I am writing this post while I am traveling on a train to Salzburg. So far, my independent travel has gone pretty well. We left on Friday evening. Judith and I flew into Frankfurt Hahn Airport on Friday night, and Catherine, Ashley, and Jamie flew there the following morning, since we couldn’t get tickets all together. Judith and I stayed at a hotel by the Frankfurt Hahn airport for the night, and then met up with the others and took a 2-hour shuttle to Cologne the next day.
The first thing we did was visit the Cologne Cathedral, which had really amazing stained glass. In Cologne, a lot of the things to do were grouped closely together, around the area of the cathedral. After the cathedral, we went to the chocolate museum (of course). We got a few samples, saw how chocolate is made, and learned about the history of chocolate. We walked across the bridge and saw a theatre that our teacher told us to check out for its architecture. For dinner, we went to a fun German restaurant for authentic German food. I had white sausages, a pretzel, and Kolsch – the Cologne beer. Cologne is really beautiful at night. The cathedral and all the surrounding buildings are lit up, and from the bridge, the view of the water and the buildings is really pretty.
Unfortunately, a stomach bug had been going around the villa, and Jamie got sick with it on Saturday night. Plus the hostel that we stayed at was absolutely terrible. The smell was nauseating and nothing was clean. All of us were up all night – Jamie because she was sick and the rest of us because we were freezing cold and worried about Jamie. All of us were too disgusted to even use the showers, so the lack of showers in addition lack of sleep and fear that we would get sick made Sunday a little rough. On Sunday, we wandered around the old town of Cologne for most of the morning, and then went and visited the museum designed by Peter Zumthor that our architecture professor recommended we see.
Sunday afternoon, we had to catch the shuttle back to Frankfurt Hahn (Judith and I’s third time to visit that airport in 3 days). While we were on the shuttle, a bad storm hit. Trees were down in the road, so the bus had to take an alternate route. When we got to the airport, the winds were really strong, and the airport was making announcements not to go outside. Luckily, our flight to Prague was only delayed by half an hour and everything went ok, aside from the virus hitting Catherine during the flight. Overall, Sunday was a pretty difficult day,but since then, things have gotten much better.
When we got to our hostel in Prague (the Czech Inn), we felt like we were in heaven. Everything in the Czech Republic is pretty cheap, but we decided to spend the same amount that we normally would on a hostel and stay in a better place while in Prague. For about 21 euros a night per person, we got a 2-story apartment that had a huge bathroom, 2 bedrooms, and a kitchen, an eating area, and a rooftop terrace. It was pure luxury after our horrible hostel experience in Cologne.
I thought Prague was the most beautiful big city that I’ve visited. The area down by the river is gorgeous. On Monday, we visited Prague Castle. We ate a 3-course Czech lunch at a pretty nice restaurant for only 180 CZK (less than 8 euros, and yes, I think in euros now). I had vegetable soup, beef goulash, and chocolate cake. I was surprised how much I liked the beef goulash. After we walked across Charles Bridge, and I got a drawing from one of the artists selling their stuff on the bridge. We walked through the old part of town, shopped around in some of the crystal and glass shops that Prague is known for, and saw the astronomical clock at the Old Town Hall. We went to trivia night at our hostel, but it wasn’t much fun. We went out that night and met some British people our age. It was really funny to talk to them. They made us speak in our best British accent, which they said was “rubbish.” They also had all kinds of interesting stereotypes and perceptions about the U.S. They asked us where they should go on spring break if they went to America, and we said Florida, to which they replied that they didn’t want to go to the place full of retired people and oranges. They also thought that South Carolina was in Texas. On Tuesday, like good architecture students, we visited Frank Gehry’s Dancing House, then walked back across the Charles Bridge to see the John Lennon wall, which is a famous grafitti wall. We walked back over the bridge and through the older part of town to visit Tyn Church and St. Stephen’s.
This morning, we caught a train at 7:16. We just switched trains, but at this point, we have been traveling on trains for the past 6 hours. Judith and I are almost to Salzburg now though. Tomorrow we are doing a Sound of Music tour to see all the places where the movie was filmed. I’m really excited about it! Catherine, Ashley, and Jamie are on their way to Newcastle and Edinburgh for the rest of the break.
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