The City that Never Sleeps
Trip Start
Jun 09, 2012
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11
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Trip End
Jun 27, 2012
Prague, Bohemia, Czech Republic
Monday, June 25, 2012
Why have we never thought about visiting this place before? It's a mix of Munich, Florence, and Paris. The food is stick to your ribs delicious, the buildings are straight out of a romantic movie, and the history is fascinating. The skyline is lined with red tile roofs, the occasional church spire, and bridges that cross the Vltava river. Everything is quaint. The only stain on the city is the graffiti which has found its way onto many of the plaster walls that line the windy stone roads... but that's Europe for you.
We arrived on Saturday morning at ~10:00am in the middle of the Old Town Square. Well, actually we got off the subway and started walking the wrong direction... took us a few blocks to figure that out. Once our bearings were set straight, we made out way to our hotel to see if it was possible to check in early. When we arrived, a very nice older lady told us we could not get to our room just yet, but she could hold our bags in a waiting room. Perfect! We dropped them off and soon were out the door looking up at the fascinating architecture and cobble roads. For the rest of the day we ducked in and out of shops, walked around the streets trying to get lost, and really just enjoyed the weather. We couldn't walk 10 feet outside in Delhi or Lucknow without starting to sweat. Here, the weather was 70 degrees with a slight breeze.
Prague is famous for beer... they claim to have been the first to invent the lager style. Naturally we found an outdoor patio pub where we could grab some. Mmm pretty nice afternoon treat with loads of tourists floating around. All around us we see chalk boards with the day's special listed. Most of the time they list the price of beer as well. Most everywhere sells beer for about $1.50 to $2.00 per half liter. Hey now, that's pretty cheap!
Spain played France at 8:45pm local time and they set up a large "fan zone" in the middle of the old town square for people to watch the game on a big screen. We showed up to watch the first half with the rest of the town, but by the start of the second half we were exhausted. We ended up walking back to the hotel and pulling the game up on the computer. At some point about 70 minutes into the game, we both fell asleep and didn't wake up until 3:30am! We were so tired from lack of sleep the night before on the plane ride from Delhi to Prague.
On Sunday morning we woke up to enjoy the hotel's complimentary breakfast. They do it right here... no apple jacks and a bagel... they had meats, cheeses, cereal, coffee... strong coffee, hard boiled eggs, juice, jams, rolls, etc. We enjoyed a big feast and I finished the previous post while sitting with the coffee in the dining room. After getting ready for the day, we took off from the hotel and crossed the river via the Charles Bridge. The Charles Bridge is a famous bridge here that dates back to the 1300's. It's quite picturesque, especially in the sunrise and sunset times of the day. When we crossed the bridge we made our way towards the start of a walking tour our Lonely Planet guide book told us we should do. It was fun trying to find out where we were supposed to go and what sights were along the way. Going at your own pace is definitely our style. We climbed what must have been 1000 steps up to the top of a hill to the west of the city. If we lived here, our workout group would go to town on this thing. It's basically 20 stairs then a landing, followed by another 20, etc. You could do some crazy cross fit workouts on it. By the time we got to the top we were sweating. There is a smaller replica of the Eiffel Tower on top which costs about 5 dollars to climb. All in all, I counted just over 300 stairs to get to the top of it. At the top it gives you a beautiful panoramic view of the entire city to the east. We snapped few photos, took in the breeze, and were ready for the next thing to do. On the way down I grabbed a beer to hold me over until lunch. Once back down the hill past the embassy areas, we moved towards a lunchtime spot. I had goulash and bread dumplings. It's on the menus for most restaurants and it's clearly the thing to try. How could I have not known about Czech food before these past few days? I had a different perspective on what the Czech Republic would be like... considering it was under communist Russia for so long, I assumed it would be a little less attractive, but I was wrong. The food is great, the beer tastes good, the people are nice, and the scenery is awesome! I'm definitely advertising this place when we get back.
In the evening we dropped into a Czech pub to grab a bite and watch the first half o the England vs. Italy soccer game. At the half, we paid our bill and walked towards the Old Town Square where a large crowd had gathered to watch the game. For the next hour we watched the English fans and Italy fans chant and talk trash to each other as their teams narrowly missed several big opportunities to score. Finally, Italy beat English in a penalty shootout. The crowd dispersed and we were more than ready for sleep.
This morning I woke up just after 4:00am to walk down to the Charles Bridge to try and get some good sunrise photographs. I was surprised to find that the streets were really not dead at all. The clubs/bars around here must not close until sunrise (which is actually very early... about 4:45 to 5:00am right now). I walked about 20 minutes to get to the best shot location and enjoyed using Shelly's camera to try and duplicate the postcards we see all over the place. There was actually only one other lady out taking pictures and it was fun chatting with her for a few minutes.
I got back to the hotel around 5:30am and went back to sleep until 9. Jen and I went back to the breakfast at the hotel and duplicated round one with heaps of food. After breakfast we tossed a few things into the backpack and headed for the Prague Castle... referred to here as Hrad. The gardens surrounding the castle are beautiful and date back a millennium. We decided not to pay for a guided tour and ended up walking around at our on pace taking pictures and enjoying the occasional seat. We found a tiny little cafe with a picture perfect view of the city up on the hill. Coffee for me and hot chocolate for Jenna.
On our way down from the castle we stopped at a cafe with seating out on the sidewalk. I had a duck, cabbage, and dumpling dish while Jen had Gnocchi. Beers for both of us and the total was $25 dollars... that's not bad for the amount of food we got. Right now, we are lounging in the hotel without anything to do... enjoying every minute of it. I think soon we will head out to a park and open up the bible. Yesterday we were able to stop by a small garden park and read 1 Timothy. Today its 2 Timothy.
