The Czech Republic is probably the most foreign place I have been, if only because the language and currency were so crazy. The language is beautiful to listen to, and some of the sounds impossible for me to figure out! Also pulling 1000 crowns out of an ATM feels very nice since it is only 50 euros!
Our hostel was really cool, it was a short tram ride from downtown. The nice part about that was the restaurants around it were really tasty and pretty cheap since they were not tourist traps. We tired some delicious traditional Czech meals, had amazing pizza and even caviar!
On our first full day in Prague we walked around a Christmas market and we went on a walking tour. It was freezing during the tour but it was nice to see the main sights and know why they were important. It is incredible how well persevered the city is after going through Nazi and Soviet occupation, but from what I learned that was no accident. The people of Prague love their city and did what they could to preserve it.
There is a beautiful clock that was voted the most disappointing tourist attraction in the world. This is because at every hour some of the statues on it become animated and people wait 45 minutes to see it. The little show is nice, but not if you have been waiting for it. On my last day in Prague I saw a protest in front of the clock of people who want to bring the monarchy back. It was pretty funny. My friend from school Annie who is from Prague said that they just do it because they can and they are all just having fun. They were singing old Czech songs and there was a guy who is always walking around Prague with a sign saying that he was tricked at his trial that joined them for the attention.
Annie took me and her friend from Germany around Prague on our last day there. It was fun to see it with a local, and she truly loves her city. We went to an exhibit called "Legends of the Czech." It was primarily geared towards children and told Czech legends about their cultural foundations. A lot of them were quite gory, but I really enjoyed it. There was even a skeleton that showed evidence of post-mortem anti-vampire measures. They were exactly what they people in the novel Dracula did. It was really interesting in perspective of the novel since I read it in one of my classes last semester. After the museum we went to Old Town Square to watch the clock and then we went to get some mulled wine and wait for dark. After dark we went to see Old Town Square again, this time lit up for night. It was beautiful.
On the days I spent with Erin and Shane before they left we explored the main sights. We saw the castle, which was huge. There is an amazing Gothic style cathedral in the middle of it. The coolest part about it is that the construction was completed in the 20th century so some of the statues are men in suits! It is the most uncanny thing because I automatically assume everything is so old! After seeing the castle Erin and I went across the Charles Bridge and rubbed a carving of a saint being martyred for good luck.
We also had some delicious street food. One of the things was these hollow dough rounds covered in almonds and sugar. We also had fantastic sausages on mini bread loaves. I had them two days in a row they were so good!
The best part about Prague was just wandering the city and seeing what we found. Every building looks important because so many of them have incredible architecture or bright colors!
We found some delcious spots on the neighborhood. The place we went to get traditional Czech food had a whole fictionalized back story of the people who founded the place finding artifacts and a diary under the floorboards. They also found a cooking pot full of food that was still good, and they ate it. The diary chronicled the lives of a family that all had horns, and how they became indebted to an evil man. There were pictures of people with horns all around the room as well as a case with the artifacts in it. We went there three nights!
We also went to a really cool wine bar in a park a few blocks from our hostel. We talked with the man who owned it and he explained how they grow their grapes vertically instead of horizontally. He used Erin's Czech-English phrasebook to talk with us and tell us about the place. The wine bar itself was really interesting. It was built into a hill. The room was long and had two picnic bench type of tables on one side. The ceiling had rocks built into it.There was a glass wall dividing the middle of the room and on the other side were the vats with the wine. People who came in all seemed to be from the neighborhood and many brought dogs and babies with them. When I ordered I even tried using a Czech phrase because it felt like such a local place. The people were pretty happy that we were trying to speak Czech.
There were a few varieties available and I really liked one called a Muller, which I had never heard of. We had a really nice time there. It was one of my favorite parts of Prague.
Overall my thoughts of Prague are of a general feeling it gave me, maybe because I currently have no pictures to refer back too and this last month has been so overwhelming. But the general feeling it gave me was one of excitement. Of a society that is so new, but has a strong cultural tradition. And the people were genuinly nice, not because they had to be but in a more realistic way. Not in a smiley way either, just the way they would treat you during interactions was much more genuine than other places I have been.
Prague is a wonderful city.
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