it EXCEPT this incredible view of Prague from the top. 

BEST 2014-15 + some random strangers

Franz Kafka's home

We also toured the little town behind where Franz Kafka once lived. We finished our visit, much to the pleasure of the other tourists, I'm sure, and split up for lunch. Jin, Arden, Elizabeth, and I grabbed some sausage and potato-on-a-stick-things from a food stand nearby and sat in a park to eat (while Arden kept the pigeons away from a terrified Jin). These potato things, people. Think of soft potato chips on a skewer doused in salt. Fat-free. Low sodium. Heavenly. All of the above. 

After lunch we walked back to the hotel for a quick rest before going to hear another lecture from Erik Best, creator of the Fleet Sheet (another case study prepared by Dr. Reed). The planned part of our day was finished after 4, so I took a lengthy nap to catch up on sleep before dinner. 

Elizabeth had heard about a restaurant from a friend of hers that she wanted to try out, but we got all the way there to find out you had to have reservations, so we settled for a place down the street instead, where I had my 6th serving of schnitzel for the trip. 

We walked back to Old Town Square for another round of crêpes because why the heck not. The rest of the group met us there and we walked to the five-story club by the river. The main floor is an ice bar, which was probably one of the coolest (no pun intended) things we did on this trip. Well worth our 150Kc. Pro tip (for the next time you're in an ice bar): don't smash your ice cup on the ground when you finish your drink or you'll get kicked out of said ice bar and sufficiently piss off the ice bartender.  

We explored the other 4 stories then made the looooong walk back to our hotel for the night. Jin has taken to nightly foot soaks to help her poor tired feet recover from the day, so Arden and I joined her after walking somewhere close to a half marathon that day. 

Thursday morning, Jin, Arden, and I got up early to visit Old Town Square in the daylight and do some souvenir shopping. Unfortunately the crepe stand wasn't open yet, but we did find a cute farmer's market that was just opening for the day where we picked up some fruit for our train ride later that day.

We returned to the hotel to change into our business clothes to visit Radio Free Europe. I'm still not 100% clear on what exactly their purpose is, but something about keeping communist/Eastern nations informed of the real news. I think. I probably would have a better idea if I hadn't nodded off during the poor man's presentation (oops). 

From there, Arden and I sprinted back to the hotel to change out of our business casual (heels + cobblestone. I don't recommend it), grab our backpacks, and run to the train station for our 1:33 train to Salzburg. 

I. MISSED. TRAINS. SO MUCH. I love them. They're the most convenient way to travel, I don't have to drive, and they're relatively reasonably priced. We calculated that we spent less on train tickets for 12 hours round trip than it would cost me to fill up my truck twice. I. Love. Trains. 

After the sweet Czech train attendant informed us that if we wanted to go to Salzburg, we should sit on the half of the train that wouldn't split in the opposite direction, we ended up seated next to a sweet older couple from Mexico. They were traveling Europe for six weeks, and it was her first time to come to the continent. She was very friendly and made the ride pass faster. 

We changed trains in Linz and were in Salzburg by 7:45. We walked to the hostel (without getting lost, thank you very much. I've still got it.), checked in, set our things down, and left for dinner. Amy Smith, my mom's ADPi big sister that I stayed with this summer, had been to Salzburg last December and told us about a cute, authentic Austrian restaurant in the city wall across the river. We got directions and found it without a problem, right across the square from Motzart's birthplace. We got to hear some authentic Austrian music that would have made Motzart proud, i.e. Fergie and Lady Gaga, so that was a highlight. 

We got our wifi fix back at the hostel before bed in preparation for an early morning. 

We were checked out and on the road by 6:45 on Friday morning for our DIY Sound of Music tour (officially named the Wieters Nein Schlaf Sing Along Tour). Mirabellplatz was just down the street from our hostel, so we started there. 

Next we hopped on a bus to take us to Schloss Hellbrunn, home to the famous gazebo. Google Maps led me slightly astray here, we ended up in some random Austrian neighborhood as we got off the bus, but we got to see the sunrise over the mountains which was pretty incredible. Not to mention the Salzburg zoo, also inspiring. Thanks to CityMaps2Go (again) we made our way there through a slightly longer route, but we made it.

Then all my dreams came true.

Because of our slight detour, we ran out of time to see the Abbey, but we got 4 soft pretzels and a big-as-yo-face cinnamon roll instead so no complaints here. We walked/bussed back to the train station and hopped on the 10:12 out of Salzburg. Big props to Arden for (literally) getting on my crazy train and making this quick trip happen! We arrived back in Prague at 4:30, stocked up on the world's best chocolate bars at the train station, and returned to the hotel to change for the evening and meet up with the rest of the group.

The best part of any train station: soft pretzels

This time I made it out of the Prague train station with my phone, unlike last summer. 

On a visit a few years back, Dr. Reed made friends with the director of Praha Youth, which is an incredible program connected to the International Christian School in Prague. The school is primarily for American, Canadian, and British expat children whose families now live in Prague. Every Friday night, the middle and high school students gather for Praha Youth, basically like youth group. We had the privilege of getting to be part of their gathering. We played games in the gym then a few of the kids led worship before three of our friends stood up to tell their testimony. We had snacks afterward then walked over to KFC (their weekly tradition) for a semi-American dinner.

This was probably one of the coolest things we did all week. In the Baylor bubble, we're surrounded by Christian community, Christ-like examples, godly encouragement. But these kids are trying to maintain and grow their faith in the most unchurched country in Europe. A lot of them come from strong Christian homes, and of course get a sense of that Christian community at school, but apart from that they're left in a country that has almost entirely abandoned the idea of a Savior. Even so, I was floored again by the realization that God is present even there. He is not confined to Waco, Texas. He is worldwide. I can't even fully grasp the full truth behind that, but this was an amazing, living example of it.

After dinner, we packed up suitcases to prepare for 4am departure then set out to Old Town Square for our last crêpe. We had dispersed into several groups at this point, but somehow all ended up back together at an Irish pub on the square with live Irish music (my very favorite) and Guinness for everyone. We played the "1, 2" game Rachel had taught us earlier in the week and were still less quiet than the rowdy Irish bachelor party happening at the table over. So all in all, not the most traditionally Czech evening, but the perfect one to end the trip on.

We got back to the hotel around 2:30 to finish packing and shower before boarding the bus an hour and a half later. After a delirious bus ride to the airport, an eardrum-shattering flight out of Prague (still waiting for the hearing to return in my left ear), a 2.5 hour delay on the Amsterdam runway, and a 10 hour flight back to DFW, we made it home.

The travel bug never really went away after last summer, and this trip refreshed it all over again. It was definitely a different experience than the first time around, but this group was just as fun and these cities were just as incredible.