Jessica in Prague

Oh today was a blast... Jaime, Wendy, Heather, Mandy and I decided to take a little day trip to Karlštejn. It's a 30 minute train ride outside of Prague to go see Charles IV's summer castle... it looked pretty in the book. Quite the adventure, here goes:

So we all get off at this abandoned looking station in the middle of nowhere (don't worry, there are plenty of pics to go with this story! I just have to email them to Brian and since I heard there's a nasty virus going around, it may be awhile b4 he can put them up here for me.). We all trek up a hill until it dead ends, turn around and return to the station, where we ask directions from a guy sitting on a bus, "Kde je Karylstein Hrad?" Well, apparently we had to go over a bridge, take a left and trek about 3-4km... you guys do the math, it was long to us too. So we walk, and walk, and walk, and we realize we haven't seen any tourists, only a few locals. Oh well, we thought, it's just too cold out for the rest of them suckers.

We finally reach the touristy town after about a half hour, you know, shops and restaurants everywhere, but they are all closed... hmmm. We knew the Castle closed from 12-1 p.m. so we all thought maybe the shops did too, though to be honest, Heather and I seriously started to have our doubts. All this time we couldn't even see the stupid castle, I mean, it's a big building, where is it hiding??? We round a corner, and there it was, all pretty in the small blizzard falling around us. Unfortunately, it was up a rather steep hill. So, up we went, taking breaks every so often, huffing and puffing like practiced smokers til we got to the top, stopped and ate our packed lunches (see we have our smart moments).


We played with a kitty that stopped by for a few minutes and walked the short distance up to the Castle door... where we see a sign that says: The Castle is closed during the month of February. AGHHHHHHHHHHH!!! That's me pointing at the sign on the door. After cursing into the falling snow and running around like idiots for five minutes, we decided we're gonna take pictures like tourists, walk around as far as we can (cuz the building's on a side of a mountain), and make the most of it before we have to walk back down to the sound of locals laughing at our stupidity.


On the way back, we actually found a tiny little restaurant that was open and we all went inside for hot chocolate and a light snack... the guy was extremely nice. We trekked our way back to the station, and the snow was really coming down now. We got back to our dorms to find out the water is not running, hasn't been all day (did I mention our electricity has gone out 3 times since I've been here?) So now we're all just thawing out in our rooms, not having water. The castle was pretty and it was nice having it to ourselves, even if we didn't get to go in. It was a funny experience that we are already laughing about... cuz we knew it was gonna happen.

Thanks for all the love from my last rather sad blog... it's not that I'm homesick, per se, it's just I want to be able to see you guys too. Thanks for putting up with this long, but hopefully amusing story... pics coming soon!!!