We spent my 23rd birthday (just had to count to make sure I was really 23) traveling 15 hours just to end up in one of the most incredible cities I've seen: Prague (Praha). Sarah and I were fairly lost in the small old town trying to find the landmark we were supposed to be meeting our friends at. We got a bit distracted by nighttime views such as these, tons of people sitting out on the streets eating, and one the most laid back atmosphere I've felt in a big European city.
Upon arrival, we immeditately took out 2500 CZK from the ATM to get us through the first couple of days. Walking around with 1,000 bills was pretty cool, but only for us. The locals surely don't get such pleasure out of it, consdering 1,000 CZK could buy you a nice dinner for two (and by nice, I mean $60 worth). Needless to say, we had to hit up the ATMs another time before heading out.
We weren't even sure at this point what we were looking at, but we loved it. The architecture was incredible, without even knowing the history behind it. We also got caught up as we passed a boy playing guitar on the riverbank singing "Wonderwall" to a group of people sitted sipping drinks and picnic tables. He had a few 100 CZK bills in his case, but mind you that only equals about 4 euros or $6 US. He looked like a high roller to me, though.
Here's the famous clock on city hall which still is working from the original mechanisms of the...17th century? Don't quote me. We had a fabulous tour guide (a friend of Julie's who lives in Prague) who knew EVERYTHING, so I was bound to remember some of it, but forget most of it. Regardless, every hour on the hour, this square fills up to see the mechanisms at work. A little skeleton pulls a bell, the statues around the clock spin and nod. Little windows open up to reveal a rotation of mini figures. Pretty impressive, actually. As is the clock itself, showing the day, month, time on a beautiful face.
I bought a mini version of the clock where you change the month and day yourself and it wasn't until we'd gotten far from the market that I realized I hadn't looked at what language it was in- just chose it on color (red). Alas, it's in Italian. Which makes no sense considering I speak English, live in Spain, and was in the Czech Republic. You think I could have accidently chosen one of those three languages, but no.
Turns out Czech food is both delicios and super filling. We had lunch at the same place both days- a traditional Czech buffet with schnitzel, fried cheese, rice, potatoes, sauces, goulash, dumplings, and dessert dumplings (you can see their deliciousness above). Filled with apricot, strawberry, raspberry, or plum and topped with a fine cheese, powdered sugar, and butter- they were irresistible. Also, one of the main reasons we went to this restaurant twice. There were 5 of us in our little crew and we had trouble finding a table on day one. It's apparently really typical to sit with people you don't know at restaurants, so that's just what we did. We sat aside one lonley man at a huge table while he awkwardly finished and headed out.
We made a stop at the library just to see this stellar little book tower. If you think it looks cool from the outside, just wait. When I peeked in I saw a mirror at the top and bottom of the statue lending to this next photo of me.
Alice in Wonderland much?
Here we are: an interesting mix who all caught up in Prague for a weekend together. From left to right. Nicole (born and raised in Canada, moved to the Czech with her parents 2 weeks before this), Sarah (from Oregon, teaching with me in Leon), Lucas (Czech, living in Prague for 6 years, best tour guide ever), Julie (from Canada, teaching in Leon), Anne (from Germany, had been working in Leon until February when she moved back home), and me. Quite a mouthful. But it pretty amazing to me how we all ended up spending that time together in an incredible city. We were outside the palace (the biggest one in the world) in this photo.
Sarah and I at the Charles Bridge entrance. It's beautiful and packed with tourists and vendors. Walking across it isn't exactly the most delightful experience, but it's a must do. We even found some space along the side to take a break and catch the view.
One of the many gardens we stumbled upon during our 2 day foot tour. This garden was apparently built just for pleasure but some ridiculously rich nobleman. He even had some walls built of fake stalactites (stalagmites?), a little aviary, and endless rows of hedge and flowers.
This was a view we caught by taking a looong metro ride and taking a little walk. The river is a huge part of what makes this city so endearing. Though we learned that it flooded in 2002 and did a lot of damage. The water innundated the nearest metro, filling up almost an entire metro line with water. Word around the block is the metro was closed for a year after and trams and buses were completely packed.
Here's the view of the palace from the other side of the river. The tallest towers are those of the cathedral within the palace walls. Then the palace stretches from the long white building on the far left all the way to the tiny twin towers on the right. Every new person in reign decided to "improve" or "add-on" to the palace. That gives it a very distinct mix of styles.
My pictures do the city no justice, at all. It had a small city feel but with as much action and things to do as a booming metropolis. It felt safe both night and day. The people parted for you when you were getting on and off public transportation and they moved to the other side of the sidewalk when they saw you coming. Every street and sidewalk was made of little stones (except the highways of course). Every building had a beautiful facade even if all it housed was an H&M or apartments. The views from all around the city let us see river, bridges, closely pinned houses and low rooftops.
It gets number one on my list of places I think you should visit in Europe (except of course if I am living here still, in which case number one would be visiting ME. No matter where I am).
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