I'm about to leave the beautiful, wonderful, CHEAP city of Prague after three lovely days here. After our in-flight WiFi didn't work on the plane ride here (boo Norwegian, you let me down), and then Sarah and I leaving the baggage claim area without getting our luggage and setting off alarms, the mishaps ended and we were ready to take on Prague! The bus let us off in city centre and we walked to our hostel, overwhelmed by the beauty of Prague on the way. Maggie was waiting for us when we arrived so we all headed out together to explore and eat dinner. Our hostel recommended this amazing restaurant called Lokal, which brews its own beers and has traditional Czech food. I ate pork shoulder with bread and potato dumplings, and Maggie got fried cheese. So delicious. The only downfall was the heat - even at night, it was super sticky and hot, especially in the hostel without air conditioning. But we powered through!
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| Lennon Wall |
On Sunday, we went to the Prague Castle area. It was a nice walk there, and we stumbled upon the Senate building and gardens along the way. Outside the castle we met up with Christina, a girl from our Cross-Cultural Psych class who happened to be in Prague for a few days, too. It turned out that we got there at 11:45 and the changing of the guards happened at noon, so we watched that (which was pretty anticlimactic) and then bought our castle tickets. We first went into St. Vitus' Church, which reminded me of a lot of the other large cathedrals with high ceilings and stained glass I've seen throughout Europe. Then we entered the actual castle - my favorite room was the one with the window from the defenestration of Prague. One of the only things I remember from AP Euro is that three rebels got thrown out that window and survived, which started the Thirty Years' War. So that was pretty cool to see. After that we went into St. George's Basilica (pretty underwhelming compared to St. Vitus), walked down the "Golden Lane" of little old shops and houses, and headed out. Not too far from the Castle was the Lennon Wall, which I was so excited to see. It's a massive graffiti wall that was a tribute to Lennon but has become a wall of art for all hippies, rebels, and tourists. I painted "Peace Love AXO" on it in white - I'm sure it's already been painted over, though. After, we walked across Charles Bridge and back into the square near our hostel, where we got delicious street food for lunch. I got a chicken and veggie skewer on a bun for the equivalent of $5, Christina got a sausage in a bun for $3, and Maggie got fried bread with cheese and garlic for $4. Such good deals for such good food. And that reminds me of why this post's title is "The Land of Monopoly Money" - it's because to convert Czech crowns to US dollars, you divide the Czech price by 20. Which means a 100czk meal is only $5. So it basically feels like fake money because the bills are large but have such a low value. Compared to Copenhagen, Prague is dirt cheap!
Later that night, Sarah and I went to the ballet. It was a "Best of Swan Lake" performance, and it was absolutely incredible!! The lead girl was the most talented ballerina I've ever watched, and we were sitting in the fourth row, so we could see everything crystal clear. Maggie met us for dinner at the nicest cafe across the street and we had a lovely night eating outside. We made sure we went to bed somewhat early so we could wake up and go to the Petrin Lookout Tower today. It's called the "mini Eiffel Tower" and is out near Prague Castle, so we walked 30 minutes, then took a fernicular up a hill, and then climbed to the top of the lookout tower. We could see all of Prague from the top and even further out into the Czech Republic, and the weather was perfect for it. We worked up an appetite with that climb, so we went to another restaurant our hostel recommended, which turned out equally as excellent as Lokal. I had homemade potato and mushroom soup to start, and roast boar with spinach and dumplings for my entree. I've been so adventurous with food this trip, so now I've added boar to the list of foods I've tried, and it was scrumptious. Entering into a large food coma, we ambled over to the Jewish Quarter of Prague, and Sarah and I went into the Old-New Synagogue, which is the oldest functioning synagogue in all of Europe. I bought a pretty hamsa bracelet at the Jewish street vendors outside, who were selling tons of cool handmade jewelry, artwork, and other Jewish items. Unfortunately, it was getting late, so we returned to our hostel, grabbed our bags, and headed to the train station. After a nice 4-hour train ride, we're here in our hostel in Vienna! Stayed tuned for a Vienna post on Thursday or Friday.
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