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Published: March 21st 2009
Dough-bree-den!
Phonetically, this is how you politely say hello in Czech, a language that you could say I FAIL at! I tried really hard, but the last city of my winter break escaped out from beneath me without me being able to master more than three words of the native language. Let me also say though, in my defense, that Czech is almost an impossible language to learn, considering they are the only language in the world to include the letter r with a little dippy thing sort of like a u on top which my keyboard (with all its secret keys) doesn't have. This letter is impossible to pronounce, but trust me, to the amusement of the Czech people, I tried.
Speaking of Czech people, I must first mention Evi. I met Evi when she spent a year abroad in the US at my high school. I was introduced to the Rotary Short Term Study Abroad program that I participated in through her, and have to thank for many wonderful adventures. Evi is smart, sarcastic, and extremely fun to be around. When Ben and I first decided that we were definitely going to Prague, I got in touch
with her immediately to find out if it would be possible for her to meet us there. With a few days, she had promised to meet us, no big deal. So right as we exited the plane in Prague, there she was go greet us, a friendly face who spoke the language!
But before we got to Prague, we had a lovely adventure getting to the first airport in Rome. We left our hostel in Rome at 5am to make it on time for the bus we had purchased tickets for to take us to the airport. When we got to the bus place, they informed us that the bus for our flight (at 8am) had left at 4:50 in the morning! WHAT?!? So without much of an option, we jumped in a taxi and headed towards the airport in the dismal rain. It was very easy to check into the airport. Honestly, quite dangerous, as no one EVER checked our IDs. No passport check, no ID check, nothing. When we landed in Milan, it was 9:10am, and our next flight didn't leave until one. Not even able to check into our next flight, we piled up our luggage,
sat, and waited. Ben waited by sleeping, while I did a bit of reading, exploring, and tea drinking. Once we got to our gate, we pleasantly waited some more until our plane was finally ready (and this was late). Prague was just a minor jump from Milan though, so we arrived not too far behind schedule. (and good news, the bus place was completely at fault...their website showing nothing about the time you're supposed to arrive, so we're getting free tickets when we use the service in London).
So Evi met us at the arrival gate, and we hopped and bus, and then a metro to get to our hostel. Prague was FREEZING, but our hostel was so nice! It was apartment/hotel sort of, and not only was it in a great location, the receptionist was extremely nice and a full breakfast was included. Once we got settled, Evi took us into town, wanting to show us a few things that night before dinner. We headed into town first running into a building that created a tunnel. The building was black, which seemed to be a theme of Prague. Evi told us that there were many fires set on
the city during WWII, and so many of old things that had survived were black from the burning and smoking of the city. From there we headed into the Old Town Square. Since the president of the European Union right now is Czech, there is a huge celebration of Europe going on in downtown Prague. The streets are filled with little stands covered in lights that sell traditional foods from all over Europe (naturally Prague is highlighted). Old Town Square though, is amazing. It was most definitely my favorite part of the city. There is an old Astronomical Clock, a grand cathedral built in purely Gothic style, a statue, and other buildings that just look so charming! Evi wanted us to see the clock town strike seven (or any hour, it just happened to be 6:15 at the time) so we grabbed some traditional Czech cuisine at the little stands. We had AMAZING potato pancakes with sauerkraut. These things had tons of garlic, and tasted nice and greasy; they were to die for! (Ben and I would go back before the end of the trip). Just to give you an idea of how cheap Prague is...1 dollar=23 korona. For five
Old Town Square
With Ben and mepancakes and sauerkraut, it cost 50 korona, just two dollars! To complete our little snack (which was more like a meal) Ben purchased a traditional Czech beer and I got some hot spiced wine which was perfect for the cold night. Just for you info again...Budweiser originated in Czech as Budvar, and Pauliner's is also native of Prague.
After enjoying our 'snack,' we watched to clock go off. On the hour, every hour, the clock chimes, a little skeleton in it rings a bell, and these two windows open up for these little figures to circle through. The whole little act is quite charming, and the entire clock is made of wood and not only shows the time, but the day, month, and year. It really is quite impressive considering it was made long, long, long ago. Speaking of it's maker, when the government at the time heard that he might take the clock elsewhere, to other cities, they blinded him so that this clock would remain original. Inhumane yes, but it did do the trick...there are no other astronomical clocks in Europe like this one. Next, needing warmth, we headed to a traditional Czech restaurant for a real
dinner. Not hungry because of the pancakes, I got some sort of hot cheesy potato side dish, and Ben got some salmon dish, while Evi got soup. Not wanting to go over budget, Ben and Evi both ordered a beer...because in Czech, beer is cheaper than water, NO JOKE. For dessert, I ordered a honeycake for us to share, which are a fantastic Czech dessert that I had always heard Evi talking about in the US. Once dinner and visiting time was dwindling down, we headed back early and fell asleep really quickly due to the early morning and full day.
The next morning, we met Evi in town, and she took us to Charles' Bridge. This is famous in Prague, one of the must see attractions, but was having some construction, so we weren't able to get the full effect. Not too worry though, we were still able to hit the most important spot of them all...the wish statue. There are statues lining the bridge, but one in particular is important for wishes. You can only make a wish the first time you touch it, so I had to think wisely. In order for it to work, you
have to touch both sides of the statue at one time in a particular place...which makes for quite funny pictures. From there, we headed up towards the castle and famous cathedral.
Evi neglected to tell us that we would have to climb a mountain to reach the castle though! In every city we'd been met with stairs, and this was no different. We walked past the guards standing on the outside (without moving, just like the ones at Buckingham Palace, although not as flashy) and headed into the interior. This is not a castle like you'd imagine. The castle has been added to many times, but the cathedral in the center IS old, and Gothic, and quite castley! It was amazing. The interior is filled with spectacular stained glass, really the most colorful I've ever seen. Also, there are tombs lining church floor that you can barely see because of so much foot traffic. Next to the church there is a street called the Golden Road. It got its name from alchemy work being done so often there. Also right outside of the castle there is a Czech vineyard that looked like...a small vineyard. Honestly, we probably should have
Ben and Evi at Dinner
Looking very Czech I must say with their beers. spent more time in the castle area, but it was bitter cold with an added biting wind that made us want to get off the hill and into some place where we could warm up.
We ended up eating an early lunch and having our last conversation with Evi because she had a job interview she had to get to. It was so nice seeing her, and she really did a good job explaining the special parts of Prague. Ben and I headed towards the part of town we were familiar with, and ended up at the National Museum. This place is huge, not huge, gargantuan. It was really cool though! They had exhibitions set up that told the history of the Czech Republic, which is really quite fascinating, although too long and detailed to put in a blog. Ask me! Also, they had paleontology exhibits, zoology, and more that where quite cool (although at this point I needed a nap! Apparently the traveling had quite an impact on me!)
On our way back to the hotel, after a few hours in the museum, we stopped at a dessert place for a little afternoon snack. I got some
sort of caramel role and Ben got something layered called cookies. Ben ate a few bites of his, and then wanted me to try some. It was good, I preferred mine though because something about his was off. As we ate more, we realized what it was; something in "cookies" contained liquor. We tried each layer separately, and finally figured out that the chocolate part contained alcohol... um can you say surprise?! There is nothing that indicates that there is any in the dessert, I mean, what if a young child had that, not knowing! haha, they need a sign! Anyway, after we were filled with sugar, we headed back to the hotel for a little nap...or I had a little nap and Ben got on his computer and what not.
After I woke up, we went back out into town to get some dinner. We ended up just roaming around and exploring the city, enjoying its charm, but maybe not the cold. We headed in after to get some rest...we still had one more day!
When we woke up the next morning, we had to check out, so we gathered our things, checked out, had a scrumptious
breakfast (there's a certain type of Czech bread that tastes amazing!), and headed into the city. We wanted to check out the Jewish Quarter. Hitler had planned to collect traditional Jewish things basically, and make a grand museum in Prague of an 'extinct race.' As horrendous as that is, there is a great museum of Jewish Heritage in Prague now. The Jewish Quarter is one of the oldest parts of the city, and it really is beautiful. Ben and I didn't really think ahead though. I was Saturday, and forgot that the Jewish day of rest is, you guessed it, Saturday; so nothing was really open. We did see a few graveyards though that were extremely humbling. Since nothing was open we just roamed around and did some poking inside tourist shops. After, we ventured back to Old Town Square and noticed that it was possible to climb the astronomical clock. We searched and searched and couldn't find where to enter. Finally we discovered you had to go through the tourist office, and voila! we began our climb. The view of Prague from the top of the tower was great! We saw everything, and got to just gaze out at
an amazing city. The only problem with our last day there...it was FREEZING! I could barely feel my fingers, toes, feet, etc. We ventured down to get some potato pancakes again for lunch (they're just so good!) and I ended up spilling the grease onto my jeans. I immediately wet it with water to prevent stains, but this meant that I was wet, and therefore even more cold (just not a great combination of events to tell the truth). Ben and I, being exhausted from our travels, headed into this giant shopping place (seriously, like four floors) to escape the cold and poke around. I think we spent more time in the pet store looking at the chinchilla and bunnies than anything else. Also, we headed to the grocery store to stock up on some food for our trip home. It turns out, Czech food at a grocery store is dirt cheap. Ben bought a half liter of beer for 6.90 Korona...which is about thirty cents! A candy bar was only four korona, and my favorite new cereal, Musli, was nice and cheap too! At around 4:30 we headed back to our hotel to pick up our bags and head
to the train station; we couldn't miss our 22 hour train ride back to Aix!
Goodbye Prague!
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