The Pickpocket Express

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So I'm finally in Prague. The ride here actually wasn't bad at all. I took a bus with Autobus Oberbayern, it was an amazing deal and I would recommend the company. The ride was only 6 hours from Munich and I got an awesome seat on the bus with a great view. It was a double decker bus and since I got there really early I got a seat on the top of the bus right in the front so I could see out the top windshield. I couldn't sleep on the bus, as usual, but the trip went really well.

The countryside the whole way there was really beautiful. We passed a lot of beautiful small towns, rivers, and then through a few Czech towns. Crossing the border into the Czech Republic was just like driving into a different state in the US, just sign.

Mia and her family met me at the bus stop and we went straight to lunch since I was starving. The first thing I noticed about Prague were the spire towers all over the city, they're everywhere. Just having got back from Vienna last week, I notice again how much work goes into making the capital city of a country as great as possible. Just like Vienna there are statues on most of the walls, huge clock towers and churches, beautiful squares with huge monuments, and even a castle.

The first place we went was the Jewish quarter of the city. There's not a whole lot left, but it was interesting to see some of the synagogues and the Jewish merchants selling trinkets. The synagogues were really expensive to enter so we just admired them from the outside.

After the Jewish quarter we headed towards the Vltava (Moldau in German) River, which is where the Charles Bridge (Karluv Most) is located. It was one of the things I wanted to see most in Prague. Prague is a beautiful city, but I did notice right away that it’s a bit rougher than Munich. Mia and her family had already run into a lot of pickpockets, especially on the Charles Bridge, because it’s always packed with tourists. I can’t believe how crowded the city is now and it’s not even the peak season! We first walked over a different bridge so I could go across the Charles Bridge in the other direction. The bridge system is really amazing here. I believe it was Charles IV, who refurbished Prague with the many beautiful bridges. The Charles Bridge was really crowded, but I still loved it. To one side you see the Prague Castle sitting on top of the hill, to the other side is the Stare Mesto (Old Town) with some really beautiful churches and the astronomical clock. The Charles Bridge is most recognizable because it's the only one that has huge statues all the way down both sides of the bridge. It also connects two streets that make it a straight shot from the Old Town to the Prague Castle. The statues were really unique and a few were somewhat morbid. Most of them depicted different figures from Christianity or Prague's past. Artists also sold their paintings on the bridge or did caricatures of people willing to pay for it. As soon as you cross the Charles Bridge into the Stare Mesto you’re bottlenecked onto Karlova street. Here are even more pickpockets, but also a lot of really cool souvenir shops that sell different traditional gifts. Here was where we saw the torture museum D: gross. Prague is a well-preserved medieval city, but I’m glad that the only pieces of the torture devices left are in the museum. I watched my stuff carefully on the bridge since the pickpockets usually work in groups and surround tourists on the bridge. Trams 22 and 23 are often referred to as the "pickpocket express". They run by a lot of Prague's main sites (aka packed with tourists) and are usually targeted by pickpockets.

A different thing about Prague that I had never seen before were the beggars. Most of the Beggars in Prague kneel with their heads to the ground and their hands pleading, literally begging for money. It’s pretty sad looking. I didn’t want to take a picture, obviously, but hopefully I explained it well enough so that you can picture it. Another thing that really grossed out Mia (and me, but not as much) were the homeless people that eat out of the trashcans. It’s sad and I’ve seen a lot more of it since I’ve been in Europe. I’m sure all big cities have poverty like this though; I just haven’t been to a lot of the big cities in the US.

Prague also seems a bit dirtier than most cities I’ve visited so far. I think a lot of it may be due to the fact that Prague is the most toured city in Eastern Europe; tourists leave a trail. I’m really glad I got to come at such a perfect time of year, the weather couldn’t have been better and I think summer here would be too crowded to be any fun. I read that during the summer the tourist to local ratio is as high as 9:1 :0

If you keep walking along Karlova street you come right into the heart of the Stare Mesto, which is Staromestske namesti (Old Town Square). We waited a few minutes in front of the astronomical tower to see a short display that plays on every hour when the figures on the clock start to move. A small skeleton starts emptying his hourglass as the bell sounds. Then on top of the tower a trumpeter plays a few loud notes across the Old Town Square. I arrived in Prague at about 1:30, so after eating and walking around we took a break back to the hotel.

Later we went out to find a place to eat dinner. We found an awesome Czech restaurant called Nostalgia that served Czech food and had a great atmosphere.

On Saturday we woke up early to see the sites on the other side of the Vltava. We took a tram across the river and up the hillside. We got off when we arrived at the Prague Castle. It has symbolized the Czech government for more than 1000 years and today is the residence of the Czech Republic’s president. It’s a beautiful sight from the Old Town, the castle sits on top of the hill across the river like an omen. It made me think of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot and the mysterious house on the hilltop.

The first thing on our list to see after the castle was St. Vitus’s Cathedral. Inside is an elaborate sanctuary with the tomb of St. Jan Nepomuck and a Royal Crypt underground, where Charles IV is buried. It’s also on the hill next to the Prague Castle.

Next we went through the Royal Palace, which had a really stunning view of the rest of Prague since it’s also on top of the hill. You can really see all the spires of the city towers pointing towards the sky and it’s just an awesome skyline. It’s also the site of the Second Defenestration of Prague (Prague has quite a few “defenestration” - literally “de-window-ing” aka someone was thrown out the window).

Immediately after seeing the Palace we had lunch at an awesome, small outside café right next to St. Vitus’s Cathedral. I had beef goulash for the first time and I really liked it. Luckily for me the Czech diet is centered around meat! ☺

St. George’s Basilica was our last sight to see on the hilltop. This was a somewhat creepy church because the skeleton of Ludmila, I believe she was the wife of one of the kings of Prague and the first saint of Prague, is on display here. It was still a beautiful church though.

Since we had finished all our hilltop sites we decided to walk around in Hradcany for a little while. We walked back down the hill, down a path that once again gave a great view of the city, and then started our walk around the bottom of the hill. After walking a while we stopped for Mia’s coffee recharge and had a few snacks in a Czech café. After our walk we went back over the Charles Bridge again and shopped a little on Karlova street. By the way, in the Czech Republic absinth is not outlawed (see picture of man with sign).

Next we climbed the astronomical tower! I had wanted to climb one of the towers in Prague to see the city from high up so it was especially great for me. The astronomical tower was perfect and we could see almost all of Prague. We had an especially good view of the Prague Castle also.

We had to hurry back to our hotel because we reserved an awesome trip for the evening. There’s a riverboat cruise dinner from 7pm-10pm that goes up and down the Vltava. The cruise was awesome. The food was great, and we had a table right next to the window to look out at “night” Prague. When we finished eating we even went up on top of the boat, where there were more seats and you could watch Prague go by. It was a really fantastic cruise and not over the top expensive so I definitely recommend it to anyone going to Prague.

Sunday was our last day and since Mia and her family’s train left at 12:30pm we didn’t have a lot of time to sight see. Mia and I woke up early anyway though and went to see the Church of Our Lady by Tyn. It’s the awesome, black, two towered church in the center of the Old Town and is a well-known symbol of Prague. We couldn’t take pictures since it was Sunday morning and they were holding mass, but the inside was worth the trip. It reminded me of a church in Passau because instead of a lot of gold statues and walls, a lot of them were black.

At 12:30pm I walked with them to the train station to see them off and so that I would know where I’d have to go at 5:00pm when my train left. After saying goodbye I had a lot of time left so I found a few sites we missed before that may be worth seeing. I took the metro from the train station to Staromestske in the Old Town. Mia’s dad had planned almost all the trip so I didn’t have a great idea of where exactly I was going. But I was able to figure out everything with my map. From there I found my way to a famous Spanish synagogue in the Jewish quarter near the Jewish cemetery. I really wanted to see inside, but I realized that to see inside you have to buy an expensive ticket to cover all of the synagogues and Jewish related sites in the area, so I settled on taking pictures from the outside since I didn’t have enough time to see all of them.

From there I walked west until I reached the river, where I had a better sense of direction. I walked across the Manesuv Most (bridge) to the West bank of the river. I decided to walk south to Charles Bridge because there’s a street from the Charles Bridge that goes straight up the hill, into Hradcany, that goes right to the sites I wanted to see next. I walked along the small, winding streets further up the hill. The first thing on this side of the river that I wanted to see was the St. Nicolas’s church. It was definitely worth the small climb. Inside were some of the most elaborate ceiling paintings and sculptures that I’ve ever seen. There were mutiple dome ceilings all with paintings across them. I even got to go up to the second floor for a better view.

I continued my climb up the hill until I reached a small street that was a straight shot the rest of the way up. Here I decided to stop for lunch and I had beef goulash again in a small, really nice restaurant on the hill. I saw a couple other sites on my map that I may have time to see after the climb, so I memorized where they were and decided to see them if I had extra time. I ate quickly to save time and continued up the hill. After a few minutes I could finally see my destination - Strahovsky klaster. It’s a beautiful monastery that has a gorgeous view over the entire Mala Strana district and the rest of Prague too. From the top I got some of my favorite pictures from the whole trip. The weather was still perfect, like it had been all weekend, and the bright blue sky made getting the perfect pictures really easy. I spent a while up there enjoying the view before actually going into the monastery. I went through the library and a few other rooms, but decided to start heading back since it was getting later. Something cool about Prague is that there are so many cobblestone streets. I noticed that there were barely any bikes in Prague and I think that’s why. Cobblestone must be awful for bikers, but it is aesthetically pleasing to the rest of us.

Next I had to find the closest metro station, which wasn’t too hard, but it wasn’t very close, but luckily I would have to walk right by the other two sites I had wanted to see. So even though I didn’t get to go inside, I got to see the Loreta church and Sternbersky Palace. I had to walk the same streets back down to the bottom of the hill, then north past the Charles Bridge, and then walked to Malostranske namesti, where the metro entrance was. From there it was really easy getting back to the train station since I had figured out the metro system. I got back a bit early and grabbed some food for the train ride before boarding my train.

Now I’m sitting in my compartment on my train back to Munich. I really think I got to experience a lot of what Prague had to offer and see most of the best sites while I was here. It’s a dangerous city, but it’s captivating beauty is worth all the risks. The architecture and landscaping of the entire city is just unbelievable. Hopefully someday I can come back and show my family around the city too.

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Photos

Praha
taken from the Strahovsky klaster

Charles Bridge statue
one of the most famous ones

Praha
on the way to Charles Bridge

Praha
on the way to Charles Bridge

Praha
on the way to Charles Bridge

Praha
on the way to Charles Bridge

Praha
a statue on the Charles Bridge.

Comments

[Momma]

What a great pic!
This is so great of the two of you and beautiful historic city behind you. :)