The way we do Prague: Part 1

On Saturday afternoon, me Riley and Natalie took a 40 minute bus ride to the airport where we caught our 2 hour plane to Prague! We landed around 4 pm and the adventure began.

We had a driver waiting for us to take us to our hostel- a driver who could only be paid in euros, and since we only had hyrvnia and American bills, we had to have him stop at an exchange place for us to put our money into euros. During the whole process, we got ripped about $36 and have avoided exchanging money since! We made it to our cozy little Hostel Rosemary, claimed our beds (we got to sleep on a balcony inside the room!), and went out to explore. We took cute little side streets to get to Old Town Center square where we saw the light show on the astronomical clock.

We had dinner at an adorable little café, found an underground mall with a grocery store where we bought hot chocolate, then went back to the hostel for the night since it was freezing and we were tired!
The next morning, we set out to explore the city. Prague is gorgeous! It’s like what I imagined the setting of fairy tales would look like. It has a gothic, romantic beauty to it with its sky-high spires, cobble stone design roads, and rows of bridges across the wide river. The atmosphere was made even better by the fog that constantly lingered in the air while we were there.

That morning, we stopped at a café on a balcony over the river, ordered warm hot chocolate, and enjoyed looking out over the city.

After, we crossed the famous Charles Bridge, where I first fell in love with the artwork and photographs of Prague that were sold there.

The view is breath-taking, and made so much more charming by the sounds of musicians playing their instruments along the bridge.

We saw the famous Infant Jesus of Prague and the beautiful St. Nicholas Cathedral, going in and out of side streets and little stores along our way, falling more in love with Prague with every step. Tired and hungry, we stopped at a random café where Riley ran into a friend she knew from Canada- seriously, what are the chances of that even happening! Small world. After dinner, we went to the Prague castle where we saw the incredible, domineering St. Vitus Cathedral.

We climbed 278 steps to the top of the tower and had the best view of Prague from the castle. It was so pretty!

Afterwards, as is our nature, we found the random less traveled roads around the castle grounds and travelled into a forested area where we saw some pretty great, unique views of sights nearby.

After several attempts and asking at least 3 people directions, we found golden lane inside the castle, a street of the smallest houses in Prague built a long time ago for some reason none of us can remember. They were so tiny!!

Afterwards, we went back across the bridge, taking different side streets this time. On one street, we found a bookstore that had a huge collection of books from all genres, time periods, languages, and subjects! We spent a long time there. We stopped at the grocery store again on our way back, buying salsa and tortillas to make chips with- chips and salsa is something there is not in Ukraine! It’s very sad. We went back to the hostel and had chips and salsa, skyped, and hung out with Moroccans and Colombians and a girl from Utah. I love meeting people at hostels! Each one has a story tell and a new way of opening my eyes to the world around me. The next morning, Riley and Natalie got up early to see the bridge at sunrise, but I was feeling extra sick that morning, so I stayed in bed. They came back and went back to sleep, so when I woke up I left a note and went out on my own. I did more of going in and out of side streets, crossed the bridge next to Charles Bridge so that I could have a great view of it, went across an island, and just took my time enjoying the beauty of Prague.

I was supposed to meet up with Riley and Natalie at 1 for lunch at an Indian restaurant, and that’s when things got kind of messy. Luckily, we eventually met up, and even ran into lots of other people from our group! We walked down a souvenir street filled with a longggg row of vendors, where I bought my favorite painting for so cheap! We went back to Charles Bridge and after much deliberation, I settled on my four absolute favorite photographs of Prague and I LOVE them!! We ended up finding a path up a rolling green hill (Prague is so surprisingly green for October!) and we reached one of its peaks just as all the lanterns across the entire city turned on. The view we saw can’t be captured in words or pictures, but I can just say that it was so worth the hike!

We went back down, stopping at the book store again, and making yet another trip to the grocery store- this time for nutella, bananas, and PEANUT BUTTER! We finally found it, after 2 months of searching :) We went back to our hostel and enjoyed a night with good friends and yummy food at a cozy hostel in a beautiful city. It doesn’t get much better than that! We were also entertained by a completely wasted couple that came in right before bed- one totally passed out, and the other one dragging her and saying the most random things over and over. We packed, and eventually went to bed. This morning, we left for Austria for the week, and we’ll be back in Prague next weekend until Monday morning! Our bus ride to Vienna and our first day here deserves a story of its own, but that will come later. I miss Prague all ready, I’m so excited I get to go back one more time!