And just like that, I am no longer in Prague.

I enjoyed my last weekend in Prague. We killed it at the karaoke bar- Poison (pun unintended, but H a big lover of puns) might enjoy it). Though not all of us got to sing as the DJ took breaks and sang a few songs himself. H and I performed Fergilicious and Hips don’t lie. A and D did a duet on Save Me. P joined us this night, which was absolutely fabulous! We were all glad she came out with us.

We then headed over to a club-Nebe.

Before entering, we stopped at a sausage stand to get food. It was 100 CZK for men to enter, but the place was huge and played good music. The drinks were on the bit of the expensive side.

We lost Is, which always happens. But as always, he showed back up. G had left us at Poison to visit with some of his other friends and as luck might have it they also were at Nebe so we all got to hang out together for one more night.

And, as always, it was K, G, and I left. The trio. This was reduplicated a few nights later as we were running to make sure G caught his bus to Brussels.

I stayed one more night at the flat, which was great because a hostel on a Saturday night is expensive and I was meeting some new friends for drinks that night so then I could sleep in a little at the flat the next morning.

My new friend was a student of one of my classes. She’s from Prague and I met her a previous night for coffee and now we were meeting her Czech friend and some French friends who are studying abroad in Prague. I had a lot of fun and two people from Greece also came, so it was a very international table- there were 9 of us.

Per norm, English was the common language, which is still weird to me. I am privileged to have it as my first language, but I guess I’m so used to Spanish and having that the common language. Also, having English as the common language when the majority are native speakers makes sense, but in this case, I was the minority. Which, in Spanish speaking countries is the case usually, so I need to change what I speak. But here, I didn’t have to.

Coming from a huge country, Europe seems small and very accessible, but it surprises me how little Europeans have traveled. It’s all relative. A two hour drive for me is nothing, but for some it could be a big deal.

I have been very fortunate to have traveled as much as I have, but it seems so easy here. Especially under the EU where citizens don’t need tourist or any visa to move about the different members. If only I had an EU passport….sigh.

I returned to Sophie’s Hostel, the hostel I stayed in before TEFL. It was weird being back since the last time I was there I had not decided on a TEFL school nor met all my new friends.

The morning before moving to the hostel, I was walking back from the shower and slipped and fell hard. I instinctively grabbed something, which happened to be the clothes rack that had no support and fell along with me. In the end, it was broken and I now have a huge bruise on my knee. The next day, stairs were painful.

I grabbed a late lunch with my friends. We knew the clock was ticking down for time to be together. P and Z already left from our group.

D is a big fan of food and beer. Whenever he can, it seems, he will have a beer in hand.

A declared: I can see it now, in the blog, D ate 30 wings.

I had to include her quote since she mentioned the blog haha. D then grumbled, with a wing near his mouth,

“Actually it’s 24.”

The next day, a guy from my hostel, H, K, and I went to see the castle. Finally, after about 5 or so weeks, I’m seeing the most touristy thing in Prague. It was nice. There are two different types of tickets- short tour or long tour. I decided to do the long tour because I got a student discount. I didn’t think it added anything to my castle experience. The only thing that was more for me was the museum on The Story of Prague. The other 2 extras were not that great.

The ticket gets you entrance to St. Vitus church, which was really beautiful. The Story of Prague was a museum on the history of the castle from early on through the 1500s. So mainly the middle ages. They had skeletons that were buried there before 1000s, which was cool. They also went through the different ruling families through that period.

The Golden lane is included in both tickets and it’s a road that has homes from the past, but they have been remodeled and renovated that it feels more like shops at Disney land than historic places.

The view from the castle is great. Worth the hike up for sure! I later met K to walk around this part of Prague and we saw some interesting statues…..

The rest of the afternoon I coordinated a gathering to send G off. However, I was also counting it as my goodbye because I wasn’t sure if I would see any of them later. I didn’t talk as much as I was just enjoying being with everyone one last time even though we were missing 2 of our group already. It made me sad as I hoped it would not be like my other international friends- 5 years until I see them again. K and G noticed and asked me what was wrong, but I just blamed it on being tired (which I was). I didn’t want to dampen the mood at all.

We met at a restaurant that we always passed on the way to school that smelled so good. It served traditional Czech food at a decent price. We then met up with another Czech student and his friends where G joined us. G asked H how much he had to drink at the other place.

“I ate 2 beers.” H replied. We all looked at him and laughed.

“What?”

“You ATE?”

Soon, G, K, and I were walking to the bus station. I was in the middle of a story when a dog lunged at me and started barking. Well, as some of you readers might know, I spent 3 months on a bike across the USA and I was chased by many dogs. One might say I have a small form of PTSD from it. This dog, though small, was still scary and brought me back to my trip. I jumped out of the way and yelped while running ahead. K and G burst out laughing.

I told my dad later since he also did the bike trip and he laughed as well, I get no sympathy.

I had to wake up early the next day for some visa appointments. I was hoping for some good news, and though I received information, it wasn’t the information I was looking for. I am still moving forward.

Going to 2 different embassies back to back was an experience. One was like a house with no security whatsoever while the other I had to get x-rayed and couldn’t bring any electronics in like my watch. It was an interesting experience.

Now, I’m on a bus to Brno, the second biggest city in the Czech Republic. I plan on being there a few days then heading to Vienna where I’ll be meeting a friend I haven’t seen for about a year and half and then continuing on to Croatia where yet another friend lives that I haven’t seen in 5 years. I’m so excited to see all my friends again. I am also excited for Croatia as I have heard it’s beautiful and since it’s south by the Mediterranean,  hopefully it will be warmer.

There has been snow in Prague and times around freezing or below. As much as I’m looking forward to skiing, I’m not ready for living in the winter.

Croatia is not part of the Schengen area allowing my tourist visa to pause. I’m planning on coming back into the area for Christmas and New Years. One of my German friends invited me to join her and her friends for New years in Bratislava, Slovakia. I’m super excited to see her as the last time was 5 years ago.

Christmas plans are still in the air. I’m hoping to spend it with my cousin, but I also could spend it in Germany with another friend. I am just super excited for these Christmas markets!

Wish me luck on figuring out a temporary stay visa :)