Ok ok ok... I know I was in Prague like two weeks ago and just posting this now, I’m just so busy here! Actually it’s more so the fact that it’s taken me 12 or so days to put my thoughts together! We did so much in Prague and saw so many incredible things that I just didn’t know how to write it all. I guess the best way to do this is headings by day. Before we get started, here are a few interesting facts about Prague:
· It’s not a very big city, population is about 1.21M and 4 days was plenty of time to see the city
· Weather was not as nice as I had hoped for the journey south. It was about -1 to -5 the whole time with a little bit of snow and we had sun for ¾ days.
· It is SUPER cheap J We lived like royalty for the few days we were there, especially in comparison to Copenhagen. 1USD = 17 KC Crown, and the average meal cost about 100KC!
· Little to NO English (closer to “no” than “little”) which meant that communicating with anyone was VERY difficult!
· Czech Republic’s national sport is hockey; however, the most popular sport it soccer. Little to my dismay, Jaromir Jagr was not spotted in Prague, nor did I even find a hockey arena... 0/2 in Europe so far L
Day 1 – Arrival in Prague!
Well we were on the plane at 9:05am which means that we got to Prague at about 10:15 and were ready to drop our stuff off and get exploring! This was the hostel which cost next to nothing...
The rest of the day consisted of some walking around and “Czech-ing” out the city – haha! J Basically, the city is split into two areas: the Old Town Square and New Town Square. Here’s a picture from New Town Square. Throughout the town, the cobblestone and the look of the buildings is just amazing! It’s hard to see, but in behind me at the far end of New Town Square is the National Museum in Prague.
Here are a few more pictures of the city... They really have no significant purpose; I just found the entire city gorgeous and would snap pictures of anything!
I have a lot of pictures from the Old Town Square as well, but on Day 3 we went for a big walking tour and I will post them under that heading. The rest of the day consisted of walking around and checking things out. The weather was amazing so we took full advantage of that! Of course, the plan was to go out on the town that evening, but with the early flight and tons of walking we were way too tired! So early bed and ready for day two...
Day 2 – Train Ride!
When we woke up it was not hear as nice as the day we arrived so we planned a day trip to Kutna Hora. Kutna Hora is a small town outside which apparently was founded in 1142.
(Train to Kunta Hora à First European Trainride!)
The main attraction in the town is the Sedlec Ossuary, which is a small church which contains around 40,000-70,000 skeletons and bones of people who died during the Black Plague. Apparently it was everyone’s last wish to be buried in that church, but obviously it wasn’t big enough to bury everyone outside, so mass graves were created.
(Sedlec Ossuary)
Years later, a woodworker was hired to “organize” all the bones in a way to commemorate human life and death, and this is what he came up with...
After leaving the church, we had a little while until the train came so we went for a little walk. I thought that we were just killing time and that there wasn’t too much to see so I was getting a little bit bored, but then we stumbled across this which made the whole walk worth it!
It ended up getting a little bit nicer by the end of the day so when we got back we did a little more walking around, but again I’m going to save that for the walking tour!
That evening (after the weather went sour again), a couple of us went out to find some traditional Czech food, and after going from smokey pub to smokey pub in the rain/snow mix, we finally found a little restaurant full of locals (remember the language barriers I mentioned...) and sat down to give the food a try! I ended up getting Czech goulash which is delicious!
(Basically beef in a brown sauce and bread dumplings)
Intentions again were to go out in the evening, but after all the walking and touring, exhaustion settled in quickly and an early bed time it was, again.
Day 3 – Walking Tour!
Now you get to see my favourite part of Prague! I thought that the Old Town Square was amazing!! We ended up finding one of the free tours, and we got super lucky because our guide was amazing! It was supposed to be a 1.5-2 hour tour and she took us around for 3 hours, and the facts she had were really good!
Pretty much this is Old Town Square:
(Top: Statue of an Old Protestant Leader during the conflicts between Catholics and Protestants. Bottom: Tyn Church)
(Clocktower! Amazing J Notice the small man in yellow at the top of the tower? Trumpet player who plays a little jingle every hour on the hour)
So the tour started in Old Town Square and from what I remember about the guide saying, is that during the time of conflict between the Catholics and Protestants the Old Town Square would be a common area for executions. On the ground outside of the Old Town Hall (Clocktower) there are 27 crosses embedded in the cobblestone in memory of the 27 rebellion leaders who were executed. In front of the clock tower, is an amazing astronomical clock with incredible detailed work! You can also go up the clock tower which I definitely did to see really good view of the Square and Prague in general.
Next Stop on the tour was the Power Tower which used in the 17th century to store gun powder. After the Powder Tower we ended up at the famous Charles Bridge! It’s about 500 meters long and was built by King Charles. Legend has it that he was given a note that had the numbers 1-3-5-7-9-7-5-3-1 on it and he interpreted that as the construction for the bridge needed to start on July 9th, 1357 at 5:31am (Year = 1357, Day = 9th, July = 7, time = 5:31am). Apparently he was given that note 14 years before that so they waited 14 years for that one moment in time just to start construction...)
(Top: Powder Tower. Center: Entrance to Charles Bridge. Bottom: On Charles Bridge looking over the river)
After touring around Prague on the beautiful sunny and freezing cold day, we ended up at the Lennon wall, which is basically a huge wall that is covered in nice graffiti and you can leave a message on it. Tons of people have written on it over the years. Beside the Lennon wall is a small bridge that has tons of locks attached to it with little love notes. Once it’s locked, then you throw your key into the river and hope that you stay together with the person on the lock!
(Cool!)
Day 4 – Prague Castle
The last day meant a trek up to the very top of the hill to see the Prague Castle. It was INCREDIBLE! I cannot get over how these structures were build at the time they were! Construction for the castle started around 881...wild!
(Left: Changing of the Guard. Right: Looking up at the castle – pictures do NO justice!)
Well, there’s not much more to say about Prague...it took 2 weeks but I finally got my story out. It was incredible and there’s nothing in North America like this! I can’t wait until my next adventure J
Love and miss everyone (and thanks for the patience!)
JT
