A taste of Bohemia

But probably not the Bohemia you're thinking of. Despite it's connections to hippies and unconventional living, the word is also the old name for the Czech Republic. Boy did that explain a lot of shop names...

Last week I spent 3 rather fabulous days in the capital of the Czech Republic - Prague! Now, let me fill you in on all my adventures :)

My friend Zach and I took off last Wednesday for Prague on a double decker bus - they're doing construction east of Bamberg and a lot of train routes have been replaced by bus routes for the time being - and it was fun to travel that high up. Once we reached Prague, we checked into our hostel and headed out to wander around the city. First stop, Old Town Square:

Please ignore the funny look from the passerby... Despite what you're thinking, doing the YMCA in the middle of a square really is a cool thing to do!

After buying lunch - including the first tasty Czech beer - we noticed the large crowd standing on the other side of the square.

So we moseyed on over to see what the big deal was. Turns out everyone was standing infront of the Astronomical Clock - the most visited tourist attraction in Prague. When the clock strikes the hour, Death rings a bell, the 12 Apostles do a parade, and at the end a rooster crows. Sounds pretty cool, huh?

All I can say is... junior burger.

But the clock itself is really neat looking. The top dial shows 3 different times on a 24 hour clock, as well as the current zodiac sign and where the sun and the moon are in the sky.

The bottom dial shows the current date - day, month and year! Very spiffy.

If you look closely, you can see Death - he's the inside statue on the top right. Moral of the story? Clock - very cool. Striking of the hour - not so much.

Next, Zach and I (that would be Sandy - the spelling will become very important later) noticed a Starbucks around the corner. After professing a love of caramel macchiatos and frappacinos, we decided to cave and buy something very north american, despite the fact that we were in Prague. The employees were super friendly (and I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that they were being evaluated...) and after taking our orders, asked for our first names. Quality service!


Boy did we laugh when we got outside and checked our drinks.

Look ma, I've got a new name!

No Sandy, "Henie" is just how the cool kids are spelling it these days.

At least I got a real name. They weren't too sure about "Zec"...

Next we snuck a peek of the old Jewish quarters from the road,

and saw the best parallel parking job ever:

Having concluded our tour of the old town (including a reprimand from a priest - apparently you're not supposed to take pictures in the churches without asking permission... boy was that awkward. Especially when he asked if we were catholic...), we headed into the park. We had some time to kill before dinner and wanted to check out the mini-Eifel-tower-looking-structure-thingy... But we got distracted by pear trees along the way.

Mmm mm tasty!

Nothing like wild pears before eating at a restaurant with a large statue of a goat-devil. And Zach had no idea!

But we ate like kings - Zach had duck, and I tried the rabbit.

Another one of the popular tourist attractions in Prague is Charles Bridge. It's a pedestrian bridge - lots of people selling knick knacks and you can usually find a group of people playing music. We ran across a great jazz group while crossing. Although nice by day - like our tour guide said a little later on: The city is much prettier by night. Don't you agree?

Charles Bridge by moonlight

The following morning we decided to take up the offer on our city map: "Present this map at our office and recieve a free walking tour of the city, or half price for any other tour offered"

We got a super enthusiastic and informative tour guide to show us around the old city. Starting by this lovely statue of Wenceslas in front of the National Museum. Ta da!

We got lots of history - including the fact that "King" Wenceslas of the Christmas carol was in reality only a duke. And for some odd reason, someone decided to create a statue of him riding a dead horse. Upside down. With it's tongue sticking out. Ya... that stop was bizarre. Especially because it was in the middle of a mall.



After the tour we went to Cafe Slavia for lunch and tried some of the original Budweiser Budvar. That'd be Budějovický Budvar in Czech. Don't ask me how to say it! In addition to great beer, we also got a great view of the castle on the hill. Which turned out to be the next stop after lunch.

This lovely view looks up a street in Prague towards St. Nicholas Cathedral. We didn't go in, but we did stop on the steps so I could rest my back. Walking on cobblestones in flip flops with bad posture is a recipe for serious back pain.

But it was pretty...

It got even prettier as we walked up the hill to see the Pražský hrad (aka. the castle)

View over Prague

When we went in to buy our tickets, we were shocked to discover that there were no guided tours. But, if we wanted to, we could rent an audio guide for an exhorbitant amount of money. But, audioguide rental included line-skipping powers. Instead of waiting in the 2 hour queue outside of St. Vitus Cathedral, you just got to walk right in. We didn't bother. Best decision ever. Our wait was roughly 10 seconds - only because we weren't sure which was the entrance and which was the exit. So much for the huge crowd...

Katedrála svatého Víta

St. Vitus Cathedral

(that's all you get to see... it was too big to get into one shot!)

After our castle tour, which included visiting the house that Franz Kafka lived in, we popped into the Royal Gardens (Královská zahrada) for a nap. I thought it was a brilliant idea, since I could barely walk anymore! Besides, what could be better than sleeping in the shade of a giant tree in the summer?!

Grr... I'm a Golem too

(back in the Old Town Square)

Last event of the day: Brewery Tour. With a group of 11 other people, Zach and I went to 3 different local pubs, tried 3 different local beers, and got a traditional Czech dinner! What a blast :) We got a Pilsner Urquell, a dark Czech Budweiser Budvar, and a Pražský most from a micro-brewery. All delicious. And to top it off, I got fried cheese for dinner - much better than it sounds.


Group shot in the micro-brewery. All the pubs were not ones you would ever find by yourself. The first one was located in a back alley, and looked really sketchy - until you walked down a flight of stairs to a huge underground hall that seated 300 people.

What a blast!

Na zdraví! (That's "cheers" in Czech - sounds kinda like "nice tv" in case you were wondering)

The following morning we checked out of the hostel and hit up the National Museum. Pretty good Paleontolgy, Archeology and Minerology exhibits. I think my favourite was walking down the stairs covered in red velvet - anyone else feel like a princess?


Another 4.5 hour bus ride back (I slept most of the way this time) and yet another splendid vacation was over.


Sbohem,
Sandy