Wow. Prague was everything I never expected. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to go to Prague because I wanted some nature instead of another big city but God clearly knew what I needed. 

I arrived in Prague after a long train ride and immediately when I stepped out of the train station I felt the energetic shift from the city. It was unreal. The buildings were astonishing, the air and streets so clean, and the people were friendly. I felt like I had walked into another world. I downloaded an app to be able to get bus and train tickets and found the bus I was looking for to get to my hostel. 

I arrived at my hostel and it’s adorable. It’s shaped like a castle. The staff were so friendly and immediately I vibed with the place. I found my way to my room. I got another bottom bunk-nice. I’ve been getting so lucky with those recently. I showered and napped before going out to explore because I was exhausted. 

I woke up and ventured out to find some food and explore the city a bit. I found a cute little spot to have some taquitos and a margarita. I sat outside and people watched. After I finished eating, I had my first ever Czech beer. I had heard about them and how drinking beer at all times of day is super common in the Czech Republic. The beer came out with a tall layer of foam on it. I thought maybe the bartender just didn’t know how to pour beer. Man, was I wrong. It was supposed to be like that. They actually have four different traditional ways to pour beer in Prague. A stand pour with a thick foam head. Snyt, a less filling foam-heavy pour meant for hearty meals. Milko, a mostly foam beer for desserts. Then you have Cochtan, which is an all-beer, no-foam pour. They’re always served in the same exact glasses all over the city. I never saw a different glass. And I drank a lot of beer there. Trust me. It was seriously cheaper to buy beer than water in that city. That’s the kind of city I want to live in.

I returned to my hostel after dinner and met some of my hostel mates. I was in an 8 bed mixed dorm and I was the only female. I met two men right away. Dima, originally from Russia, but has been living in Canada for most of his life, and Abhishek from India. Dima was 35 and Abhishek was 32. We sat and chatted for a long time. They were nice. Dima was very erratic and said whatever came to his mind at all times. Like he would ask the most wild questions. He had no filter whatsoever. Abhishek made me sad because he told me about the daily racism and prejudices he experiences being Indian. He told me that many times in his life, he’s picked out from a crowd and verified or “searched” just because of his skin color. He also told me that women are scared when he tries to approach them. I apologized to him, told him that was so unfair, but he said it’s okay because this is how he’s been living his entire life. That truly broke my heart. They were going out to the clubs via some pubcrawl and invited me but I was tired and not really interested in the clubs. Prague is known for it’s nightclubs and party scene. They have a five story nightclub there which is supposedly the largest nightclub in all of Europe. I politely decline and tell them to let me know how it is. They asked for my WhatsApp number and I gave it to them both and we all headed downstairs together to enjoy a couple happy hour beers at our hostel before the guys had to leave for their pubcrawl. We also met another guy staying at the hostel named Daniel. Dan was originally from the US but had been living in Portugal for over 10 years. He was 34. He said he was born in Portugal because his mother was Portuguese but his father was from the US so he had dual citizenship. They all moved to the US when he was a baby and his parents are still together there but when he was in his early 20s he decided to pack up and go live in Portugal. He still has a bunch of family over there on his mom’s side but his mom was not pleased about the move. I don’t blame her but I imagine the quality of life is so much better. He says he has a beachfront apartment and spends every single day after work at the beach. He is living my dream life. Dima and Abhishek had to leave but Dan and I stayed for another round. He’s really into hiking and the kind of backpacking where you bring your tent and hike all over the mountains. He was really nice, easy to chat with, and was fun to get to know. I went back to the stairwell after we finished and I did a video chat with Chris. We’ve still been talking every day, but the distance is getting more difficult as time goes on. He’s back to work and living his regular everyday life and my life of travel is chaotic, hectic, and I never have any idea what I’m doing.

I was relaxing in bed afterwards when I met another one of my new hostel mates, Koloniaris, from Greece. He was your typical Greek man. Dark hair, incredibly tanned, and charismatic. He reminds me of the habibis I like to watch on Tiktok. I do feel like we connected right away. He spent his whole life in Greece but has been living in Cyprus now and he’s almost 30. I was thankful to have a room full of people my own age. He said this is his first time traveling solo and he’s pretty out of his comfort zone. He asked if I’d like to explore the city together tomorrow and I agreed. We traded instagram handles and the next morning I heard him wake up but I waited for him to go. I was just going to explore the city on my own terms. I love solo travel because I love doing what I want, when I want. I want to pop into shops I think seem inviting and just be with myself while exploring somewhere new.  

I got up, got ready, and walked down to the stop to catch the next train going into Old Town. I arrive, step out of the train, and can’t believe my eyes. The architecture in Prague is unlike anything I’ve seen before. The buildings are ancient, massive, and so well preserved. It felt like stepping into a medieval world in all the best ways. I’m so excited to be there and explore. I grab an iced latte from a local coffee shop. I made a promise to myself that I would not eat or drink at any establishments that we have back home and I wouldn’t eat any fast food which is easy for me because I don’t really eat fast food anyways. I’ve only found two places in Europe so far that have flavorings to put in your coffee. Otherwise it’s literally just espresso and milk if you choose. 

I walk through Old Town slowly. I am amazed by every single little thing there from the shops to the buildings to the people to the food, ect. Prague is so different from anywhere I’ve been before. I felt stupid for thinking it was “just another city”. I stumbled upon the famous old clock. It’s been running since 1410 and we don’t know how. It’s incredibly beautiful and full of history. I continue to walk and there are castles and churches and history everywhere in the city. I walk for hours, popping in and out of business, churches, and parks. I then walk to find some food at a restaurant that Dan had recommended the night before. I had a traditional Czech meal which included pork neck, cabbage, and bread dumplings. It was seriously incredible. Every meal I eat in Europe is so fresh and I don’t feel awful after filling my body with chemicals like I do back home. 

After lunch, I walk to the Prague Castle which you have to walk up a bunch of steep stairs to get to. Once you reach the top though, it’s so worth it. You can see the entire city from the top of the stairs. I stayed and enjoyed the view for quite some time then proceeded on my journey to find the castle. You walk into this gated area that’s full of different old buildings and churches that you can visit. You have to pay to enter every single one of them though, so I enjoyed them all from the outside. I had made it to the castle and the view threatened to take my breath away. It was incredible. I cannot believe the detail that went into that building. I once again stopped, sat, and just took in everything around me. I wanted to let myself feel the city, the history, and everything that went into Prague so I did exactly that. 

I continued walking until I found Prague Charm. It’s this little shop that I’ve known I’ve wanted to go to for weeks. You pick out your own bracelet and then all the charms that you’d like to add to it and they build it right in front of you. I waited for about an hour. The line was huge to get in. It was so worth it because I love my little bracelet that will let me remember Prague forever.

I made it back to my hostel after a long day of exploring. I had hit almost 30,000 steps. I showered and Koloniaris and I met back up at the hostel and he invited me to go for sunset drinks on a terrace with him and this local man he met on a bus. Not sketchy whatsoever, right? I agreed, got ready, and we met up with the man named Boris. Boris has been living in Czechia for a few years now but he’s originally from Slovakia. It was so fun getting to know them both. We all just clicked immediately and had a good vibe going. We stayed for a few hours and a few rounds of Czech beer. That beer was so good and I miss it already. 

Boris had to leave because he worked the next day but Koloniaris and I walked to the next bar. I had chosen a gay club to go to and Koloniaris laughed and said he’s never gone to one before and that I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone about this. So you’re welcome for telling you all about his first experience. We walked in and he was immediately getting googly eyes from the other men. It was funny, I was laughing so hard about how visibly uncomfortable he was. He said we could have a quick beer there if we drank it really quickly but it wasn’t super busy there anyways so I told him we could go somewhere else. It was already getting pretty late so we walked back to our hostel bar. On the walk, there was this mini car I’ve never seen before in my entire life but it was adorable. It was getting towed away and Koloniaris was having a heart attack over it. Big car guy. He couldn’t believe that that adorable of a car would be towed. He said it was the saddest thing ever. I texted Dima and he was already there also so we met up with him and a man from Russia. He said to just call him Alan, I still do not remember or know how to pronounce his real name. Alan’s English wasn’t very good and my Russian is at exactly 0 so we struggled a bit to communicate, but thankfully Dima knew Russian and was able to translate for us. 

I made a joke to Alan that we wouldn’t be able to let Donald Trump find out about me hanging out with a Russian otherwise he wouldn’t let me back in the country and Alan found that amusing. We got a couple rounds of tequila shots and that’s where everything changed. We closed down the hostel bar and then walked to another local bar down the street. We drank, we laughed, we talked shit, and got into some pretty heavy conversations where we definitely had some different views. We had such a great night, although I’m not sure I remember the whole thing. Koloniaris told me he liked me and said I was fun to be around. I had him smoke a cigarette I got in Italy. He doesn’t smoke and he’s actually very against any type of drug use. I think I may be a bad influence on that poor man. Except I don’t smoke either, but sometimes when I’m drinking it’s fun to do it with people. We walked back to our hostel together and Dima and Alan stayed out. I found out the next morning that they did a bunch of molly together that apparently Alan had brought with and Dima did so much that it made him puking sick. I was thankful to not be a part of that. We got to bed after 4 am. I am too old for this.

I woke up the next morning with a terrible, demotivating hangover. I looked up and one of my hostel mates was seriously drinking a beer. At 10:30 in the morning.  I got up, showered, and started my laundry which took about 3 hours at this hostel. I went to the supermarket to buy some food and I walked around town for a while to just explore. I came back and met back up with Koloniaris, but he was leaving to go watch a classical concert as he loves classical music and he plays the piano as well as the violin. I told him how I bought myself a violin last year and tried to teach myself but it went poorly. I still want to try to get back into it when I return home. 

Dima was leaving to go to Switzerland to follow a girl that he had met during his travels. He let me read their entire text message conversation and it was so clear that she wasn’t into him like that. I told him he shouldn’t go just for her. If he wanted to go see Switzerland, then he should go for himself but not for anyone else. Especially when she could not be less interested. He decided to book a flight and go anyway. We shared our goodbyes, and then he looked over at me and said, “Hey, I have a question.” I replied, “what?” He asks, “would you go to the shower room and shower with me right now if I asked you to?” …..What was happening? I answered, “no Dima, I am not showering with you. Sorry.” He then proceeded to ask me if he’s too straight forward. Uhm, yes. I think that’s definitely a possibility. Either way, I’m actually going to miss him because he was fun to hangout with. 

In the meantime, I was folding my laundry and getting my bags ready for the next day. Boris texted me asking to meet up for a few drinks. I agreed, got all dressed up since it was a Friday night, and took a train to meet Boris. Koloniaris came and met up with us as well after his concert which he said was incredible. Boris is a local so he knows all the good spots. He chose a pub that is massive. It has a bunch of secret rooms and it never ends. It’s completely made of stone and we chose to go into the basement where we found wooden tables and more secret rooms. I’ve never been in any establishment like that. It was really neat to experience that. Boris’ eyes lit up when he saw me and told me how beautiful I looked that night. Don’t do this to me. I am trying to avoid any more travel romances like the plague. 

We all three took turns buying rounds of the local draft Czech beer. I wish I had one of those right now. Ugh, so good. I really had to teach these men what “hair of the dog” means. I said it and they looked at me like I had four heads. I’ve been traveling around for over a month now and have learned so much about other countries that I’m now able to partake in intellectual conversations about life in Europe. It was pretty funny while we were all chatting, when the guys would talk about Americans they kept saying “they” as if I wasn’t included in that. They say that I act more European anyway. Don’t worry, I do miss home in America sometimes. But I do get a lot of shit here for being from there. 

Koloniaris has one of the most interesting brains I’ve ever witnessed in real life. If you know me at all, you know how much I love psychology and studying human thoughts and behavior. I told him multiple times that he was a true Greek philosopher. He doesn’t think like anyone I’ve met before and thinks outside the box for every situation. So while we are hanging out, he will ask the most random, thought provoking questions that really make you think. He also likes to come up with random scenarios and games. While chatting over beers, he says, “okay let’s play. Let’s pretend we all don’t know each other and we have to guess what we think the other person does for a living just based on looks. I guess an artist for Boris and a successful chef/business owner in Greece for Koloniaris. When it came to my turn, Boris guessed that I would be some sort of waitress at some high end place where they’re all hot or a “doctor’s helper” and Koloniaris guessed that I would either be a pornstar or TV weather woman. Nice. What does that even mean? A weatherman???  The boys let me  put my favorite lip plumping lip gloss on them and they asked why it was “spicy” and tried wiping it off immediately. I knew that was going to happen but I didn’t say anything because I knew I would get some entertainment from it. 

The boys were talking about how funny it is that you can always tell when people are from the US. They said one because they’re all very loud people and two because they’re always so enthusiastic. We just get excited about every little thing we see and we are very expressionable. I don’t think Europeans are really expressionable. Trust me, Chris and I have this conversation all the time. Europeans are more action-oriented I think. It’s really interesting to see the difference. I like that we are enthusiastic and get excited about little things though.  

After a few rounds we made our way to the next bar. I somehow, someway convinced the boys to go to a gay bar. It was completely pouring rain outside and I forgot my umbrella at the hostel. Poor Boris gave me his waterproof jacket to wear for literally the entire night so I wouldn’t get my hair or clothing wet. He got soaked instead. It was also pretty chilly out so Koloniaris offered me his sweater. Wow, what true gentlemen. I was walking around  toasty warm and dry and these men were wet and cold. Just the way it should be. 

We passed these two men in maybe their 50’s on the street. We got to chatting with them and I invited them to come to the next bar with us, but the men I was with said absolutely not and kept walking. I hugged the strange men goodbye and got a nice talking to from Boris and Kolonarias about how I really need to be more careful and how they didn’t get good vibes from those other men. They advised me I should stop being so friendly with everyone. We will see. I’ve made it this far.

We get to the next bar, get a drink, and I use the bathroom quickly. I come back and Boris is looking at me like he’s going to eat me alive. He then proceeded to propose a wild idea to me. Would you like to know his wild idea? A threesome. Yes. Boris was proposing that we all go back to his place in Czechia to have a threesome. Guess what, Boris? It’s almost 3 am and I’m 31 years old. I have a 6.5 hour train ride tomorrow so no thank you. Do you know how much work that would be for me specifically? I was pretty thrown off by the question. What do you even say to that? I let him down gently. I said I really should get going because I have to be up early for the train to Germany in the morning. I then made Kolonarias get me the heck out of there. We hugged goodbye and then he proceeded to message me after to get me to come back. What was happening? Was I back in America? I’m starting to think European men and American men are the same because what the helly was that? It would have made for a good story though.

Kolonarias and I rode the train back to the hostel. We were feeling good at this point from the drinks so the train got to hear our entire conversation about how insane the last 30 minutes of our lives were with Boris. We made it back to our hostel after 3 am. Everyone else in our dorm was asleep. I had all of my folded laundry and bags to be packed on my bed. We were still talking so I sat on his bed. We were just talking and laughing and next thing I was fast asleep. My bad. Complete accident. I was just so tired I couldn’t stay awake any longer. I woke up a couple hours later and returned back to my bed. The Russian guy in my room was literally waiting for me to go to my own bed because he had been using my phone charger during the times when I wasn’t and he needed it. The hostel life is truly crazy. 

I woke up this morning once again not feeling great and had less than 5 hours of sleep but I persevered through the physical and mental pain. I packed my belongings and made my way to the train station. The trip took almost 6.5 hours and it was pretty rough. But I survived it and now I’m in Munich, Germany! This is my last stop before I get to see my friends from America in Cologne in a few days. I’m seriously so excited. 

I had to videochat with Chris on the train and try to explain some things to him about my time in Prague. I’m having a difficult time navigating whatever it is we have going on. I always want to be authentic and honest no matter what. I think my feelings for Chris have played into some of my decisions since we’ve been apart. We still talk every day and we’d like to see each other again. It’s difficult when there aren’t boundaries or tough conversations. I don’t know how to move forward with everything in the best way, but I’m doing my best. That’s all I can do.

Oh yeah. I received a text from Dima tonight saying that it went very poorly with the girl in Switzerland and that he should’ve stayed with us in Prague. I hate to tell people I told them so.

I’m so ready to get some rest now.

Until next time.

Xo,

Kals