We stayed in a very "hip" hostel. It had a modern art appeal to it, and it kind of felt like we were spending the night in the Walker Art Museum. We got a taste of how touristy the city was right away, when we realized that the majority of the people staying at the hostel were Americans, followed by Aussies, Brits, and Canadians. By the way, I think the Czech accent is my favorite accent of English as a second language people. Not sure what it is, but I like it.
We quickly threw our stuff down, and headed out to explore the city. Our first stop was food. We had a typical Czech meal of pizza (just kidding) along with a local brew. From there, we walked towards the city center to explore the culture. It was a bit rainy, and I was beginning to think that Stasha is a bad luck travel mate seeing as rain clouds tend to follow us when we are together. The clouds went away though, and it ended up being a pretty nice weekend.
We first headed towards the old town, which is where the tourist action and hoards of people are. Right away, the city reminded me of a larger Krakow. It is much bigger, but it has that "old" feel to it. The old town square (pictured) has many shops, restaurants, street vendors, and just about anything you can think of. Old churches and synagogues are sprinkled throughout the city, and attract the majority of the picture takers.From the old town, we made our way to the banks of the Vltava River, and across the famous Charles Bridge. The bridge is strictly a pedestrian bridge. It's very old, and has street vendors all over it. There are so many people walking across it and checking out the goods, that the foot traffic is very slow, and it is easy to get separated from the people you are with. There is everything from jewelry makers, to caricaturists, to instrumentalists trying to make a buck. I told my travel mate that I thought it was interesting the various ways people find to make money.
After we crossed the river, we found a beer garden up a hill that overlooks the city. It had a great view, and we needed a break by that time anyways. We just sat at a picnic table under a bunch of trees, had a drink, and looked out on to the city. After that we made our way back down the hill and across the other side of the river, where we headed back to the hostel to regroup for a bit before heading out for dinner.
Our second eating experience is what you would call more traditional. We only ordered from the "traditional Czech meals" part of the menu, and decided to go with the "Thanksgiving meal". We came to find out that it could literally feed a thanksgiving meal to a family of four. It had various types of meat, cabbage, kraut, and I think fish. Whatever it was, it was tasty. We hardly left a scrap on our plates, and had to be rolled out of the restaurant when it was time to leave.
From there, we thought we would experience the famed Prague nightlife. We took a tram to the other side of the river to visit a music bar recommended by one of the Slovakian girls in our program here in Cologne. She was nice enough to recommend some more traditional bars, where we would be surrounded by Czech people, and Czech prices. True to her word, we were definitely the only non-Czechs in the place. We received a lot of puzzled looks, but everyone we came into contact with was pleasant with us. They played all kinds of music, ranging from Latin to the Macarena, to Summer Love or whatever that song from Grease is called. We were there for a while, but had to leave as the smoke was burning our eyes out. Oh how I miss smoke free Minnesota.
From there, we walked to another club we just so happed to spot while on the earlier tram ride. It was also fun, but had a little heavier tourist presence. There were a few people on the dance floor who provided some amusing interpretive dance. After a while, we headed back to the hostel to get some rest for a days worth of "touresting" the next day.
On Saturday, we had a hearty breakfast at the hostel, and made our way into the town. Our goal this day was to scale the large hill on the other side of the river and get a look at the Prague castle and St Vitus cathedral that were perched above the city. Instead of walking though, we cheated and took the tram. The castle grounds were very medieval, and the cathedral looked just like the one here in Cologne, only smaller (picture was taken from the observation point mentioned in the next paragraph). The admission price to go inside was pretty steep, so we decided to pass on that, and just take our time wandering around the grounds. Besides, as I noted earlier, you can only look at so many tapestries, jewels, and antique furniture.
There were a ton of people there, and I felt like I was part of the herd at times. I was waiting to fall and get stampeded at any moment. We quickly made our way outside of the castle grounds, and scaled up further to Petrin Hill & Observation Tower to get a good view of the city. It was built to look like a mini Eiffel Tower and by the time we walked up the hill and climbed the tower stairs, it felt like our legs were going to fall off. Once we were on top though, there was an absolutely beautiful view of the city (pictured). You could see for miles. You could also get a bird’s eye of the castle and cathedral (picture in previous paragraph).Although the walk down was easier then the walk up, we were in no mood to move our legs at this point. It would have been easier had they just tied a zip line from one end of the town to the next. I would have gladly taken that trip. We eventually did find level ground though, and ventured across the river, and back into the city center to find a bite to eat.
Since we are both on a budget, we made our way towards some street vendor food. I'm generally pretty leery of street food abroad, but the brats looked pretty legit, so we indulged. It was a great decision. So great, that we visited the stand again the next day. We sat down and enjoyed our food and people watched a bit. We were in an area close to the National Museum (pictured), so we walked up there after we were done with our meal. The building was fantastic, but I think the content is your basic science and history museum. We passed on the entrance fee and again took a breather on the steps. We were way out of gas by this point, and I was praying for someone to carry me back to the hostel.Although I couldn't find any takers to carry me home, we finally did crawl back to our place. Stasha and I kept saying to each other that we wished we would have brought a pedometer with us to see how far we walked. I think the distance would have been quite significant. To add to that, most of the day was spent walking up hill. You know that old saying "we used to walk both ways up hill in the snow"? That was us. Well, that is without the snow anyways.
After regrouping at the hostel, we grabbed some food, and made our way out into the town once again. After spending a good hour trying to find the club we were looking for, we finally found it. Both Google Maps and an online map of Prague were incorrect. Go figure. We did know the place was along the river though, which provided us a chance to take in some of the late night scenery. The town is as beautiful at night as it is during the day.
We finally found our destination, and the place lived up to its hype. It was a five level club, where each level played a different genre of music. It was a very fun atmosphere, chalked full of tourists, and of course more interesting interpretive dancers. It's interesting to see how some people absorb American music and pop culture. Most are true to their local identity, but there are always some that try to dress, dance, and act the part. It's quite entertaining.
Sunday was kind of a lazy day for us. We had already seen most of the tourist attractions, so we just slowly walked around the town. We again headed for the river, as that is where the majority of the action is. We walked onto some various islands, and again scaled more hills. We walked back over the Charles Bridge, and into the Jewish quarter. We had read about this extremely old graveyard we wanted to get a look at. We came to find out though that in order to walk through the grave yard, you had to pay an arm and a leg to walk through three different synagogues. Lucky for us, we were able to peak through some tiny openings in the wall to get a glimpse of the yard.
After walking around all day, we were again out of energy. We headed back to the hostel, where I spent some time reading my book, and Stasha studying for a test this week. We grabbed a bite to eat, and then spent the remainder of the night sitting in the hostel bar chatting with each other and a few of the hostel patrons. We met a guy from Montreal, who both Stasha and I agreed was in Europe more for the party scene then the culture scene. We also chatted for quite a long time with a British guy who actually has traveled the US more extensively then Stasha and I combined. It's always a joy to meet others as eager to learn about people and places as much as myself.
Overall, I loved Prague. There is plenty to do there, and the culture scene is fantastic. The city appeals to people of all ages, and caters to foreigners very well. Part of me wishes I studied there, but then again, I wish I studied in about every city I visit.
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