Prague was a wonderful adventure! After my last post we walked to Old Town Square, stopping by the mall so I could buy batteries. We wandered a lot, poking our heads into the St Nicholas church, watching the astronomical clock strike noon, and braving the frightening tourist zoo of the Charles Bridge. We got lunch (and hot apple grog!) at a café across the bridge, then made our way slowly back to BJ's. There were beautiful scarves on sale all over Prague (they sell similar ones in Budapest, truth be told) that were 90% cashmere, 10% silk for less than $20, so I bought one during our wanderings. It was very, very cold outside and I had left my regular scarf back in Budapest, so it was a necessary purchase.
Once we got back to BJ's we laid low for a while. Tom made connections with a friend who was also in Prague, Pat fell asleep, and Voula and I took a walk to Flora, a nearby mall, to buy sweet Euro tights (we'd been talking about buying tights since we got to Budapest, but the opportunity finally presented itself this time). Voula got a pair of argyle knee-highs and a pair of plain green opaque tights, and I got one pair of opaque black tights and one pair of red tights with black polka dots. Hooray!
The two of us walked back to BJ's with our new purchases in tow, then went with Mihály, Barry and Pat to U Sadu, a pub that BJ had recommended. Beef is impossible to find for a reasonable price in Budapest as far as I have seen, but this pub had rumpsteak (hee hee... rump) for pretty cheap so I got a steak and two pints of their cheapest beer on tap (woo!). We walked back to BJ's, then hung out and watched EuroTrip. Around the end of the movie I got a message from Tom on facebook; he'd been trying to call but none of us had been answering our phones. Mine was out of minutes and BJ's phone, that he'd left with Voula, was on vibrate in the other room. This was his only way of getting back into the apartment, since the doorbell didn't work. Luckily he had internet where he was, otherwise he would have had to spend the night there.
We slept late the next morning, later than we'd wanted to, then got an even later start. We made a delicious breakfast of fruit and yogurt, then finally made it out of the apartment by noon-ish. That day we went to the National Museum, then the Prague Castle. The National Museum was amazing. The coolest part was the zoology exhibit, by far. SO MANY STUFFED ANIMALS! The castle was also quite cool. St. Vitus' is gorgeous and huge, and not quite as decadent as St. Istvans. Still, it's easy to see why Martin Luther had a s**t fit.
Me and Voula left the boys there and went back to BJ's to clean up before he got home. The boys joined us a little after BJ got home and then the whole group of us went to another pub in the area for dinner and so we could treat BJ to a couple beers to thank him for letting us stay in his flat. And I got rumpsteak again (it was just too delicious!). Because BJ was home that night, Barry, Tom and Pat stayed at a hostel and Voula and Mihály and I stayed on the living room floor of BJ's.
We met up with the others in the morning, did a little more sightseeing, went to the grocery story for lunchy stuff, got lost trying to find the train station, but made the 11:35 am train out of Prague to Budapest. We couldn't find a compartment all together this time, so Voula and I went into one compartment and the boys went further down the train. It was an uneventful journey and it we made it back by 6:30-ish pm.
I got home that night around 10 and my host mother was already asleep. I left her a note on the table that said "Jessica itt, Jessica ott... Jessica a hazban!" (Jessie here, Jessie there... Jessie is at home!) and then went to bed.
"The Ugly Church", a landmark always mentioned in BJ's directions.
"The Baby Tower". That is a TV tower. Covered with crawling babies. They were put there as some sort of temporary modern art thing, but when they were removed people complained... so now they're a permanent fixture. What the hell, Prague.
The Astronomical Clock in Old Town Square. We got there just as it was about to strike noon, completely by accident. It was one of the most anticlimactic things I have ever seen. When we got there the crowd in front of the clock was enormous. As soon as it started to chime people got bored and the crowd dispersed.
St Nicholas Church is the other big fixture in Old Town Square. As soon as I saw it, I was hit by a wave of déjà vu. I told the group that I was 95% sure I had sung in that church.
We went inside the church and that 95% confidence became 100%.
See? I'm fourth from the left in the second row and Micaela is beside me. Aw, little Jessie and Micaela!
Math graffiti. Tee hee. I don't understand this right now, but I will once I've taken complex next semester.
Getting tipsy in U Sadu, a pub in BJ's neighborhood.
Mihály eating breakfast in BJ's kitchen.
Rainbow over Prague.
A view of the walk from the National Museum down to Old Town Square.
Me and Voula by the Prague castle.
Storm brewing over the city.
St. Vitus Cathedral by the Prague Castle.
Absolutely amazing stained glass inside St. Vitus'.
Silver tomb of I-don't-know-who in St. Vitus'.
The view from BJ's window.
A better picture of the National Museum.
The McDonald's we sat in at 6:30 am Saturday morning in 4˚C weather.
Statue by the National Museum.
Same statue, bizarro style. (In the Lucerna mall)
Absinthe for sale in the grocery store.
Me and Voula listening to music on the train home.
1 comment:
When I visited Prague I didn't quite know what to expect. I had assumed to see a lot of faceless concrete buildings, and time worn faces on the local population. That couldn't have been farther from the truth. Prague is at a crossroads between old and new, constraint and freedom. It has an incredible history of conquest, peace, and domination. The Czech Republic has seen many changes in the last few decades and it is nice to see that Prague hasn't lost any of its charm. This was my first trip to this capital city. I was able to see really interesting architecture, listen to very talented musicians and see works of art in many different forms.
We booked a room in one of the Prague hotels right in the center of the Old Town - wanting to be close to everything. If you haven't been to Prague yet it should be on your list for places to visit in Europe. Though I didn't have the opportunity to visit many places that surround Prague, there was enough to find to do in the city itself for the 4 days that I was there.
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