Prague

Still Easter Sunday, April 4 – Got to Prague just in time for dinner! We walked across the street to a traditional Czech restaurant and had the local beer and some sort of beef in a potato pancake, very interesting, it was like nothing I’ve ever tasted before. But the best part was that it was all so cheap!! A lovely change from over-priced Cyprus (apparently Cyprus is the most expensive country in the EU, at least for staple things like milk, bread, etc…awesome).

Monday, April 5 – Prague or Praha. We took the tram/trolley up to the historical quarters and began our 4 hour walking tour of the city! One of the most unique things about Prague is that Hitler wanted to retreat here after WWII, so he never bombed it. It is one of the only cities in Europe not to be destroyed, so everything is original! We walked to an old monastery (that brews its own beer to make money) and then to the edge of the hill/mountain to overlook the city – to was beautiful!! Peter, our guide, walked us by a house that had painted windows (right), apparently a couple hundred years ago they did tax breaks (or something like that) by the number of windows you had, so they painted extra windows on their house to get around it! Then we made it to the Prague Castle (entrance bottom left) – the largest ancient castle in the world! It was huge, and it even had a cathedral (St. George’s Cathedral) inside the castle area (bottom right).

We walked down what used to be the only street that connected the other side of Prague with the Charles Bridge and the Castle (above). It was an old, little cobblestone road with beautiful colorful houses. Most of the houses still had the old pictures above the door that used to be their address - an address would be Swan house on blah blah road, Prague. As we were walking down a road we ran into these men who whipped us with these straw stick things! Apparently it is a tradition in Slovakia and Czech that on Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, men carry these things around and hit the women on the back of their legs! It is supposed to give the women/girls good health for the next year. Our guide also said something about giving bourbon or whiskey or something to the men, but I didn’t catch all of it. Anyways, it was very strange…

Then we stopped at the Lennon wall – a wall that people filled with John Lennon-inspired graffiti speaking out against the communist rule. The government would paint over it all the time to cover it up and thwart the anti-communist ideas, but the next day it would be filled again. It was very interesting to see; it was completely covered with painting on top of paintings on top of writing. Right around the corner was a bridge that the railings were completely covered with pad-locks. It’s a recent tradition started in Russia or as far east as Korea where if two people think they will be together forever, they put a lock on the bridge railing to “lock-up” their relationship.

We finally made it to the Charles Bridge, the iconic, gothic-style bridge of Prague going over the Vltava River. It was very pretty and had tons of artists and musicians selling their work and playing for the visitors.

On the opposite side of the river we saw the astronomical clock that was built in 1410, but we had just missed the moving puppets and rooster call that goes on every hour on the hour. We walked through the Old Town Square that had a huge Easter market going on, through the Jewish Quarters, passed the Power Tower (where they used to store gun powder), and back to the Old Town Square to end our long tour. Then we were on our own.

Since we saw almost everything on our tour, we went and had some hot chocolate at a little café. But this wasn’t your typical hot chocolate…it was really rich and thick, I think I drank just straight up melted chocolate – delicious! Natalie and I then went to the other big square – Wenceslas Square (like the Christmas song? I was singing “Good King Wenceslas” the rest of the day). We tried a traditional Trdeo (or something like that) from the other Easter market; it was like churros, but in a hollow roll form with almond cinnamon sugar all over – nummy! Then we went into this huge, beautiful building at the end of the square, “Museum of Royal Bohemia” (right). We were so excited to learn about the history of the area and the people and see what it was all about and because we got in for free! Once we got in, we walked up the stairs…and there was a giant woolly mammoth head on the wall….then another one (I felt like I was back at home!)….then a giant stuffed tiger. What the heck was this? Later to find out it was a natural history museum, false advertising. So we made the best of it by posing by the mammoth head and the tiger.

For dinner we went back to the Old Town Square because our guide said that Wenceslas Square is one of the sketchiest places in all of Europe after dark because of prostitutes, drug deals, etc.). We had some mulled wine, traditional Czech goulash with dumplings, and a pancake with cream cheese, strawberries, kiwi, ice cream, and whipped cream!!! I love Prague more and more! :) We walked back to the hotel (our guide said never to take a taxi because they usually rip off foreigners hundreds of dollars!) and stopped by the river to see the Charles Bridge and the Prague Castle lit up at night – it was BEAUTIFUL!

I loved Prague!! The historical quarter, the old buildings, the river, the big squares – ahh I wish we could have stayed there longer! But no time for that, back on the bus in the morning!