Praha, Prague, Praga, Prag

Hello everyone!! Again, I am sorry for the break in posts- the past few weeks have been really busy. It’s crazy to think that it is soon time for me to return to the States- just next week! But, in the meantime, I will continue discussing my April trip.

An overnight train delivered Grace, Megan, and me from Amsterdam to Prague in a miserable, hot, uncomfortable 14-hour trip. I won’t go into my complaints about this overnight train, but in short, it was miserable. However, I do think it’s quite amusing that I have spent probably around 24 hours of my life in Germany (either in an airport or on a train), and have actually never truly seen any part of it! We did see the dome of Cologne lit up that night from the train window, so that kind of counts, right?

Upon our arrival in Prague, I had some moments of panic as we had slept through what was supposed to be our stop at the Prague-Holsevice station. Thankfully the next stop was the central Prague station, which is located in a much more ideal place than the Holsevice station.

It took us about fifteen minutes to walk to our hostel, a little hostel whose floors are split up by an embassy that sits just off a main road of Prague. It’s called “The Art Hole” and was actually a really great place; breakfast was offered every morning, the people who worked there were the nicest people ever, and it was beautifully decorated with several murals and quotes on the walls.

Part of the art in our room

Before I divulge the details of Prague, some insight behind my desire to see Prague: my high school history teacher, Mr. Kimbrell, always talked about the Czech Republic and Prague during the classes he taught. His mother was Czech and so he had visited the country several times and always talked about how gorgeous the country is and how nice the people are. All of his praise of this very humble country inspired me to venture into Eastern Europe, and so us three girls decided to explore Prague!

Prague surprised me. I had imagined a place probably more Western European, based on some photographs in my AP European History book. However, this city, in my opinion, represents a good mix of Western Europe and Eastern Europe. It was extremely welcoming, gorgeous, and well kept. The colors of the buildings range from typical tans and whites to mint greens, pale blues, and yellows. Among these buildings, however, were also darker stoned buildings and architectural hints of Eastern Europe. We also found wider streets and more open plazas in Prague than in Amsterdam.

Our first day was spent figuring out exactly the layout of Prague and also relaxing, as our overnight train really drained us! We did, however, get to see an art exhibition of Mucha’s works. Who is Mucha you may ask? He was the main artist for the Art Nouveau movement, which mostly took place in Paris (those famous Metropolitan/Metro signs!). I have always liked Art Nouveau and have really appreciated a lot of the posters from this movement, but I had no idea that the majority of the famous ones were made by Mucha or that Mucha was Czech! It was an absolutely delightful surprise and the entire exhibit was gorgeous.

One of Mucha's well known works

The first full day in Prague, however, we did not fail in our tourist role. We started by exploring the Old Central Square, which featured two churches, a belfry, several restaurants, several musicians, and a statue. The architecture kind of all clashed with each other as one of the churches is from the Baroque period, which sits directly across from the gothic church, and between the two is the Astronomical Clock, built in 1410. There were groups of street musicians scattered along the square and, actually, practically on every street there are street musicians. This was probably my favorite part of Prague.

The Old Main Square- aerial view!

One of many street musicians

The statue, with epic font on the bottom left corner

Part of the gothic church

The Baroque church

We decided to climb the old belfry/Astronomical Clock to see the bird’s eye view of Prague. It was truly the most gorgeous thing; the rooftops create a sea of orange and are scattered with gardens and cafés. The river with Charles Bridge is visible, as well as the Old City with the Prague Castle and Cathedral sitting on top of the hill. It was truly a really cool experience.

Sea of orange

The Cathedral on top of the hill!

The Astronomical Clock on the belfry

After the Old Square we ventured toward Charles Bridge through the winding Prague streets. Coming up to the bridge, one can see the river and a statue of Charles IV overlooks the water. The bridge itself is very wide and sprinkled with artists drawing caricatures, merchants selling mostly jewelry, religious statues, and, of course, more musicians. We saw a traditional Czech band playing alongside a jazz band, which truly was a clash of two eras.

Us girls on the bridge!

The traditional Czech band

The cathedral from the bridge

The bridge takes one directly into the Old City; the effect is kind of like a curtain being drawn to expose a different world. It probably helped that while we were in the Old Square it was a sunny, brilliant day and then once we made it to Charles Bridge it became very cloudy, but this part of the city felt like a different city completely. It all sits on a very steep hill and so one is constantly climbing, the buildings were darker and taller but narrower, and everything had a very old-world feel to it.

Entree into the Old City

Some more cramped buildings

Part of the hill!

We decided to go to the very top of the hill to see the Prague Castle and Cathedral. Despite the sun it was still a very, very warm day and so this definitely proved to be an athletic test for us. However, we made it to the top and were rewarded with another great view of the city and a really gorgeous cathedral. We have become very accustomed to seeing cathedrals, as they are kind of a dime a dozen in Europe, so we weren’t really expecting to be wowed by this seemingly standard one. However, it was definitely worth the exploration as the stained glass windows were pink and purple, a huge difference than the typical primary-colored stained glass windows in France.

Entrance of Prague Castle

The cathedral

Our descent from the cathedral and castle offered us more views of the city, as well as a walk around the castle’s garden. A wall surrounds this part, with all sorts of medieval fortifications, such as little slots for archers to shoot through. We had a good laugh with Grace, who is too short to be able to peer over this wall. (Don’t worry, she was in on it too!)

View of Prague from the hill

Poor Grace!

Hunger and fatigue overtook us at this point, and we decided to have dinner at this pizzeria near the Old Square. It was pretty delicious and Megan and I both had a Czech beer, which was very delicious. At the end of our meal, our check came and we all had a few seconds of panic, as the total was 900 koruna. The Czech Republic isn’t part of the euro currency; instead, they use koruna, or “crowns.” 1000 koruna is equal to about 40 euro, and so after a quick conversion input in my phone, we realized our meal was only about 30 euro! We joked that we were rich in Prague, even though we would have paid the same at a restaurant in France.

The evening consisted of us finding the theatre and spending more time in the Old Square. We like to people watch and enjoy the different buildings in different lights, so it was a very pretty and enjoyable evening.

The theatre

The cathedral at sunset

The Old Main Square at sunset

We took it very easy during our last day in Prague. My and Grace’s train left at 6:30 and Megan had to be at the airport by 6, so we decided to relax as much as possible before another night’s worth of travel. The main goal of the day was to find this gelato place we went to on our first day in Prague, which was the best gelato I have ever had. We succeeded and enjoyed our ice cream next to a fountain in one of many little squares hidden throughout the city. We spent some time at the Old Square and left the hostel for the train station around 5 p.m.

Our fountain

I truly enjoyed my time in Prague. It was an extremely different view of Europe than I had seen before, and it was really fascinating to hear a language not based in the Romantic or Germanic language roots. Prague is completely enchanting and, for me, its beautiful place outside of my European comfort zone has kept it in the forefront of my thoughts.

Some Czech!