Prague (Prahaha) Czech Republic

Our second destination of the 10 day was Prague!! (or Praha as it is called in the Czech Republic... so naturally we added an extra "ha" at the end) And the overnight train was a much better experience than the overnight I took from Lisbon to Madrid because this time we got couchettes! The four of us were in our own little sleeper car… key word: little! It was fine for me, but I couldn’t imagine my tall brother being able to fit in these little beds!

But I actually got a good night sleep because I was very tired and when we got off in Prague I felt well rested.

We got off our train and had to take the metro to our hostel… but we didn’t have any koruna (the Czech Republic currency) on us. Thankfully beforehand I had tentatively calculated how much I would need for the amount of time we were there. I got out 2,000-koruna!! … equivalent to just a little over $100 US dollars. It’s about 19-koruna for 1 US dollar. Very crazy how much different that currency is. So from the ATM I got two 1,000 bills! Haha I felt so rich :D But it also didn’t seem like real money, like I was playing a game of monopoly or something.

Well trying to get on the metro, it clearly didn’t except 1,000 koruna (the ride I believe was about 24) So we had to go to the coffee shop in the train station to break up the bills and get coins… man those workers were not happy with us. And another interesting thing, I got back coins worth 10, 20, and 50-koruna! Back in the US it only goes up to $1 coins. Their whole currency was interesting to me, and I kept a 20-koruna coin at the end because it’s so cool looking. And it’s only about $1!

Anyways, once on the metro we had no problem finding our hostel. It’s so nice that I’ve had experience with using the metro in DC because all the European metros are set up the same way!

Our hostel was very nice for a change! We all needed to take a shower before doing any exploring of the city because we felt kinda gross after that overnight train.

Once we were all ready we had a couple of stops we wanted to see this first day… first one being the Lennon Wall! A wall full of graffiti… but “uplifting” graffiti I would call it. Full of names, peace signs, drawings of Lennon, the word “Imagine”, and other famous sayings by him. It was awesome to see such an iconic sight and a great way to start off our sight seeing. The Lennon Wall was just so big and full of life! Of course being girls we all took turns having a mini photo shoot ;)

Once satisfied with all our pictures, we were going to cross over the famous Charles Bridge to get into Old Town Prague. The bridge was crowded with people, but it was such a neat bridge! All along the sides were statues and at opposing ends there were towers.

And in the middle of the bridge was a fantastic view of the water, brightly colored fall leaves, and part of the city!! It looks a bit gray outside in the pictures, but we really did luck out with a beautiful day! And for the most part it was sunny :)

Okay before seeing anything else, first thing was first: food! We looked for places to eat and we knew what we had to try... Döner Kebabs! 

So unless you've seen what they look like, you don't really know what to expect. Well it's essentially a vertical slab of meat and they shave the meet off the pole. That meat gets mixed with other condiments and becomes a sandwich, wrap, or whatever the restaurant offers. Despite that it looks gross, I had to try one and it was actually so so good! (but I will say besides Prague, I have not had another Döner Kebab... I think the 2 times I had it in Prague was enough for me)

Once we had full bellies, we headed on our way to Old Town Prague. It was the medieval settlement of Prague and is now one of the main city centers. I enjoyed walking around this area and seeing the different types of building structures.

We left the Old Town area and went to the Jewish quarters of Prague. I think we saw about 3 or 4 synagogues all just around the corner from one another. We also saw Prague's Old Jewish Cemetery. The grave stones we're all crammed together and crooked, I wondered what the story behind this place was... well I found out that it was decided to build over the cemetery with more cemeteries. It actually has 11 cemeteries stacked on top of each other. Talk about creepy.

 The last place we went that day was Wenceslas Square, also known as New Town Prague. Full of shops and restaurants, it was a fun place to walk around during dusk. There was also a little food market area here and we saw something we had never seen before! These spiral pastries being baked on poles. It looked too good and too interesting to pass up, so we had to try it out! It was dough wrapped around the poles and since the outside was being hit by the fire, this part was crisp while the inside dough was soft. Sweetened with toffee, sugar, and cinnamon!

We hung out for some time in this area, just chilling and going into different stores. Before long, it got dark and it was time for us to begin our night plans. We were doing the international pub crawl so we went to the first bar to meet up with the group running it! It ended up being such a fun time! :) We went to 2 different bars before ending at a 5 story dance club that also had an ice bar underground! After spending some time on the different floors, we went into the ice bar! It so cool (but literally cool... it was freezing! haha we were only allowed to stay in there for 20 minutes because of the danger of our body temperatures dropping too drastically!) But it was an awesome set up and a great time!

Thankfully the pub crawl ended pretty close to our hostel so we were able to walk home no problem and got some good sleep!

Day 7:

Apparently breakfast in Prague isn't really a thing. After asking several people where we could get breakfast and all of them saying they didn't know of a place we could get breakfast food, we had to sadly settle for going to McDonald's for a quick bite to eat. 

Then came time for our big (and only) plan of the day: Prague Castle!! We took the trolley 3 different directions before finally figuring it out and making it to the castle. From outside the castle gates we could already see parts from the inside and excited to see it all!

Once inside the castle gates, there is so much to see!! 

The first place we went to was St. Vinci Cathedral and I was blown away. I don't like naming favorites, but this was immediately one of my favorite cathedrals. The outside is dramatically stunning and the inside is just as beautiful! It has my favorite type of stain glass: the hundreds of little solid color pieces forming the large big picture! Oh I can't describe how amazing it is. The two stand out pieces of stain glass were the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost behind the altar and on the opposite side near the organ was what I best describe as a large colorful snowflake. I didn't want to leave the cathedral, but we had other places to explore.

We then went into the Old Royal Palace. It was mostly a vacated area, but it was still fun to walk through and picture what it would have been like. We walked through the main hall, saw the private rooms, the crown jewels, extremely old books of records, and the throne room. 

Our next stop within the Castle Hill gates was St. George's Basilica. This church was super old and most of the paintings on the walls were very faded, but it was relaxing inside. It wasn't a huge site, so it was nice to sit in the pews for a while and give my legs a little break from walking around.

Afterwards we strolled through Golden Lane! It is 11 historic houses, which now are set up in a way as to show the life of the artisans who once worked, ate, drank and slept in them in the 15th century. For example, some of the set ups I remember were a little infirmary, a soldiers house, a tavern, and even a psychic's house. Above the houses is an armory area full of rows upon rows of ancient body armor, helmets, shields, battle axes and swords, medieval torture devices, and other tools. (Unfortunately everything was encased in glass and it was hard to get a good picture with the glare). I had a pleasant time going in and out of these small houses and seeing the armory (although the torture devices freaked me out!)

The last stop within the castle gates was the prison tower. That included a lot more freaky torture devices and creepy cages for people. It was an unusual sight to see, but I was glad to leave that spot. I couldn't imagine what those unfortunate people had to endure. 

As the name implies, Castle Hill is on top of a large hill overlooking the city of Prague. When we left the gates, we saw a gorgeous view of the city!!

Plus as an added bonus to this beautiful day, we picked the perfect season to visit Prague! Fall in Prague is the best, the leaves are radiating bursts of color. I was in awe and felt so blessed to be there.

 

 Reluctantly I left because we did have a train to catch in a little bit. But before we left, I had the chance to try chips on a spiral stick? haha I'm not sure, I'd never seen it before! But it was so soft and salty, a nice little snack. I then did a brief shopping trip since I had just a small amount of koruna left and then ended my time with one last view on Charles Bridge. The icing on the cake of my time in Prague.

It got time to head to the train station for a 6 hour train to Vienna that would have us arriving late in the evening. We had a bit of a struggle getting to the train station in Prague, but what's important is we made it on time!

When I imagined this trip long before I even got to Europe, I never thought I’d end up in the Czech Republic! Yet that’s where I found myself! I came in with no expectations; I had no clue what to expect… and I think that’s possibly what led Prague to be another one of my favorite places because it took me by surprise. It’s a beautiful city with an interesting culture and history. I hope I have the opportunity to come back to Prague in the future.