Prague is THE most beautiful city I've ever seen in my entire life, even though it was covered in snow, most of the time the sky was grey, and I was basically an ice cube the entire time. The saddest part was that the pictures don't even come close to doing this place justice. I'm already dying to go back again when the weather is a bit nicer.
To be honest, I don't know much at all about the history of Eastern Europe, especially anything before Communism, but after visiting, I intend to read up. Because of my lack of knowledge, I was really only able to appreciate the city from a visual standpoint, but that was definitely enough to satisfy me. Literally ever building in a work of art. The city as a whole is so clean, so beautiful, so unique, and so fundamentally intertwined with history and art. I felt like I was walking through a history textbook.
Every building was this beautiful (more pictures are at the end of this post):
To be honest, I don't know much at all about the history of Eastern Europe, especially anything before Communism, but after visiting, I intend to read up. Because of my lack of knowledge, I was really only able to appreciate the city from a visual standpoint, but that was definitely enough to satisfy me. Literally ever building in a work of art. The city as a whole is so clean, so beautiful, so unique, and so fundamentally intertwined with history and art. I felt like I was walking through a history textbook.
Every building was this beautiful (more pictures are at the end of this post):
Anyway, about the itinerary: my friend Becca and I left Siena on Friday morning, flew from Rome, and got to Prague on Friday afternoon. Interestingly enough, we weren't asked for our passports at any point in our journey. At first, I assumed this was becase we were still in the EU; however, I then remembered that Britain was part of the EU, yet I was asked for my passport when I traveled there. Becca explained, though, that since the Czech Republic "isn't a legit country," passports weren't necessary. Thanks, Becca.
We got to our hotel, which, by the way, was SO cool. We stayed at this place called The Hotel Sax, a "vintage design hotel" -- meaning that all of the furniture and decor was from the '50s, '60s, and 70's and all of the rooms were unique. There was furniture and art by famous designers from all over Europe For some reason, the hotel was also extremely cheap...tripadvisor.com is amazing.
So after we settled into the hotel, it was time for dinner. We walked to a place called The David nearby. This walk was scary because NOBODY in Prague is on the streets after 7 pm. And I don't know where everyone goes because nobody was in any of the restaurants either. Well, this place was mediocre but definitely better than the food I was expecting in Eastern Europe.
We then passed out at around 10:30 (getting from Siena to ANY airport adds at LEAST an additional 5 hours of travel time sooo at this point we were pretty tired) and woke up early the next morning to the sight of snow.
I can count the amount of times I've seen real snow on one hand, so up to this point, the novelty of there being snow hadn't yet worn away so I was pretty excited and Becca, being from NJ, kept telling me to shutup, get over it, and that my enthusiasm towards the snow wouldn't last past the end of the day. She was so right. After walking uphill, ruining my "weather-proof" boots, subsequently slipping about 984983475 times, getting frostbitten fingers, toes, and ears, and walking around in all of this for several miles, I can officially say that I'm OVER snow.
But I digress. We first went to Prague Castle, which contained several "must-sees" in Prague: St. Vitus' Cathedral; the Loreto; the Castle itself; Golden Lane, which is where all of the alchemists (who I assume must've also been dwarves considering the size of the buildings and doors) lived and practiced alchemy; and the royal gardens, which we obviously couldn't appreciate because of the weather.
We then crossed the Charles Bridge -- probably my favorite sight in Prague. It sucked that it was under construction, but it was still stuninng. Words can't describe how beautful it was, and like I said before, pictures don't do it justice.
The Jewish Quarter: got to walk around it, but couldn't go to the "main" sight: the Old Jewish Cemetery because it was Shabbat and was therefore closed. You'd think that a place like that would be pretty much open to the public and easy to gain entrance to, but unfortunately, huge walls surround all sides of the cemetery due to attempts at defacement...sad sight.
From the Jewish Quarter, we walked down the main street and just got to look at all of the beautiful buildings. We eventually hit the Old Town Square, which was just another beautiful thing to look at. The main thing to do here is look at the Astronomical Clock and ride the glass elevator to the top, which offered a great view of the entire city.
We walked around some more, headed back to the hotel in time for 5 PM tea, and then relaxed/got ready for dinner. My friend who had been to Prague before had told me, and this is a direct quote, "If you don't go to Radost FX (this restaurant) then you are an idiot. This was the greatest meal I had in Europe and you need to make this place a priority." So I did....and it was decent at best. Shoutout to Zach Silverman for that one. Moving on....
Scary story: after dinner, we called a cab to pick us up. A little background on cabs here: a lot of them are fake. We were warned of this by several people, and since neither Becca nor I wanted _____ to happen to us (I'll let you use your imagination there), we refused to get into a cab that didn't have the number that was supposed to match up with the one that the operator at the cab company had given us. So when we refused to get into this guy's cab, and then decided it'd be a good idea to get into another cab right in front of the first driver's face, he got out of his car and proceeded to yell at us and at the cab driver whose cab we actually did get into. After yelling in Czech at the other driver for 5 minutes, he opened the passenger door and MADE us get into his cab. Turns out, the number of the cab was put on in the REVERSE order on the side of the cab, so that had been the right cab all along. Needless to say, this dude was angry and we were FREAKING out. I was trying to figure out escape strategies in my head and I kept bbming Becca right next to me about my strategies. But thankfully we were fine.
Oh, and also, the flight home consisted of every single study abroad student from Rome or Florence. Every single kid was so visibly hungover from the previous night, the airplane wreaked of alcohol, and every girl was wearing huge bug-eyed sunglasses to mask the fact that she was still wearing last night's makeup because she had gone straight from the club to the airport. It was a hilarious sight.
And thaaat rounded out my weekend in Prague!
Pictures:
We got to our hotel, which, by the way, was SO cool. We stayed at this place called The Hotel Sax, a "vintage design hotel" -- meaning that all of the furniture and decor was from the '50s, '60s, and 70's and all of the rooms were unique. There was furniture and art by famous designers from all over Europe For some reason, the hotel was also extremely cheap...tripadvisor.com is amazing.
So after we settled into the hotel, it was time for dinner. We walked to a place called The David nearby. This walk was scary because NOBODY in Prague is on the streets after 7 pm. And I don't know where everyone goes because nobody was in any of the restaurants either. Well, this place was mediocre but definitely better than the food I was expecting in Eastern Europe.
We then passed out at around 10:30 (getting from Siena to ANY airport adds at LEAST an additional 5 hours of travel time sooo at this point we were pretty tired) and woke up early the next morning to the sight of snow.
I can count the amount of times I've seen real snow on one hand, so up to this point, the novelty of there being snow hadn't yet worn away so I was pretty excited and Becca, being from NJ, kept telling me to shutup, get over it, and that my enthusiasm towards the snow wouldn't last past the end of the day. She was so right. After walking uphill, ruining my "weather-proof" boots, subsequently slipping about 984983475 times, getting frostbitten fingers, toes, and ears, and walking around in all of this for several miles, I can officially say that I'm OVER snow.
But I digress. We first went to Prague Castle, which contained several "must-sees" in Prague: St. Vitus' Cathedral; the Loreto; the Castle itself; Golden Lane, which is where all of the alchemists (who I assume must've also been dwarves considering the size of the buildings and doors) lived and practiced alchemy; and the royal gardens, which we obviously couldn't appreciate because of the weather.
We then crossed the Charles Bridge -- probably my favorite sight in Prague. It sucked that it was under construction, but it was still stuninng. Words can't describe how beautful it was, and like I said before, pictures don't do it justice.
The Jewish Quarter: got to walk around it, but couldn't go to the "main" sight: the Old Jewish Cemetery because it was Shabbat and was therefore closed. You'd think that a place like that would be pretty much open to the public and easy to gain entrance to, but unfortunately, huge walls surround all sides of the cemetery due to attempts at defacement...sad sight.
From the Jewish Quarter, we walked down the main street and just got to look at all of the beautiful buildings. We eventually hit the Old Town Square, which was just another beautiful thing to look at. The main thing to do here is look at the Astronomical Clock and ride the glass elevator to the top, which offered a great view of the entire city.
We walked around some more, headed back to the hotel in time for 5 PM tea, and then relaxed/got ready for dinner. My friend who had been to Prague before had told me, and this is a direct quote, "If you don't go to Radost FX (this restaurant) then you are an idiot. This was the greatest meal I had in Europe and you need to make this place a priority." So I did....and it was decent at best. Shoutout to Zach Silverman for that one. Moving on....
Scary story: after dinner, we called a cab to pick us up. A little background on cabs here: a lot of them are fake. We were warned of this by several people, and since neither Becca nor I wanted _____ to happen to us (I'll let you use your imagination there), we refused to get into a cab that didn't have the number that was supposed to match up with the one that the operator at the cab company had given us. So when we refused to get into this guy's cab, and then decided it'd be a good idea to get into another cab right in front of the first driver's face, he got out of his car and proceeded to yell at us and at the cab driver whose cab we actually did get into. After yelling in Czech at the other driver for 5 minutes, he opened the passenger door and MADE us get into his cab. Turns out, the number of the cab was put on in the REVERSE order on the side of the cab, so that had been the right cab all along. Needless to say, this dude was angry and we were FREAKING out. I was trying to figure out escape strategies in my head and I kept bbming Becca right next to me about my strategies. But thankfully we were fine.
Oh, and also, the flight home consisted of every single study abroad student from Rome or Florence. Every single kid was so visibly hungover from the previous night, the airplane wreaked of alcohol, and every girl was wearing huge bug-eyed sunglasses to mask the fact that she was still wearing last night's makeup because she had gone straight from the club to the airport. It was a hilarious sight.
And thaaat rounded out my weekend in Prague!
Pictures:
The building above is where Franz Kafka grew up. The paintings on it all have to do with alchemy...apparently that was a huge deal in Prague way back when.
Mala Strana, the part of town our hotel was in, from the Charles Bridge
Our sweet hotel, above and below
Old Town Square, below
Another view from the Charles Bridge...I was obsessed with it
The Astronomical Clock (above) in the Old Town Square and Becca and me in front of St. Vitus' Cathedral at Prague Castle (below)
Below is Prague Castle
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