We arrived in Prague nearly 2 hours late around 1pm. We were hot, bothered, and a little pissed at each other. Specifically, I was pissed at Nate for ever thinking the last 19 hours were a good idea. He snapped some pictures from the train window as we arrived.
The Prague train station looked much like the Amsterdam one from the inside, but dirtier. We lugged our bags up the stairs from the platform and reached the sobering realization that we weren't in jolly Dutch land anymore. We had travelled east, Far East, and this was evident. The culture, the language, and even the Czech currency made us feel like we were even further from home. It even reminded me of Istanbul, Turkey a bit. There were zero signs in English, and no helpful people. We hadn't a clue how to navigate our way onto the subway and our only form of reference was an iPad screen shot of Google maps directions.
We went to an ATM and withdrew some Krona, a completely different currency that I still no clue how to calculate. Supposedly you divide the price of everything by 20 and that's approximately how many US dollars it is. My lack of math skills left me literally without a clue as to how much anything costed the entire time we were there. Oddly, it was kind of empowering.
We somehow navigated our way onto the subway and to our hotel, which was much further from the city center this time. This hotel was huge, very business-focused and not very friendly. We were directed up to the 8th floor to check in since we were Hilton Honors members and upon entering the executive lounge, we witnessed with pure shock and disgust a man smoking, right there inside! It's legal and common and something I will never understand. The smokey hotel lounge made me miss the subtle smell of pot outside the Amsterdam coffee shops because at least they were outside! I may be a bit of a diva, but when it comes to the smell of smoke I have zero tolerance. We made it up to our room, showered, and went out to explore.
Walking down the busy street from our hotel I hadn't a clue why everyone had raved about how wonderful Prague was. Then we got down to the old town city center and I instantly understood. It was was epic. Castles on top of monuments on top of old town squares next to giant archways leading to regal bridges overlooking more castles, all with cobblestone streets. It felt like a city where the east meets the west - it definitely had the colors and quaintness of western Europe but with a touch of eastern architecture and harshness not found in Amsterdam.
We searched forever for a place to eat dinner- a problem that never seemed to leave us during this part of the trip. You see, Prague is VERY touristy, so we struggled a lot with finding a non-touristy local restaurant where we wouldn't get ripped off, that had good authentic food, and had a vegetarian option that was more than potatoes and fried cheese (I'm not joking. That was my only option in many places). In any other city, these requirements would be totally do-able, in Prague they were next to impossible to meet. You see, Czech food = meat. Steak, snitzel, pork knuckle, goulash, ribs, old Prague ham, pork neck, duck, venison. You name it. If there was ever a place where being vegetarian is a total joke it would be Prague. In their defense, it sort of makes sense given the long, dark winters and the lack of fresh produce. There is something very unnatural about eating salad in the winter in the middle of Eastern Europe. So we ate sub-par Italian and dealt with it. The next night we found a cute little restaurant packed with locals and off the beaten path. Despite its great reviews, it was not good. I basically ate potatoes in a mushroom sauce and Nate got over-priced goulash. The service was even worse. My husband doesn't feel passionately about many things in life, but getting ripped off is one of them, and I had to hear the whole way home about how we need to get over our American guilt and stop over-tipping!
In the end, I was able to forgive Prague for its meat-loving ways because of its chocolate loving ways. The first night we were there I had THE best, most decadent drink that has ever graced my taste buds- hot chocolate. It made American hot chocolate taste like dirty water. It was as ridiculously thick and creamy as a chocolate bar and epically good. I'm convinced it was pure melted chocolate with a sinfully decent amount of heavy cream. I had 3 in the two and a half day trip.
On the second day we travelled to the "Use-It Prague" center for a map and information. Use-It is a collaborative project created by young people to share the best parts about their city from a young local person's point of view. The woman working was incredibly helpful and the map we got listed over 30 sights, restaurants, and points of interest to check out from a local's perspective. It was just awesome and made me wish we had more time to explore.
On our way to the castle, "the map" which we so lovingly referred to it as, lead us to a quiet picturesque park filled with locals and their dogs overlooking the river. The hills of trees surrounding the city were brilliant reds oranges and yellows. The map lead us to the first non-smoking cafe. It was super cute and quaint. We split hot pear juice, cocoa, spinach and feta quiche, and an apple streusel, all of which I will be recreating when I get home and all super good. On the last day of this trip we determined we are "cafe people" not restaurant people. The relaxed atmosphere combined with the lighter more affordable food seemed to fit us.
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| Hotel breakfast of champions |
We made the trek up the cobblestone streets to the castle, a collection of governmental buildings, gardens, palaces, and cathedrals. We arrived about an hour before sunset and explored until after dark. It was breath-taking. Brilliantly colored Fall ivy covered archways overlooking the old city. I took so many pictures of the ivy that by the end of our visit, when I'd pull out my camera Nate would say "oh, for the love of colored ivy!".
The church was overwhelmingly grand, but somehow dark and morbid at the same time. I think it's people trying to reflect the dark vengefulness of a God much different than mine. Looking at it, with its gremlin statues glaring down at you, makes me think we went terribly wrong with our perception God and the person Jesus actually was. Nate thinks the darkness of the church simply reflects the darkness of the time when it was built- what with the black plague and all. Either way, not a place where I felt love, light and connection to God.
We went home that night contemplating whether we should delay our trip to Munich and stay an extra day, but ultimately decided to move forward and just take a late afternoon train after our bad dining experience. I highly recommend traveling in a group of two. It's way better than traveling with a family of 5 or 6, or a large group of college students and infinitely better than traveling with a tour group. We have been able to move so quickly and experience so much in such a short period of time. We also have a flexibility and openness to sort of fly by the seat of our pants and do and see whatever we want at our own pace. Also, I love my husband.
We discovered a fantastic street market on the way to the train station, bought two paintings for a house with more walls than our current one and somehow felt complete and ready to move on.
I should mention, in the middle of our Prague visit, my finger went bizerk and may be dislocated or something, making our bag lugging trip to the bus a little stressful. Luckily, we found our Muchen bus with 5 minutes to spare and were met by an unusually jolly German bus driving telling me, "Don't Stress!" In a happy thick German accent. We were ready for Munich!
