Prague: Czech Me Out!

Hello all from Prague, Czech Republic!
I am in LOVE with Prague; it is absolutely breathtaking.  Maybe I love it so much because Vienna was a let-down or maybe because Carly was here... whatever it was, I love Prague.  It isn't just one part of the city that is beautiful - the WHOLE city is amazing.  Cobblestone streets, adorable shops, amazing food (consisting of meat, potatos, and beer) and so much more.
In Vienna, I met two girls from Australia who were going to Prague the same day I was so we took the 5 hour train from Vienna to Prague together.  They are so much fun!  And as it turned out, we are going to Berlin at the same time too (tomorrow) so we are taking the train together again.  It is wonderful to have train buddies for those longer train rides.  They can be so boring but with two fun Aussies, we played Monopoly card game and talked the whole way.
Once we got to Prague we went our separate ways with plans to meet up in three days to catch the train to Berlin.  I headed to my hostel - adorable and clean!  I am having great luck with hostels this trip.  I only pray that Munich and Paris will be just as good.  Carly, my friend in Spain, was there with her brother and her friend in the same hostel so we hung out together, which was such a relief and a blessing.  Having Carly made everything so much better because traveling alone can be a downer especially after saying  goodbye to friends and family and SPAIN!  The first day we went to the Old Town Square, where there are two churches and the Astronomical Clock.  So much fun!  All throughout the square was little food stands where you could buy beer, hot wine, corn on the cob (which made me think of Iowa), chorizo hotdogs (which made me think of Spain) and chicken skewer sandwich things.  Delicious!  Over the next few days we saw the classic sites of Prague which includes the Jewish Quarter, Wenceslas Square, Municipal House, Prague Castle, Charles Bridge and St. Vitus's Cathedral.  We also tried beer brewed by the monks who live in Prague as well as huge amounts of pork.  I was in need of some protein!
The Charles Bridge is a gorgeous site that was built in 1357 and is dsitinguished by 30 statues erected down the length of it.  One of the statues is famous for either bringing you good or bad luck depending on which side of it you rub.  Some people were rubbing both but we figured that would bring you ever worse luck!  Carly and I, not wanting to jinx our travel, opted out of rubbing at all.  Just in case.  Jaja (haha).  Across the Charles Bridge and up the hill is the Prague Castle, which is about 1000 years old and I was told that it is one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) castles in Europe.  It didn't really seem like a castle but was gorgeous none-the-less.  Within the castle grounds is St. Vitus's Cathedral - the most famous of all of Prague's cathedrals.  Prague is also known for its Jewish Quarter, which remains perserved even through World War II.  This is because Hitler did not destroy any of the synagogues in Prague.  He did this so after he "exterminated" the Jewish race, he could use Prague and its Jewish Quarter as a "museum" of "what was".  How terrible!  But I am glad it was preserved because it too was stunning even though we didn't go into all of the synongogues.  Within the Jewish Quarter known as Josefov is the Old Jewish Cemetery, Pinkas Synagogue that holds the names of 77.297 Jews and is about 400 years old, as well as the Old-New Synagogue which is the most important and over 700 years old.
In Prague I also ate my first bagel since leaving the States in January.  There are a few bagel places called Bohemia Bagels and I just couldn't resist.  Not as good as Big Apple Bagels that used to be in Burlington but it was sufficient to satisfy my bagel needs. :) On the subject of food, today we ate goolosh and dumplings - tasty!  Then for dessert we shared one of these hallow cinnamon roll things with Nutella in the middle.  Carly and I are suckers for Nutella - our weakness.  The amount of Nutella eaten in the past 5 months is shameful.  Jaja.
Tomorrow I leave for Berlin and am very excited.  Stop number 3 on my journey.  I will be staying with Katie who is doing a STINT with Campus Crusade and is a friend of Barbara's.  I am so blessed that she is opening her home to me.  I am not only excited to meet her and hear all about what she does but I am also excited to meet some students from Purdue University who are doing a missions trip of some-sort over in Berlin right now.  I leave for Berlin tomorrow as my brother departs from Chicago to Europe on his medical school trip to volunteer in Romania.  After Berlin, we will be meeting in Munich.  Yay!  It has been so long since I have seen my brother - highlight of my trip!
Anyways, thanks for tuning in again to my travel blog!  Hope I didn't bore you too much.  :)
Dos besos
Sarah