Prague, Czech Republic.

Alright. I know I'm SUPER behind on my blogging so I'd like to start by formally apologizing. These last few weeks have been surprisingly hectic, but I'm back in action. Somewhat. ANYWAYS, here's a little bit about the wonderful city of Praha. Ohhhhh Prague. Prague Prague Prague. Now I know why my dearly beloved friend, Jessica "Tricky" Helton, is in love with this city. It was incredible. Everything about Prague was amazing, I loved every minute of it. My two roommates, Steph and Mary Kate (who you all should know well by now, if you've been reading this blog over the last two months) and I arrived to Prague early on Friday, February 24th, AKA the day before my birthday. We met up with Jess at the Metro and I'm pretty sure we both fell in love all over again. Our love crosses borders! This time to the Czech Republic. It was beyond amazing, being in a foreign country with one of my best friends.

That morning Jess and her three friends, Rachel, Lucy and Gabby took us out to breakfast at a little place called the Globe Cafe. This wasn't any normal, foreign, European cafe, but an AMERICAN cafe! One with bagels, omelettes, pancakes, breakfast burritos (closest to a breakfast taco I could find, holla to my Austinites) and best of all, American coffee. Turns out that's quite the rarity here in Europe. Needless to say, it tasted amazing. After our scrumptious breakfast Jessica played tour guide and showed us around Praha! It was beautiful. Breathtaking. Old. All words that can sum up practically every country in Europe I've been to thus far, but Prague... it was in its own category. 

The pictures above and below are shots from Old Town Square in Prague. It's a really old, really pretty, really touristy square with lots of colorful buildings, but definitely worth seeing. 

Finally, reunited with my Jessica! And let me tell you, it felt great. 

So while we were walking around, oo-ing and ahw-ing at the buildings and architecture, we saw a sign that said. "Chocolate Factory! This way." None of us were in the position to turn down a chocolate factory, so we obligingly followed the arrows. We were greeted by Charlie, AKA the love of my life (apparently). Charlie explained how he was from Paris originally but came to Prague and now works in a chocolate factory, to which Jessica replied, "Charlie in the Chocolate Factory!" We all knew right then that it was love at first joke. Charlie ushered us into the chocolate factory, where we had a brief, museum-like tour describing the origins of chocolate and how it's made. There was even a demonstration with free samples at the end! Chocolate filled with hazelnut. Yum. Charlie then gave us all tickets to get free hot chocolate at the end, which was ah-mazing. Charlie took a liking to me for some reason (possibly my blonde hair?), so he asked if we could take a few pictures together. In the picture below, he literally said, "Julie, gaze into my eyes." So I did. Kind of.

Here's what cacao beans look like! Cacao beans are the beans used to make chocolate, who woulda thunk?

Pictured below is the infamous Clock Tower in Old Town Square of Prague! In a bit you'll see pictures of us from the top, looking down at the square and the city, so stay tuned. This Clock Tower was built in 1410, making it the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest one still working. At 5:00 every evening, or 17:00 as the Europeans say, the clock goes off and plays some tune. Since it's in the Old Time Square, a generally touristy hotspot to begin with, once the clock strikes 5:00 the square is packed with people to watch! 

Below is a closeup of the other side of the clock tower. You see the two windows above the dial, on either side of the statue figure? At 5:00 those open and little figurines (very old and historic looking) come out and do a little dance. It's seriously like something you'd see in a movie, it was so surreal. Fun fact definitely worth noting, however -- rumor has it that the man who designed and created the Prague Clock Tower was blinded by the Prague government to prevent him from creating another masterpiece similar to it in another country. Preeeeeetty eerie, if you ask me.

This is the climb to the top of the clock tower! That cool-looking infrastructure in the middle is for the elevator, clearly an add-on from the original.

And here we are, looking out at Prague. So. Beautiful.

Loved every minute I got to spend with this crazy lady.

You see that castle looking building in the upper left side of the screen? Yup, that's the Prague Castle. From the Old Town Square Clock Tower. More (closeups) to come soon.

Old Town Square at night!

And THIS lovely, handsome fella... wait for it... is David (pronounced Dah-veed), Jessica's boyfriend from the Czech Republic. He is the nicest, cutest, sweetest guy I've ever met, and I could not be happier for them. He's definitely got my stamp of approval.

After we met David at work we went to a real, authentic Czech restaurant! We got a pint of beer each (only about $2 for one pint, WOAH) and some beef goulash, a typical dish of Prague. It was so stellar, I want some now.

Nighttime has come and gone at this point, and I'll say this much -- it was epic. The rest of the pictures are from February 25th, the day of my birthday! We had another epic day of traveling and sight seeing, as you will soon see. Below is the Charles Bridge, another hotspot in Prague.

View from the Charles Bridge once we were on it. I remember being pissed off that there were so many birds getting in the way of my picture, but as it turns out, they add to it. So thanks birds, I'm sorry I yelled at you.

The John Lennon Wall! It was so great. Another fun fact: did you know that the Czech Republic was ruled under communism until 1989? Because I didn't. Shortly after John Lennon, member of the Beatles died, the youth of Prague created this wall in dedication to him. His stance for peace was motivation for the youth of Prague at the time to rebel against the communist government of the Czech Republic; this wall remains a symbol of lasting, worldwide peace as people travel from around the world to look at it, or better yet, add to it.

And below is the Prague Castle! It cost money to get in so we weren't about to do that, however it was incredibly breathtaking from the outside nonetheless. 

These are mosaics painted on the outside of the castle.

The Prague Castle from behind. 

Artsy view of the city!

The beautiful, wonderful city of Praha. In this picture you can see the river that runs underneath the Charles Bridge aforementioned as well as the Charles Bridge itself (the tall dark structure running across the river). 

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my virtual tour of Prague! It was seriously one of the best weekends of my entire life. I loved spending my birthday with my roommates, my Jessica, and Jessica's INCREDIBLE friends. They were seriously the greatest, I loved getting to know each of them. As it turns out, there was a bit of a hiccup at the end of my trip which resulted in a few last minute changes of plans, so if you want to know more details about that just shoot me a message. Otherwise, it was definitely an unforgettable, one-day-I'll-laugh-about-this end to the trip. Shoutout to Jessica and her friends Gabby, Lucy and Rachel -- you guys are the best. Thank you for keeping me sane.

I know I'm incredibly behind on blogging, I KNOW! Soon enough I'll get to my adventures from last weekend (March 1st to 5th) in Spain with my other roommate and dear friend from Clemson, miss Constance Henderson. This weekend, however, is my spring break! I'm going on a 12 day excursion with my friends Mary Kate and Meredith to London, Paris, Amsterdam, and possibly Belgium. So be on the lookout for a super long blog post in the near(ish) future.

I love you all to the moon and back,

Julie