The story of the volcano. So in case you missed it back in the US, Iceland felt neglected and so their cry for attention was a volcano. I have to say it was pretty clever except that it caused the majority of flights in Europe to be grounded for approximately a week. I happened to have a ticket for one of those said flights. You mean I had problems traveling? It’s really hard to believe, right? If you’ve read any of this blog chances are you’ve realized that I have the worst luck when trying to travel. Anyway, let’s go back to the good part of my vacation in Prague…
I flew to Prague on the 11th and surprisingly I had no problems getting to Charleroi. Right there I should have known that something would go wrong on the way home. Last time I was in Prague I was 6, so it was really cool to go back. I stayed with one of my cousins. I have a TON of family there. It was so nice seeing them all. My cousin worked during the day so I explored the city by myself, took a tour, relaxed. It was wonderful. One night we went to a Black Theater. It’s theater in the black light which was super cool. My cousin knew the director so we had great seats in the balcony and had wine. It was super cool. I also went to the Prague zoo which is really nice except for the fact that it’s on a hill which makes it a lot of fun to climb…not. 
Frankly it was a lot of family time which was great. I ate a ton, met so many cousins and even remembered some Czech! By the end of the week I could understand full conversations, I just struggled to respond. I did get to go to the house my Babi (grandma) grew up in. That was really cool. All in all, Prague was great…until the volcano happened.
I had a plane ticket for Monday morning. When the volcano started causing problems on Thursday I figured I would be find. I mean they couldn’t ground all planes until Monday, right? Well that’s what I thought. Alas, I was wrong. Long story short I ended up having to take a 14 hour bus ride from Prague to Paris. We left Prague at midnight. At around 3 am we crossed into Germany where these two German men came on the bus and asked for everyone’s passports. After over an hour, we finally got back on the road. Everyone on the bus was crabby since we all had just fallen asleep. Regardless around 2 pm we arrived in Paris. But do I live in Paris? Mais non! Alors, I had to take a train back to Lille. Now Gare du Nord is never not busy but on this particular Monday it was INSANE. It was a bunch of Brits trying to get the EuroStar home. It took me almost 2 hours to get a train ticket back to Lille. Finally I got on the train and couldn’t be happy when we pulled into Gare Lille Flandres. Overall the trip took me 18.5 hours. It should have taken me (with airplane to Charleroi + train) 3.5-4 hours. I still haven’t gotten my refund from my plane ticket but I’m really hoping that comes soon.
I apologize for the lack of pictures in this post, but I really didn’t take any good ones in Prague. Most are just of people. I leave you with this one since I’d say it’s my favorite. This was taken from the Prague Castle. 
