But within an hour of getting to Prague, none of that mattered. I found an exchange right away, received 2,300 Czech notes for 100 euro, and hopped on the super simple and user-friendly metro, and made it to my hostel. Parisa was already in our room waiting for me! It was so nice to meet up with a friend...and have the hostel to ourselves! No one else in our room and we had a bathroom all to ourselves! Sweet! We immediately went out for dinner. There were a couple of cool places just down the street from us in the Little Quarter. We found an awesome restaurant that had a super good menu deal. We got potato soup and roasted duck with dumplings for only 150 Cezch notes (about 6 euro/ $8). Combined with a Cezch beer and this was a wonderful meal!
The next morning we met up with the free tour to see the sights of Prague. Here are some of the highlights:
Astronomical Clock in the Old Square
St. James' Church. There is a story that a thief wanted to steal an expensive necklace off a statue of Mary in this church. As he was taking the necklace, the statue of Mary came alive, grabbed his arm, and turned back to stone. He was stuck. So the priest of the church decided the only way to release him was to cut off his arm. Once the thief ran off sans arm, Mary realized she was just holding on to a blooding arm. She dropped it and went back to her original position. They kept the arm, and it is on display in the church. Unfortunately, Parisa and I couldn't find it when we went inside. After google imagining it, we realized that it's up high and we failed to look above our heads. Next time!
The Old-new Jewish synagogue, Jewish Quarter
Rudolfinum, home to the Philharmonic Orchestra in Prague
Cathedral in the Castle, other side of the river
Interior of the Cathedral, people get married here! Save your date now!
Beautiful Mosaic on the Cathedral
Front of the Castle in Prague
Monastery on top of a hill in Prague, great views. The monks also brew beer.
View of Prague from the Monastery
After our long day of touring the city, Parisa and I wanted to find a place to get dinner. We were walking down a long hill back towards the Little Quarter, when we realized how close we were to our hostel. Since we were right there and starving, we decided to eat at the same place from the night before. The waiter immediately recognized us and I think was a little more than happy we decided to come back. This night we had onion soup, beef goulash with dumplings and cheescake! It was probably one of the best meals I have ever had. We had a different Czech beer this night but after our meal, our waiter brought us a Czech drink that apparently is good for digesting. We didn't really question it, and since it would be rude to not accept, we drank the somewhat odd mixture. When our bill came, he did not charge us for the after dinner drink (which he brought us, so that wasn't surprising) and neither for our beer. It pays off to make friends!
After dinner we went to the bridge to try and capture a few good night scenes of Prague. Whether we got the good pictures or not, we had fun walking up and down the bridge in the freezing cold. Kind of..
Castle in the background, view from Charles Bridge
Beautiful Praha
Another view of the Castle
The next day was picture day. We were going to go back to all of the places we didn't get enough time at the day before! Our first stop: John Lennon wall. I like that this wall wasn't an organized thing, people just started to remember John Lennon by decorating the wall with all sorts of graffiti. Parisa and I noticed such an immensely positive energy by this wall. It was so gratifying to see something with so many positive things written, especially in our world today. It was beautiful.
Parisa looking at the John Lennon wall
Peace
Loved this one
Left my mark. Peace <3 E
Perfect day
After the wall, we walked back over the Old Town Square and got some amazing pictures because it was absolutely gorgeous out this day!
Old town Square on a beautiful day in Prague
Look at those clouds...amazing
More of the Square
The Municipal building, concerts are performed here
Estates Theater, our tour guide said it was the only theater where Mozart ever played
Charles University, you can see the old part and the new
Prague is a small enough city that we easily did everything there was to see in just two days. After hearing so many of my friends talk about how amazing of a city it was, I am really glad that I could experience it for myself. A truly fantastic city with a fascinating history.
So for our last night, we decided why temp fate and have a bad dinner...so we went back to our favorite place. They were pretty jazzed to have us back once again. I had the same thing as the night before only instead of cheesecake for dessert, we got a tri-platter of strawberry sherbet, flan, and strawberries. And of course, our waiter brought us another free drink after dinner and this time it was a mojito! Yum!
Our wonderful little restaurant in Prague
And after two short days, it was time to say goodbye to Prague and Parisa and head off to Berlin in the morning.
Ciao Prague, you were beautiful! :)
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