I've Left My Heart in Prague

Before coming to Europe, I asked my older brother who had studied abroad in Europe before if there was one city I must visit, what city would it be? Without any hesitation he told me I had to make sure I got to see Prague, which is the capital of the Czech Republic. To be honest, I had never even heard of Prague before he mentioned it and I had no idea what was so appealing about it. Throughout my semester at CIMBA, several of my classmates had made it to Prague and raved about how it was an all-around amazing city. I have yet to hear of anyone who went to Prague and didn’t like. Fortunately, this past weekend we had an extended weekend for the Thanksgiving holiday in which a few of my friends and I made our journey to Prague.

Our first day walking through the city, I knew I had fallen in love instantly with the beautiful architecture, warm-hearted locals, and the super delicious and hearty food. It was everything I could have asked for for my last trip of the semester. A group of us took a free 3-hour walking tour through the Old Town area and learned about what makes Prague such a unique city. Did you know it is one of the few European cities that wasn’t bombed during the World Wars? This explains why several of the buildings, which were built in the 9th century (imagine how old that makes them!) are still perfectly in tact. Naturally, I had my touristy looking camera around my neck the whole time snapping away!

Wandering the streets of Prague looking like a complete American tourist, I was expecting people to be rude to us as I’ve come across in most cities. However, they treated us in the exact opposite manner. Locals smiled at us, offered to take our group photos, and the entire time I was in the city I didn’t feel unsafe at any moment. It was nice to finally be at ease and not have to worry about being pick-pocketed. For the most part, at all the restaurants we dined in the wait staff was extremely kind and even split the check for us (something I have missed tremendously since being here)! For such a large city with a pretty big population, the streets were no where near as crowded as I have experienced in other cities, such as Paris or Barcelona. At times, I myself even felt like I was integrated into the culture of the city to the point of feeling like a local.

Perhaps one of my favorite things about Prague was the Czech food. This time of year, it’s pretty cold in the Czech Republic and the food is the perfect remedy for a cold day. Traditional Czech food is the warm meats, hearty potatoes, steamed vegetables, and savory soups. My favorite meal of the trip was potato and asparagus soup served in a freshly-baked bread bowl. Yet another plus is that the food is very affordable, what more could you ask for?

The best way to describe the city of Prague is peaceful, and rightly so because there is a world famous wall dedicated to John Lennon, one of the Beatles. We made it a mission to find this wall take so many photos that I wouldn’t be surprised if we broke a world record.

After scanning the wall and reading all the quotes people have painted on it, I came across one in particular that really struck me. It said “travel is the only thing you can buy which makes you richer”. In my opinion, this quote couldn’t be truer. One of the things I love about the CIMBA program is the amount of opportunities they give you to travel Europe. Through all the traveling I’ve done here with my new best friends, I’ve definitely lived a richer life and grown so much from all that I’ve seen. There are still so many places that I have yet to travel to and I can’t wait to discover them!