Congratulations! You have made it to my final entry! This one is going to be set up a little differently, since I studied here for 6 weeks instead of just visited for a few days. I’m going to give y’all a little information as to how I ended up studying in Prague!

I always knew I wanted to study abroad, and I have traveled abroad prior to this trip (London, Paris and Italy). But I was going to be independent and do this on my own. Kenzie is actually my roommate from freshman year when we lived in the dorm. We had talked about studying abroad literally our entire freshman year. So when it came time to deciding where to go and what to do, I asked Kenzie what her plan was. I had found the University of New York in Prague through my study abroad office and had loved their programs. I actually didn’t know anything about Prague and hadn’t even thought about visiting. But after some research, Kenzie and I decided that it would be a great spot to live for the next 6 weeks and in a great location for traveling. I got to Prague May 25 and classes started the next Monday, so I had the entire weekend to explore my new home (turns out this would be my only weekend spent in Prague, but I made the most of it)!

Prague was gorgeous! It is the capital of the Czech Republic and nicknamed “the City of a Hundred Spires”. It is famously known for the historic Old Town Square, which houses the Astronomical Clock (I recommend checking out during a weekday because the place is packed with all of humanity during the weekends). Another well-known icon from Prague is the Charles Bridge (Mission Impossible filmed on this bridge. So that’s pretty cool, I think). But my apartment was located in the Vinohrady district of Prague! A relatively residential area, the Vinohrady area is about a 30 minute walk from the Old Town Square.

I won’t give y’all a day by day break down of my stay here in Prague, but I will give y’all the highlights! Starting with food!

As y’all know, Kenzie and I have become a tad bit obsessed with the Thai food ever since Amsterdam, which carried over to Prague! Literally right when we got back from The Netherlands, we Google mapped the closest Thai restaurant, which just so happened to be two streets down from us! Mesy Thai Restaurant was basically our second home for a while! But soon we found two other Thai/Vietnamese places that grabbed our attention (Mesy stayed opened the latest though. So they were totally our go to): Pho Original, where you can get the BEST lemonade in Prague (I will get to lemonade here in a minute) and Madame Lyn’s, which I think had the best Pho in the Vinohrady! If you are ever in this area and get a hankering for Thai food, definitely try one of these places! You won’t be disappointed.

All right, I said and would talk about lemonade and here it comes: Prague has the best lemonade I’ve ever tried. All of the restaurants have their own different homemade lemonade in flavors like lemon, cucumber, grapefruit or orange! The weird thing about this lemonade is that it almost tastes like they put soda water or sparkling water in it! The first place we tried this delicious concoction was Dish Burger (another 10/10 recommend). Their homemade lemonade comes with slices of lemon, orange and grapefruit. It is hard to beat. So wherever you go in Prague get the lemonade because you won’t taste anything like it anywhere else!

I love a good breakfast. It is possibly my favorite meal of the day, which is why I am going to share with you my all time favorite breakfast spot that just so happened to be right down the street from my apartment. If Café is an adorable, tiny, underground breakfast and lunch (and dessert, omg) spot. We always chose to sit outside because the weather in Prague was nice! Side note: Something that Kenzie and I discovered that is strange about Europe is that you never know if you are suppose to seat yourself or if wait to be seated. It literally changed at every restaurant. So I will tell y’all that at If Café, you seat yourself. My breakfast of choice was the French Breakfast, which consisted of a croissant with jam and a coffee (I had this for breakfast nearly everyday in almost every country we visited. Yeah, it is really that good). But don’t count out the lunch! Their sandwiches are just as good as the breakfast, and you can get and ice coffee with a scoop of vanilla ice cream . . . we only did this a few times, I swear. And don’t get me started on their desserts. If you happen to walk down into the actual restaurant, you will be greeted with a display case holding the most mouth-watering desserts. And you will have to buy one. Trust me, you can’t resist. Or at least I couldn’t. Not sorry.

Two words: Ice Cream. Oh, wow. It is really good. Like, I thought nothing could compete with Blue Bell or the gelato from Italy, but the ice cream here sure does try! A little pop up shop next to the Church of Saint Ludmila, called Vanille, serves some of the best (and cheapest!) ice cream in Prague. Kenzie and I literally walked through a downpour one day to get some of this ice cream. And it was totally worth it! Once scoop was only 20 Czech Koruna, which is less than 10 cents, y’all. That’s insane for such great ice cream. So get more than one scoop, you deserve it.

The university provided us with transportation passes upon our arrival to Prague. We could use the Metro or the Tram system for our entire stay. Yeah, we tried using the Tram once and starting going in the wrong direction, so Kenzie and I stuck to the subway. It was actually very easy to understand. There are only 3 lines (green, yellow, red) and they all connect. We were on the green line at Namesti Miru station. Something super weird but randomly funny that made me laugh every time was how long the escalader ride was down to the metro. Like it was so long. Probably a two minute ride at least. It was ridiculous and I loved it. Another strange thing is that it is freezing in the subway, unlike in New York City when you are dying of a heat stroke. And since our apartment didn’t have air condition (it was actually so hot in there), it was nice to come down there and cool off on a particularly hot day. But I definitely recommend using the metro to get around Prague! It is easy to navigate and cuts down on a lot of walking, which, trust me, you will be doing plenty of.

My favorite area of Prague would actually be across Charles Bridge into Lesser Town. It is full of parks and winding roads and Trdelnik, (a dessert made of rolled dough with nutella and ice cream. What more could you want?). Lesser Town, or Mala Strana, is one of Prague’s most historic regions! The Prague Castle and St Wenceslas’ Vineyard are both located on this side of the river. I don’t know its name, but there is a small park near where the metro stop is for the green line (Malostranske namesti). Kenzie and I went in there one day just to have a walk around, and something cool about this park is that peacocks are just walking around. They were minding they’re own business and we were minding out when literally, out of nowhere, this peacock looks straight at the two of us, makes the loudest noise and charges us. I’m literally laughing just thinking about it, but at the time, we were running in the opposite direction. We have not gone back to that park since then.

Of course, you can’t come to Prague without sees the John Lennon wall. Located pretty close to the Charles Bridge, the John Lennon wall is usually extremely crowded. Lucky for me, I lived in Prague for six weeks, so if I didn’t get a picture I liked because of the crowd, I could come back later and take a better one (and I did this several times). It is as gorgeous and vibrant as the pictures you see of it, and I definitely recommend taking a picture there. Something else you need to do, as I have mentioned before, is see the city from the water! Kenzie and I took a boat cruise of Prague on of our first days here, and it is still one of my favorite memories of the entire trip. We sat on the back of this cruiser, drank our free water and took in the sights. It still wasn’t blazing hot out, so it was an amazing experience.

Most of our time in Prague consisted of walking around and exploring the city by foot, but I definitely suggest getting a group or private tour to show you the sights before setting off on your own. It is nice to do the things you want, but it is also nice to know you way around before venturing off.

So overall, my time studying abroad has been amazing! I think that everyone should do it. I wouldn’t change this experience for the world!

To Do:

– Karlovy Vary

– Cesky Krumlov