Praha, Czech Republic

The traveling continues. After our brief jaunt to Berlin, Zoe and I had an even shorter stay in Prague. Seeing so many cities in such a short time was beginning to wear us down and it's hard to see everything we want to, but we are determined to try our best!

On Friday we took a five hour train ride from Berlin to Prague, and it was beautiful. The German and Czech countrysides were so pretty! When we made it the Prague train station the first thing we needed to do was exchange some money from Euros to Czech Koruna. And what a shock that was. I handed in 50 Euros and was give 1,160 Koruna! I couldn't get over the fact that they had 1,000 Koruna bills! 1 Koruna is about 23 Euros, or 26 dollars. We purchased metro tickets to get to our airbnb for 24 Koruna, and I then realized while I was accustomed to thinking that 1,160 of a currency was a lot of money, it would be gone in no time. 

Our airbnb lady, Claudia, was a really cute older Czech woman. She gave us great directions to her flat from the train station and then once we met her, gave us a good recommendation for a traditional Czech dinner at a pub a couple blocks away. When we entered, we asked if they had an English menu. A real tough looking Czech woman just looked at us and tried to converse with us in Czech. But then the cook came out to us and in rough English asked us, "You want Czech food or steak?" Czech food was what we wanted and that is what we got. I had gulash, which is a type of meat stew with potatoes and dumplings. Zoe had ham and potatoes and cabbage. Accompanied by some Pilsner Urquel. It was great and I was already wishing we had more than a day and a half to devote to Prague. 

After dinner we took the metro to Old Town to check it out. There we saw the Old Town clock tower and town square. It was packed with people hanging out, eating dinner, and watching the many street performers dotting the square. It was a beautiful evening, and the sunset over the clock tower was enchanting.

Old Town Clock Tower

Street performers in Old Town

Paragliders in the sky!

Old Town Sunset

Saturday morning, we woke up to breakfast laid out for us by lovely Claudia. We had cereal, croissants, and fruit. After breakfast, we got back on the metro and headed across the river to explore more of Prague. We took the 22 about as far as it would go, taking us to Prague churches and overlooks of the city. Throughout the day, we meandered slowly back down towards the river, stopping to admire things along the way. We walked around Prague Castle and went inside Prague Cathedral, a gothic-style church that reminded me a lot of Notre Dame in Paris.

Prague skyline

Prague Cathedral

We lunched in a restaurant near the river and the Charles Bridge. Still enamored by my Czech dinner the night before, I ordered gulash again and made the right choice. My meal came to 350 Koruna! I told you it was going to be easy to blow through 1,160 Koruna! Even on our second day of Prague I couldn't wrap my head around the strange currency! After lunch we visited the John Lennon wall and walked back across the Charles Bridge to Old Town. 

In front of the John Lennon Wall 

View from Charles Bridge

Across the river

When we made it to the Old Town square around 2:45, we were surrounded by people in Czech sports jerseys, wild hats and costumes, and many painted faces. It turns out, at 3:15 Czech was playing Canada in ice hockey for some sort of world championships. The town square was packed with people, a stage that was blasting music, and a couple megatrons from which people could watch the game live. It was awesome. My knowledge of ice hockey includes the one San Jose Sharks game I went to years ago and every four years when the winter Olympics are on. Oh yeah, and that there's a guy named Crosby on Canada who I think is pretty good. With that, Zoe and I stayed for the first period and cheered with all the crazy Czech people! It sort of made up for the fact that I've missed all of the NBA playoffs. 

And with that, our time in Prague is over! It was really an amazing city, and gorgeous. I didn't know much about Prague before I arrived, and what I know now is that I need to go back ASAP. Off to Rome we go! Looking forward to staying in one place for a couple days, but wondering where the time has gone. The countdown to San Francisco is 10 days!