My Favorite City

With IES Abroad you're able to get a whole week of for spring break. Our spring break was even longer due to the fact that IES Abroad doesn't have classes on Fridays and the Monday after our spring break was a national holiday for Easter. While this post is a little late for spring break, I wanted to quickly reflect on my favorite city that I’ve ever been to. During my spring break, I spent the first weekend in Rome seeing the sites. I then traveled to Barcelona to meet up with some friends from IES Abroad, then I went to Prague, and finally ended up in Amsterdam before coming back to Rome. While all of the cities that I visited and have visited since have been amazing, my favorite city so far from all those that I have traveled to, is Prague in the Czech Republic.

Before coming to Prague, I honestly had no expectations of the city and had no idea what there was to do in Prague. Everyone who I had talked to has raved about how amazing it was, but there was never really a specific thing that people mentioned that made Prague so incredible. Honestly, I can't even really pinpoint what it was about Prague that made it so amazing but I’ll try to. First off, Prague is an absolutely gorgeous city. While we were there, we took a walking tour that was done through our hostel. Our tour guide talked about how there have been multiple movies filmed in Prague and the Czech Republic because it is such a beautiful city and country, however, it is a lot cheaper to film there than to film in a city like Paris or Rome. People even compare the beauty of Prague to that of Paris. Second, Prague was incredibly cheap. Rome isn't a particularly expensive city and was actually cheaper than I was expecting it to be, however, Prague is very inexpensive. My friends and I went to a local restaurant that was highly recommended from everyone as somewhere to get traditional Czech food. We were each able to get an appetizer, side dish, main dish, and two drinks for under 15 euro each which is impossible to find at a nice restaurant in pretty much anywhere in Europe. Third, the atmosphere of Prague was really incredible. Everyone seemed to be very relaxed and it was an amazing place to just hang out with friends.

I think that Prague is the most underrated city in Europe. It doesn't get the publicity and fame that Paris, Rome, Berlin, or other big cities in Europe usually get; however, I think it’s just as, if not more, amazing than all of those cities. Another thing that I learned this trip is that whether you like a city can also be very dependent on the people you're with and those that you meet there. I was with some really good friends and we meet some amazing people during the trip. I’m actually friends on facebook with one of them who is from Paris and I am planning on meeting up with him this weekend when I travel to Paris. My biggest suggestions from this trip would certainly be to visit Prague and try and meet new amazing people when you travel.