Let me start by saying this isn’t a travel blog yet. Keyword is YET because, as a broke college student, I can’t jet set and review the best Airbnbs in Dubrovnik or Bali at the moment. But maybe one day I’ll be able to be that extra.
That being said, I still want to share how my first time leaving the country went since I had such a transformative time in Prague. These posts can end up being long winded since I spent four months living in this Eastern European city and traveling, so I’ve decided to split them up in a series of topics that stood out the most to me: a Prague only post, the cities I went to, race, and what I ultimately learned from the whole experience.
You might be wondering why I didn’t document my every magical moment traversing Europe with new people while trying exotic foods and seeing landmarks that you only see on Google Images.
Well here’s the thing – I don’t function well when it’s cold. As often as I would try to capture the moments of many of the places I went to, my main focus everywhere I went in the beginning of the trip was to get from point A to point B. Living in the South my whole life left me completely unprepared to handle random snow flurries and 20 degree days for weeks on end. If I didn’t have the mind to buy a last minute winter coat (because who would need those in Atlanta or Columbia, SC?) I surely would’ve gotten hypothermia. And once it was warm I had already adapted to my Czech living so my awe and wonder had eased into comfort.
I also didn’t document everything while I was there because I had settled into the day-to-day rhythms – not everyday was magical. And truly I was at times overwhelmed to be in a country where not only did very few people speak English but the native language was difficult to learn/speak/understand. Still, I loved Prague. The city has this lost-in-time vibe with its medieval buildings. There were tons of sites to see. And I tried to see as much as I could. There were days when my friends and I strolled down random streets just to see where we would end up. But there were also days when I was just plain lazy and needed some creature comforts. So I would get some Pho from the Vietnamese place around the corner from my dorm or a slice of pizza and I would sit in my room or hang with my boyfriend and watch Netflix.
All this to say, I loved every second of my trip and I don’t regret a single thing – the days I walked around for miles or the days I spent inside. I don’t regret the people I met – good or bad. I don’t regret any of the weird food I ate which forced me to get over how picky I am. And I don’t regret choosing Prague, not even slightly.
