Prague Days 1-2

Riding the bus to the hostel

Last Wednesday was a busy day of classes, a presentation on online and offline networks, cleaning up of the apartment so no food would rot while I was away...and then I grabbed my backpack and made my way to Prague!

Getting There....

Dark Street of Prague: Day 1

There were two girls that got the attention of the entire plane because of their immature, loud behaviour. They were the perfect blonde stereotype! Skinny, blonde, barbie type girls (no offense to anyone I know and love and respect that is blonde and does not fit this stereotype!! :) ) They were a row in front of me on the other side of the plane. Within the first five minutes, we all wanted to throw them off the plane. One flight attendant came and asked girl B if she "was okay" because he could hear her at the front of the plane, when she said she was fine, he told her to keep the noise level down. Within 30 seconds, she was already shouting and using offensive language with her friend (girl A). Girl A was on the aisle and started looking around and caught my eye, I got her attention. I said, "Excuse me, everyone around here agrees with the flight attendant, you need to keep your noise down and watch your language please." Everyone around gave their silent thanks with nods and smiles to me. These girls were so immature, I can't really explain it. About five minutes later, the girl B is bad-mouthing me saying that it is okay for the flight attendant to say something but other passengers shouldn't be saying anything and blah blah blah....everyone was basically laughing and gawking at them in disbelief. They gave me more support yet it was still silent, which didn't really help the situation. I didn't say anything more, clearly, they have other issues that they need to work out and I am not going to cause a scene. The flight attendants had to talk to them multiple times and when there was about a half an hour left in the flight, they finally calmed down.

My first real view of Prague! That is the Charles Bridge.

Although my patience was tried during the entire plane ride, I made it safely!! I landed in Prague, took a bus, then the metro tram, then walked the dark streets of Prague to my hostel. There was only one other girl in my room, so it was pretty quiet, which was nice for the first night. I didn't get in until late, so I planned out my trip and hit the sack!





Day 2:

Statue on Charles Bridge

Well my bed was nice but hostels are not the greatest if you want a good night's rest. Once people left, I ended up sleeping for another hour...just because I could! After waking up, I went on a search for breakfast. I crossed over the Charles Bridge and it seemed as people were starting their day as well but I beat too many crowds. I looked at the many statues lined across the bridge and then looked at the waterline. Such beautiful buildings.

Charles Bridge

Waterline view from the Charles Bridge

Hot Chocolate and Croissant from
"Good Food" bakery in Old Town

Once I crossed, I found a bakery and bought a croissant and some hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was the complete opposite of the London. I'm pretty sure most of the hot chocolate I get in London is low or no sugar; it is not very sweet at all! This hot chocolate was pretty much straight melted chocolate! I almost had sugar overload just from my small cup. The guy who served me, I'm pretty sure he was the owner, was very attentive to me. As I left, he says, "See you tomorrow!!" I laughed and told him we'd see. I kept walking down the small streets. I knew I needed to make my way to old town but I was mostly just wandering at this point. I went into a few little art shops and instantly fell in love with a couple paintings and I decided I would leave Prague with a painting. I found another pastry shop and decided to look and there was this lovely pastry with fruit on top, I couldn't resist. I ate it as I walked and I found old town square as I kept walking.

Delicious fruit pastry from "Krusta"

My first view of Old Town Square

Once I made it into the square, there was a massive Easter market set up in the square. This happens around Christmas time as well.

I was going to meet a tour group to do a walking tour because I wanted to learn more about the city. A guy stopped me, commenting on my delicious looking pastry. He was a very cute man, so I stopped and chatted. He was from a different tour group and wanted to see if he could convince me to join his tour instead. I told him to give it his best shot. He did his sales pitch. I told him that the group I was going with was #1, so why would I chose his tour...he had to work if I was going to switch! haha He won me over and I decided to join his walking tour at 11am. They were both free walking tours but I just wanted to see why he thought I should go with his group. It was fun!

Easter Market

Food at Easter Market: there are tons of booths with
lots of different types of sausages. In the USA, we'd call it a hot dog;
in the Czech Republic it is "parek v rohliku".
They were serving them in buns like we normally eat them in-because it
is easier for the festival; but normally there is just a hole through the centre
of the bun that the sausage goes through.

Old Town Hall

I had a half an hour until my tour started, so I went to the top of the tower of the Old Town Hall building. There was a ramp that wrapped all the way up the inside of the tower and there were pictures of the tower throughout history-which was cool to see. Once at the top, there were wonderful views of all of Prague. I am adding pictures but truly they don't give justice to the view.

View from top of Old Town Hall Tower

Panoramic view from top of Old Town Hall Tower

At 11am I met up with my walking tour where we saw Old Town, New Town, and the Jewish Quarter. I would go into detail but it honestly won't mean much to you unless you've been there or know the history. So I'm going to post pictures and tell you the picture is and share any quick facts but I won't bore you with all of the details!

Rudolfinum

These first two pictures are of the Rudolfinum. It is the home of the Czech Philharmonic orchestra. Dvorak himself conducted the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in the first concert in the hall in 1896! There is a statue of Dvorak in front of the building as well.

This is a tower at the end of Charles Bridge but there is another tower that looks pretty similar to this in New Town. It is called Powder Tower. It gets it's name from the fact that during different wars, gun powder was stored in the tower. Pretty cool!

Current Jewish Quarter

This is what the streets of the Jewish Quarter look like now. It has become one of the most expensive places to live in Prague. But before and during WWII, all the Jews were confined to living in the Jewish Quarter or Jewish Ghetto. There was a large wall around the quarter and over 18,000 Jews were forced to live there at one time. Pictured below is the Old New Synagog and it has been used every Sunday, except during WWII, so it is the oldest, active synagog in the Europe (and maybe the world). It was also one of Prague's first gothic style buildings.

The current Jewish Quarter was designed with Paris as it's inspiration and was build on top of the old Jewish Quarter. So it is 6-9 meters higher than the Jewish Quarter was and is obviously much nicer design.

Old New Synagog

After the very educational tour, I found a cafe near my hostel for lunch. I ordered my first helping of goulash. I ordered it in a bread bowl and it was just delicious!! I would highly recommend it. I was served super quickly and just enjoyed a bit of a break from walking.

Goulash in Bread

After relaxing in the cafe for a little bit, I went back to Old Town and walked around the Easter Market. It was kind of like the craft fairs we have in Utah...everything starts to look the same after you've walked down a couple rows. There were lots of decorative eggs, paintings, hand crafted knick-knacks. And lots of food. It didn't take too long to walk through the square.

I wandered off the main square a little bit and saw that there was an art exhibit with a few different artists. I could pick however many I wanted to see and just pay for those ones. So I decided to go see the Andy Warhol and the Salvador Dali exhibits. I decided I don't really like Salvador Dali! Although there was one that I really liked! I walked into a new room and from a distance I saw Abraham Lincoln instantly. I walked up closer and it was a lady looking out at the Mediterranean Sea. The sign says that you need to be 20 meters away to see the portrait of Abe Lincoln but I wasn't that far away. As I was in a different room, there was another European couple walking very far away from the painting and the look on their face told me they had no idea who Mr. Lincoln was. From their tone and body language it seemed like they were saying, "I can see a man but not a specific man." I found it interesting since I saw Abe instantly. And I could still see him when looking at it up-close.

Can you see the president? Can you see the lady looking out at the ocean?

I found Andy Warhol's exhibit more interesting. I like abstract art but apparently Dali isn't my type. I knew the type of stuff Warhol had done but a few things I hadn't realised he had been involved with.

Andy Warhol: Campbell Soup Exhibit

Andy Warhol: Marilyn Monroe Exhibit

After the art exhibits I went inside this beautiful Cathedral. It is called, "Our Lady Before Tyn Cathedral". I couldn't take any pictures inside but there was a lot of gold and detailed wood working. Fairly similar to a lot of other cathedrals but more gold than others that I have seen.

Our Lady Before Tyn Cathedral

If you have ever had Czech food, you know it is super dense. And I think super dense is maybe an understatement. The picture below is my dinner and it actually looks like fairly small portions: pork medallions, bacon dumplings, bread, gravy, and whipped cream.  I almost couldn't finish the bread because I was so full. I also am not sure the purpose of the whipped cream....they seem to serve it with a lot of meals. It was very good-the meat was cooked well, the dumplings were good (not like Asian dumplings that you may normally associate "dumplings" with) but just very dense. I sat at the table for almost a half an hour after I ate just to let my food settle a little bit.

After my dinner, I went to the Old Town centre and listened to a Celtic Rock Concert for St. Patrick's Day. It was kind of funny because we had an Irish concert while everything was decorated for Easter. I've included some videos of the different songs played.

These first two videos are THE SAME SONG!! It is crazy how different...I like the beginning much more.

This last one is instrumental...but I am highly entertained but the guy in front dancing! 

After listening to the Celtic Rock band for a while, I went and met up with another tour. This time, I was going to hear legends and stories from around Prague that have to do with things that are believed to be haunted. The Ghost Tour guide was quite good at her story telling and it was fun to walk around Prague at night.

One of the stories was about the murdered nun:

If you so happen to be wandering about the environs of St. Agnes Convent in Josefov (Jewish Quarter) during the dark hours of a magical evening  be sure to watch out for the Murdered Nun! She appears to be quite moody, one evening she might be covered in blood and weeping bitterly and other evenings one may find her smiling tenderly at unhappy lovers. The child of a wealthy nobleman, this child tragically fell in love outside of her class with a poor knight. Her noble father of course refused to give his consent for marriage and as her payment for her unforgivable sin she was to be sent to live in St. Agnes convent, where she still resides today but only in transparent form. The night before her transfer to the convent she decided to follow her heart and met with her beloved but was, alas also met by her father who in an outrage stabbed her for shaming him. The Murdered Nun has been haunting the area of St. Agnes ever since but do not fret, for the Murdered Nun is not to be feared! It is known that the ghost once appeared to a girl who wished to poison herself because of an unhappy and poor love affair. The Murdered Nun grabbed the poison from the depressed  girl's hand and placed a bag of coins in it instead, enabling her to live a happy and prosperous life with her true love. If Prague only had more ghosts like the Murdered Nun (Story Found Here)!! 

One of the haunted houses

After the ghost tour, I slowly walked back to my hostel. It was dark and a lovely temperature. I just enjoyed the scenery. I love, love, love the skyline in Prague!! There are so many different types of architecture that it makes for such a beautiful skyline.

Lights: thanks to Rolling Stones

The picture above is a picture of the Castle (I'll talk about it more in the next post) at night. Apparently, the Castle is lit up because the Rolling Stones paid for the the lighting equipment and everything. I haven't verified that story but that is what my walking tour guide told me.

The big bright building behind me is the Dvorak Rudolfinum
building and of course the Vltava River running under
the Charles Bridge

As you can see this post was very long....and that was only two days of Prague. So I'll have another post for you within the next couple days with the rest! There I will tell you about a concentration camp I visit and touring the Castle.

Happy Monday!!