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Published: August 2nd 2008
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Hey everyone. I slept so good last night. If you guys are ever in Prague, I highly recommend Miss Sophie’s hostel. The beds are quite comfortable, it’s clean, and the location is pretty good.
As soon as I woke up, I got ready and headed out for an adventure. Since I went to the old town square last night, I decided to check out the Prague Castle today. I walked over to the National Museum at the top of Weceslas Square and grabbed the Metro over to Malostranska and walked up a few winding streets up the hill. I stopped by the church of St. Nicholas on the way (which you’ll see in the pictures). The outside was pretty plain, but the inside had some pretty ornate sculptures that had copious amounts of gold.
After St. Nick’s, I headed towards the castle again. When I reached the summit of the hill, I saw a small stand selling food and drink. Seeing as how I hadn’t had breakfast yet, I stopped, grabbed a bite to eat, and enjoyed the view. Phew, at least this meal was A LOT better than the meat and pasta I had last night (the one that tasted
like dirty wet socks……not that I know what that tastes like, but you get the idea haha). For those of you that have never been to Prague, the castle has a stunning view of all of Prague.
After finishing breakfast errrrr lunch, I walked into the Palace courtyard bought my tickets to the different places in the castle and the audio guide. With ticket and audio guide in hand, my first order of business was to go to the famous Saint Vite’s Cathedral. This was another one of those spots that I had read so much about and seen so many pictures of. The inside was beautiful. So much detailed art and sculptures. The stained glass windows were also pretty impressive. As you’ll see in the blog, I got a little snap happy when I was in there haha.
Once I was done inside St. Vite’s, I went outside and checked out the west façade with it’s mosaics, sculptures, etc. I then headed over to the Old Palace. This was where Kings and government officials stayed back in the day. The room with the crazy designs on the wall were where the nobility had their markets, where kings/gov
officials would give important speeches, etc. I checked out the old parliament where Kings would sit with their court/advisors. Also saw the castle church. From there I went to the Mideival basilica of St. George (I’m pretty sure that was the name. I’m writing this quite a few days later on a train, so I might be wrong). It was simple as most mideival churches were. It did have some impressive art though.
After the basilica, I walked down Golden Lane. Apparently, this is one of Prague’s most famous streets. The houses there have been either the same way or rebuilt to be like they were way back in the day. One of the houses on this street is the writer Kafka’s house. Although today it’s just a bunch of shops (owners may live up not, not sure), it was pretty cool to see some houses how they were hundreds of years ago. Needless to say, they were quite cramped.
Passing by Golden Lane, I came across a tower. Here is where people were kept in the dungeon or tortured for their misbehavior or alleged misbehavior at least. By this time, I was pretty done with the castle,
so I decided to head over to the Charles Bridge. It’s one of those touristy things that pretty much everyone does when they go to Prague. It was actually pretty entertaining. There were a bunch of street vendors, several sculptures lining both sides of the bridge, and my favorite part was this jazz band that played about 1/3 of the way closer to the Praha 1 side of the bridge. They were actually REALLY good. I grabbed a drink, sat down and soaked in the tunes for a while. To give you a better idea, it was the type of jazz you picture when you think of New Orleans, Louisiana. It was pretty damn cool. I got a picture of them, so you’ll be able to see their setup.
Another one of those touristy things people do on the bridge is rub the plaque of John of Nepomuk. Basically, he was a priest who the queen confessed her sins to. Her husband, the king wanted to know what his wife was up to, but John dutifully kept his silence. What did that get him? The ol’ heave ho off the side of the bridge. Supposedly, five stars appeared when
he hit the water, so now people rub the plaque while saying a wish. I was talking with a local and they said to not touch the dog though, it’s supposed to be bad luck. I’m not really one for these superstitions, but I did it anyways…..avoiding the dog haha. We’ll see if my wish comes true or not.
By this time, my feet were killing me, so I headed back to the hostel for some relaxation. I chilled out for a while and met up with Andy and Rebecca at about 8 or so. Earlier that day, we had agreed to hit up a pub crawl. I was pretty excited because I heard the night life in Prague was actually pretty good. Oh man, did it deliver. We made our way to one crawl that was meeting earlier, but that one would’ve only had 10 people. So I recruited 4 Australian girls that were there and went to the Old Town Square pub crawl. This one had well over 50 people……. Just a little better eh?
If you don’t know how a pub crawl works, you basically pay a cover fee. This one happened to be about
12 Euros. For that, you get an hour of all you can drink beer, wine, and absinthe. Guess which two I made sure to get a healthy dose of haha. You also go to 3 or 4 pubs and finish the night off at a club.
Anyways, the first pub was Molly Malone’s. An Irish pub with a real authentic feel to it. There it was basically 6 Aussies and me hanging out. I also met some Italians, some Czechs, and some Spanish people. If you ever travel solo, pub crawls have to be the easiest way to meet people. After the “power hour”, we headed to another pub, then another, then another. Oh, btw, they give you shots while walking from one pub to another (part of the original fee).
The club I went to was pretty popping. Also, since I dj, I tend to be quite picky on dj’s and things like that. However, it TOTALLY surprised me when they started playing jungle, D&B, and stuff like that. I was expecting the usual booty shaking shit….it was definitely a welcome surprise since I spin jungle/D&B. Anywhoo, I hung out, met people (met a really cool girl from
Ireland), danced A LOT, and eventually ended up rolling hahaha. Who would’ve thought eh? Got caught in the moment…..it was great.
Next thing I knew it was 8:30 in the morning and I was still partying. By this time, the party was dying down a bit, so I decided to go back to the hostel. Determined to still get some sight seeing done, I figured I’d go, take a nap, then set out……. I went home and went to sleep.
(To see if I actually woke up on time, you’ll have to wait till my next installment of this blog haha. Same bat time, same bat channel)
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Julz
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Being part Irish I'd have to say of course we're pretty damn cool. LOL!!