Last Day in Prague

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Today was our last full day in this awesome city and having seen most of the major sights over the last 2 days, I thought we should all head out of town for a day trip to Kutna Hora. However, since we all had a late night of dancing and drinking last night, everyone slept in until around 10:00am. However, by the time I got around to looking into a day trip out to Kutna Hora, all organized day trips had already left and it just seemed a little to difficult to head out there on the train by ourselves. Instead we just chose to wander around Prague aimlessly without any real destination. Today's weather was a lot different than the past 2 days, with clouds in the sky that looked ready to burst into a downpour at any moment. Due to our late start, it was almost lunchtime so we headed over to the Old Town Square to find someplace for lunch. We settled on a place a bit more upscale than we are used to. Since it was our last day in Prague and I enjoyed it so much, I was in a generous mood and decided to pay for everyone's lunch. We ate a very overpriced and underwhelming meal at the Hotel U Prince Restaurant but we had a good view of the square to enjoy our Staropramen beers and a good spot to people watch. After lunch, we wandered around into the Jewish Quarter and on the way encountered quite a few absinthe shops. We peeked inside a few of them looking at all the types of absinthe for sale as well as all the absinthe paraphenalia. Thinking that I would find absinthe later in the trip, I chose not to buy any here in Prague. This would turn out to be a mistake as I didn't see absinthe anywhere else on the trip. Apparently absinthe is a big thing only in Prague. We wandered back over to the Old Town Square where we decided that we should ascend the Old Town Hall Tower. Thinking that we would have to ascend the tower through a steep staircase, we advised mom that she should probably sit this out. However after purchasing our tickets, we learned that right inside was a modern glass elevator that whisked us to the top in just a few seconds. From atop the Old Town Hall Tower, the surrounding views of Prague were absolutely amazing. From this vantage point, you can see all the red tiled roofs of the surrounding buildings as well as easily see why Prague is oftern referred to as the city of a thousand spires. With rain now starting to sporadically fall, mom took refuge at a nearby Starbucks. After our quick Starbucks break, we ventured back out and came upon the Torture Museum. I had heard that these kind of things are typically cheesy tourist traps but with no set itinerary today, Shea, Churro, Vita, and I chose to fork out the money and check it out. Josie and mom instead chose to do a little souvenir shopping in the nearby shops. The museum started out interesting enough with fascinating displays of torture devices used throughout medieval Europe. After the displays of torture devices, things kind of turned into a cheesy dungeon exhibit that you would see during Halloween. The displays consisted of wax models in torture scenes complete with a soundtrack of wails and screams. We were done after about 30 minutes and it was a good distraction from the usual sightseeing activities a visitor to Prague would see. We continued exploring Prague eventually passing through the Powder Tower, one of the original city gates in the Old Town. Eventually we made it over to Na Prikope, a popular shopping street in the Old Town. Na Prikope had all your typical international clothing and fast food chain establishments. Although none of us purchased anything, it was a nice to sit back and see locals going about their daily routine along this busy commercial street. We had a quick glimpse of Wenceslas Square before having an early dinner of typical Czech cuisine at Restaurant Mustek. Tonight, we chose to head back over to Karlovy Lazne for more dancing and drinking on our last night in Prague. The scene was a little more subdued tonight and less crowded but we still had a good time dancing to the same songs we heard last night. Churro on the other hand, did not have a good night. He was determined to try some absinthe and ordered some at the bar. He was under the assumption that it would just be a shot, but after the shot he was given some absinthe vapors to inhale through a straw. Churro inhaled and almost immediately started chocking and gagging. He spent the good part of the next 2 hours in the bathroom. I wasn't sure if he was drink from the shot or maybe the vapors burned his throat. However, we still enjoyed the night going from floor to floor dancing with all the young Czech kids and having a great night. We didn't stay as long as the night before and once we left, we ventured over to the streets of the Old Town to try and find someplace still open for a late night snack. To everyone's excitement, we found a kebab place that was still open. Before calling it a night, we sat in the street enjoying our kebabs and looked forward to continuing our journey tomorrow to Cesky Krumlov.

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Photos

Church of St. Nicholas
From atop the Old Town Hall Tower

Tyn Church
From atop the Old Town Hall Tower