Day 1: Prague
We got into Prague late last night. I had ordered a pick up service for the airport, so we didn’t have to mess with trying to learn the metro system, which was nice. Our hostel is actually really nice, as far as hostels go. We have a private room AND a private bathroom, and there is even a nice free breakfast. Breakfast only lasts until 10 AM, so we got up around 9:30 to head down for breakfast. After a little bread, coffee, yogurt, and cheese, we headed into town. The first thing we stumbled across was a cute church with an outdoor market. The problem in Prague is that all the buildings look so beautiful that you’re not sure which ones are famous and which aren’t. The first important building that we ran across was the National Museum. Museum entrance fees can add up, and we weren’t sure how interesting it would be, so we declined. We’re just meandering down the road, and we stumble across this huge group of people practically climbing up this statue in their pajamas. As far as I could tell, it was just a giant pajama party. My Czech’s just a tad rusty…
After that, we wandered through row after row of outdoor market. Today was the kickoff of a couple weeks of pre-Easter fairs/markets all the around the city. They were mainly selling souvenirs, but also some good looking food. By the time it was lunch time, we had wandered away from the markets. We decided to find the river and find a restaurant from there. We did both of those things and found a cute Czech café with an English menu for lunch. Knowing how heavy Eastern food is, I decided to just get pasta with salmon for lunch. It was delicious, and the whole time, we had a great view of the river and the castle.
After lunch, we walked up to the Charles Bridge. The Charles Bridge is one of Prague’s most famous landmarks. It’s just a bridge with some statues on it, but it is quite nice. On the other side of the bridge is the Prague Castle. It’s a mix of a cathedral, the old castle, and some modern government buildings. All of this is WAY up on the top of a hill. Quite a climb, but there was an excellent view at the top. You had to pay to go into the castle, so we declined again, but the inside of the cathedral was nice.
Once we wandered back down the giant hill, we were quite tired. We found ourselves at one of those outdoor markets again, so we all bought delicious Czech doughnuts and sat down for a bit. By that point, there was just a little bit of time before dinner, so we decided we had just enough time to hit the Franz Kafka museum.
Like the Charles Bridge, Franz Kafka is one of Prague’s most memorial creations. He was a Jewish writer from the 19th century. He’s mostly known for writing The Metamorphosis and The Trial. His writing is bizarre, so I wouldn’t recommend reading him unless you’re adventurous, but he is worth looking up on Wikipedia, especially if you haven’t heard of him before now.
Right before dinner, we stumbled across the other part of our group on the Charles Bridge, and we all got dinner together. I finally got to try Czech food and ordered gulash. It came with bread dumpling and was a delicious beef stew. So so heavy, but delicious.
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