Czech Out Our Journey to Prague! | Alaina Smith

After two weeks of hustling to tours and completing class assignments in Hamburg and Berlin, the E3ers were eager for our free weekend to begin. Last Friday, eight people decided to leave Berlin and travel to Prague. Excited to experience a new culture, we packed our bags and left the hostel unaware of what the night had in store for us.

We walked to Berlin’s main train station and went down to what we thought was the right platform. As we waited, we became immersed in a conversation about Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan’s Olympic scandal. When we realized the train was a few minutes late, we wondered where our train was and why there weren’t any other people waiting around us. At that point, we turned to look at the other track and saw the train we needed to be on pulling out of the station. The next train on that line was coming in 30 minutes, which would make us miss our bus to Prague. Knowing we had to hurry, we looked on our phones for a different train to bring us to the bus station. We found one that was leaving in a couple of minutes on the other side of the train station and immediately decided we had to try to catch the train. Everyone grabbed their bags and ran frantically up the stairs, making it to the new platform before the train reached the station. After worrying we would be late, a wave of relief came when we received texts informing us the bus was 50 minutes late, meaning we didn’t have to rush anymore. We finally boarded the right train and arrived at the bus station with plenty of time to browse a few of the shops.

Patrick, Bailynn, and Blake taking a break from helping carrying other people’s luggage.

The bus finally arrived over an hour late, but we didn’t care because we were so thrilled to be going to Prague. On the four-hour ride, some people slept, while others watched movies or read books. We pulled into Prague a little before 10 pm and began our walk to the hotel, only getting slightly lost. The hotel we were staying at requires you to check in by 9 pm or tell them if you would be checking in after. Knowing the bus delay would make us late for check in, my mom called and emailed the hotel to let them know. Unfortunately, when we got to the hotel, no one was there to check us in. The first idea we had was to store our luggage and pull an all-nighter out in Prague. Our next idea was to look into getting another hotel room for the night, but first we had to get dinner since it was 11:30 pm, and we hadn’t eaten yet. Once we ordered our food, we booked a hotel room for the five of us that needed a place to sleep that night. When we finished eating Czech food for dinner, we started to search for the new hotel. We walked in what felt like circles looking for the hotel for an hour before we finally found it. We quickly checked in and went up to the room. By that point, we were ready to stop worrying about the room situation and go have a great night in Prague, so we quickly dropped off our bags and started to explore Prague’s night life.

After a fun-filled night, we went back to the hotel since all five of us were ready to get a few hours of sleep. Everyone was extremely thankful to have a place to sleep and surprisingly slept comfortably. What started out as a hectic afternoon of travel ended up being a wonderful night in Prague with my new friends from E3.