Trip to Prague and Berlin! Pt 1

From Monday Nov 14 to Mon Nov 21 I was in Berlin & Prague on vacation with my two friends Akeem and Lauren. Iceland has this website, hopkaup.is, that is like a groupon.com and we got round trip tickets to Berlin for 40% off. So we couldn't resist and took a week off from school to go travel in Europe. We got to Berlin Monday afternoon and settled into our hostel (Circus hostel, we were in an 8 person room with 4 Brazilian guys and an Irish guy) then walked around the square we were in to get lunch at this placed called Adonis where we got delicious Shawarma for 3 euro. We walked around the streets for a while and went into a few stores, although they were too expensive. We rested at the hostel for a bit then went to the bar in the hostel and we talked with some other people staying there including our roommates. Lauren, Akeem, and I soon left to get dinner at a traditional German restaurant which was quite good. I had flammkuchen, sort of like a pizza, with goat cheese and pumpkin--mm some of my favorite things that I have not had in Iceland. We then went back to the hostel and went to bed and in the morning got breakfast at the hostel. We went to a mall in Alexanderplatz and did some shopping then got our luggage at the hostel and found the bus to Prague. The bus was about 5 hours and I slept for some of it, it wasn't too bad. We arrived in Prague at night and found our way to our hostel the Czech Inn, a little ways outside the city but right by a tram stop. We had a private room here so it was just the three of us. We went out to dinner for hamburgers at a café close by that the receptionist recommended. Food in Prague is really cheap, and really good.

Wednesday we explored Prague and walked a lot. We started at the Prague Castle where there was a beautiful church and you had great views of the city. We walked down the old steps and went to see the John Lennon wall and then crossed the Charles Bridge to get to the old square to see the old clock tower. We then walked around going into shops and exploring the streets of Prague. I loved Prague because it has such an old European feel to it, and it is not so hectic and busy. We got some street food for lunch from a cart on the street, and all had sausages. We were in the city for most of the day walking around and shopping and were exhausted so went back to the hostel to rest before dinner. For dinner we found a place just up the street from where we were staying called U Bulínů, and it was fabulous! I got a HUGE plate of food and a small beer for about $15. It came with 2 potato pancakes, 2 bacon dumplings, 2 bread dumplings, 1 potato dumpling, sausage, smoked pork, pork shoulder, and red cabbage. I couldn't finish it all but I made a good dent in it. So delicious, my favorite meal of the whole trip.

Thursday was our last full day in Prague and we took the train to the bone church (Sedlec Ossuary) in Kutná Hora, about an hour train ride. On the train we mostly saw fields/farms and some snow in the trees. The bone church is in a suburb of the city Kutná Hora and it was a very quite and eery place, especially with the grey sky and slight fog (and the fact that there is a church decorated with bones from 40,000 to 70,000 people). We had to pay to go into the church and were there for about a half hour. It is quite small but very interesting and creepy. If you want to learn more about the church, check out its wikipedia page! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedlec_Ossuary. Basically there were these heaps of bones that were unearthed during construction of the church and in 1870 a woodworker was commissioned by the Schwarzenberg family (you can see their family crest made out of bones) to put the heaps into order.  

The chandelier contains every bone from the human body.

Family crest

After the church we got a dessert at a little café down the street and then took the train back to Prague. We walked around the city some more and had more street food, this time Lauren and I had fried mozzarella cheese which was pretty good. We were on a quest to find some awesome shoes, but they were all too expensive. Then we headed back to the hostel for a bit and went out to dinner for more delicious Czech food at U Sadu. I had a chicken bramburger, which was chicken surrounded by potato pancakes (instead of bread) covered in a mushroom sauce. It was all really good. The next day (Friday) we woke up really early to catch our 730 bus back to Berlin. 
Now I have to go cook for Thanksgiving and will write about Berlin later! Happy Thanksgiving!