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Published: March 9th 2014
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Out of all the places were going this was the bucket list. We both had a feeling about Prague. And we were right! However, we may have loved Prague but I don't think Prague loved us though as we left in a worse state than we arrived!
Our first day we of course arrived on the sleeper train from Krakow in Poland. The novel there was that we had arranged through our hotel to have a driver pick us up at the station, knowing we'd be tired and unsure in yet another new city. It was kind of awesome seeing our name on a piece of paper and having this nice man take my bag for me and lead us to a luxury car outside the station. Not like our normal confusion when we arrive in a new city! On the plus as well, people over here know how to say Neideck!
Our first day we wandered across the Charles Bridge which was very close to where we were staying. We've seen a lot of bridges over European rivers now, and this one wasn't really an exception. It was lively and bustling which by day is just annoying, but
by night can be quite charming. We decided not to go up to the Castle as we knew it would take a lot of time and we were tired and hungry so we headed back over the bridge to the Old Town, just in time to see the huge crowd outside the Astronomical Clock, which we took to mean a show was about to start. Given it was almost on the hour this seemed likely so we stuck around. We still can't believe how excited people were and how many people were around as it was seriously two windows next to a big clock with revolving puppets peeking their heads out. It was very underwhelming to say the least!
We had lunch at what we later found out was a very overpriced restaurant, but was still only about $42. The only time Matts ever spent $715 on a meal, too bad (or good!) it was $715 Czech koruna and not AUD! I had a goulash which came in a cob loaf the size of my head... So good! After that we ended up wandering down what turned out to be the expensive retail street, with Prada and Gucci and
all the others. Needless to say we stayed outside... I tried to convince Matt to go into Cartiers but I don't even think we'd get past the security at the entrance!
We decided to eat in that night as we had a kitchen in our room, so headed off to Tescos which we were relieved to see was much more orderly than in Hungary!
The next day we bought tickets to climb to the top of the Astronomical Clock and ended up going up with some sort of school group. On the downside it meant it was packed for the first part of when we were up there, but on the plus side no one checked our tickets so we used them again that night and went up after sunset! The climb was fine, this time just a winding ramp as opposed to the usual teeny staircase, and it had a glass lift that went up the middle so we ended up using that the second time. The views from the top were amazing. We do these sorts of towers in most of the cities we visit and amazingly they all look different. Prague was stunning from above,
all sharp corners and colour with the Castle area sticking up in the distance.
We decided to go back over to the Castle after this and walked back across the Charles Bridge to the other side of the river, climbing up the castle steps which were so long and steep! Once inside we bought our tickets but found that we wouldn't have time to do everything that day as there was more to do than we thought. We went into St Vitus which is the basilica you see in the distance and is very impressive, both inside and out. We also went to a museum called The Story of Prague Castle which gave us some background knowledge of the castle. Matt didn't feel so good by this point so we decided to go back home and do the rest the following day. On the way back down we bought a Czech version of a hot dog and what's called a hot potato which is potato, spiralled and on a stick. Very yummy!
On the way home we went back to the old town and went to another church in the old town which was underwhelming after seeing St
Vitus and then bought a traditional Czech sweet called trdelnik which looked like a spiral cinnamon donut. It was more a pastry than a donut but was definitely tasty!
That night we went for a walk to get some evening photos of the bridge and old town and used our ticket to go back up the tower for evening views. The city is lovely during the day and night and feels very safe.
We didn't have a good night, with Matt getting a fever and headache so didn't wake until 10am which is incredibly late given we've been up at 7am each day. I didn't think we'd get out at all that day but Matt wanted to make sure he saw the rest of Prague as we both loved it there. With a lot of breaks we managed to make it back to the castle and saw the rest of the exhibits, including another church, an old lane with traditional houses, the picture gallery and the royal house. It was a lot of effort but we did get to do what we wanted to do in Prague. That night I went to get more panadol (how we've gone through the whole packet, I don't know) and bought ingredients for chicken soup which we had for dinner.
We left early the following day, with Matt still not feeling 100% but we feel that we at least saw what we wanted to see. If we were to go back to any of the cities we've visited, we would definitely go back to Prague. The city is steeped in history, has lovey people any is just beautiful, both day and night.
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