By Akeema Paul
As most undergraduate students will soon discover, their final dissertation or project for some, will be the most harrowing, stressful, and time consuming work. At the same time, it is also the most rewarding achievement, next to graduation, that you’ll ever have.
You’re probably wondering where I’m going with this; I recently completed my dissertation on January 7th, 2016 (at 2.12 pm to be precise). Being a studious person, I even handed it in a week early. To reward myself, I thought I deserve a little holiday.
To celebrate with me, my super noodle(a little nickname for my best friend) and I booked a mini trip to Prague. I’ve never been to the Czech Republic before, and to be honest, it wasn’t on my bucket list of places to visit. Somehow the idea of Prague was suggested between the two of us and we sort of ran with it.
The trip was booked for four days and three nights (Sunday – Wednesday), as my super noodle unlike me, lives an adult life with work and all that other rubbish stuff I’m not looking forward to doing. Even though we only had four days in Prague, we crammed our days full of various activities and tours. Prague definitely exceeded any expectations I had.
Prague is such a historically significant and breathtakingly beautiful city. The city has this cool vibe to it, with enchanting architecture and landscapes. On every corner, you can catch glimpses of a bygone era that still resonates in the city. In the past, Prague was called home for several monarchies. They left behind grand and stoic castles and homes. To this date, Prague has the largest castle complex in the world, which now houses the Presidential offices. I couldn’t get over how large the castle was. Inside the castle, there are two churches and several smaller buildings on the grounds. It was so fascinating and amazing to be able to walk through a place that once home to some of the greatest rulers of the Czech Republic.
As well as having the world’s largest castle, Prague was also once a deeply religious city. Despite the fact that The Czech Republic is now actually one the largest atheist countries in the world, there are a multitude of churches and religious buildings located around the city of Prague. One of the most famous being the ‘Church of Our Lady Victorious‘, which is home to the world famous ‘Infant Jesus of Prague’. Now, I’m not the most religious person in the world, but being inside the Church was actually overwhelming. I felt in awe being in the presence of such a huge part of history and religious sentiment. Numerous people from all over the world, travel to Prague just to visit Infant Jesus, due to the miracle it is believed to be capable of. I may not be very religious, but family is catholic, so I felt quite privileged to have the chance to visit this church. While I was visiting the church, I took an opportunity to say a little prayer. I definitely felt a connection to the church and when I left, I actually felt really at peace.
One of the highlights of my trip was leaving our hotel early in the morning and trekking well over 14 miles. We trekked up steep stairs and over hilltops. Finally, after what felt like forever and 1000 or so stairs, we were uffing and puffing, but we finally made it to our destination – The Petřín Lookout Tower. The Tower is also called the mini Eiffel Tower. The Petřín Lookout Tower was absolutely jaw-dropping. We had the most amazing view of the whole of Prague, and when I finally regained my breath, I had some time to do a lot of thinking and reflection about my trip and future.
Seriously, my little Samsung S6 camera, did not do this view justice and didn’t even capture half the beauty I observed.
Views like this and the feeling I get when I am able to be in new places, seeing sites/views like this and all the amazing other sites in Prague, always reminds me why I love to travel and will always choose experiences over money. [contact-form][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Website’ type=’url’/][contact-field label=’Comment’ type=’textarea’ required=’1’/][/contact-form]