Prague Day 1

Out of all the cities we were visiting on our ten day, Prague was the city I was most excited for. And it ended up living up to its standards; it was my favorite city on our break, and probably ranks a high two or three on my complete list of cities. 

 

Prague was not only beautiful but it was so much fun and so many things to see. I wish we had more time there. And to top it all of the place we stayed at was amazing. Shelley ended up finding these apartments which were only 22 euro for three nights, in a great location, and nicer than most hotels. Me and Nichole had a whole room and queen bed to ourselves. We got into Prague around 6:45, it was about a 5 hour train ride from Berlin to Prague. We found our apartments, got settled in and went out to dinner without a sense of direction and found this incredible place. There were so many delicious things on the menu I didn't even know what to order. I ended up getting ribs and they gave me four racks, roasted potatoes, and cabbage for only 13 dollars. Every single one of us ended up staying in Sunday night, which says a lot. We were completely exhausted from being out until sunrise in Berlin and got a well needed rest. We got up early the next morning to do the walking tour. We met in the old town square which was filled with gorgeous architecture. You can see for yourself below.

We first were taken to the famous astronomical clock, which is actually rated as the number 3 more overrated European tourist attractions. But I didn't find it too disappointing. We didn't stay to see what exactly happened on the hour, but there is a very cool story behind it. The clock was first installed in 1410, making it the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest one still working. The clock mechanism itself is composed of three main components: the astronomical dial, representing the position of the sun and moon in the sky, a clockwork hourly show of figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures, and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months. The story, however, comes with the inventor. The Prague officials didn't want him to create a like-clock anywhere else, so they decided to blind him by burning his eyes out. Nice thing to do to reward him for his genius creation right? Well didn't really go his way. But he was able to get his revenge by having one his students bring him into the tower, and he was able to take a piece out of the clock to make it stop working. It took them 400 years to find out how to fix the clock so it was out of commission for a while.

I'm going to have to separate Prague into two days simply because this blog would be massive. I'll continue with the walking tour and a couple of interesting things about Prague. This guy below is Franz Kafka, a famous author from Prague who wrote some really let's just say unusual books. I read Metamorphosis; I wouldn't suggest reading it; it's really creepy.

 This picture I snagged on a random street. It's a van with the Pilsner Urquell logo on it. Definitely one of my favorite beers I've had, comes in a close second behind the Weisbeer from Munich, so I had to get a picture of it. Funny thing is Munich is the city which brews the most average beer per person, but Prague is the city which consumes the most. I now for sure understand why. Behind the van is the Intercontinental Hotel, the hotel in which Michael Jackson stayed. Just a little fun fact.

 Here is the Metronome, which was constructed in 1991, when the Soviet Union finally left Prague, and thus so did communism. Originally on this plot of land a giant statue of Joseph Stalin stood, but now a metronome symbolizing a balance of power and democracy in Prague.

 Here lies a symbol praising one of Prague's former martyrs, Jan Palach.He was a Czech student who at the age of 21 set himself on fire as a political protest against the communist party. He is now regarded as a hero, and had many followers who them too lit themselves on fire to follow in his protect as a sign of anti-communism.

The tour wasn’t just about all of the sites and the history of Prague, he also explained to us the currency. Prague’s money is the chrome, and about 200 chrome is equal to $1 USD. So you’re getting out thousands of so called bills, but it doesn’t actually equal that much in US dollars. He also told us to be careful, especially when getting a lot of things because the people will take advantage of tourists. The total bill won’t actually end up totaling all the items added together. This actually ended up biting us in the butt the last night when we went out to dinner. Funny thing was we went to the place we went the first night which had excellent service, but we ended up getting a jerk of a waiter. He wanted nothing to do with us, and when I went to ask him if we could pay separately which he wouldn’t let us do. The guy the first night let 20 of us pay individually, and he wouldn’t let the 5 of us pay separately. He dropped off the check and we added up the bill and his total was a good deal above what it was supposed to be. That kind of ticked us off a little bit, so we decided to leave what our food cost and no tip. As we were leaving, the waiter ran after us screaming in his language as if we were dining and dashing. We just kept walking out, but he grabbed me by the arm (I was last in line) and the only waiter locked the door. It was as if they were holding me hostage, which made me really scared. These people barely speak English, and they weren’t letting me out of the restaurant. Robbie and Sarah finally came back inside to sort things out. The waiter kept adding up the money saying it didn’t match the total bill. We asked him if he would add the bill up on the calculator sitting right in front of him, and he literally said no. So I took out my phone and added up the bill showing him directly that he was wrong. The other waiter was watching and was not saying anything, so I actually got heated. First of all these people were trying to rip us off for being Americans, and second of all he physically put his hands on me and locked me in the restaurant. That’s not acceptable. So I got pissed and raised my voice saying that they’re trying to rip us off and we’re not paying what they stated. The manager finally came over as what Sarah informed me later a large part of the restaurant was watching the whole thing go down. He looked at the bill and then my phone and said just go, leave. I was still shaking as I left mostly out of anger, but it was definitely quite the experience. At least the food was good.

After the walking tour a lot of us split up; some wanted to get food, others go drinking but four of us really wanted to see Prague Castle. Prague Castle isn't just the one main castle, it's a whole district of various buildings that were all differently structured, with beautiful views of the city. We didn't even try but the exact time we were walking up to parliament that the changing of the guard was taking place. It wasn't that monumental, but the castle was incredible. One of my favorite buildings in Prague.

 There was also this little structure in view, which I'm going to consider my Eiffel tower. I'm one of the only two girls not going to Paris, so this is as good as it's gonna get for me. I don't mind and too be honest I'm not too interested in going to Paris, since I hope that one day I can come back with my significant other (if I get lucky to have one in the near future).

 

 One of my favorite things about Prague besides Bohemia Bagels (i'll explain in a sec) was the Pub. It was a pub literally called "The Pub." The awesome thing about it was they had these big booths where large groups or just a couple could go two with a tap in the middle. Each person had there own number at the table which controlled their tab and you could pour however much beer you wanted to drink. It kept track of the amount, as well as your whole table's total which was then placed on a leaders board. So you could compete against other tables in the bar as well as with other tables across Europe. We went there for happy hour the first day as well as pregamed their the second night. The atmosphere was just a lot of fun along with the chance to just sit, talk and drink with your friends.

Now to get back to Bohemia Bagels, which ended up being a place where we spend a large portion of our time in Prague. We were shown this place for lunch in the middle of the walking tour the first day, went back for breakfast the next day and our last morning as well. Would you say we liked the place? I can say it was one of our favorites. They didn't just have bagels, they had amazing sandwiches, wraps, even baked goods. I got this amazing southwest chicken wrap that was so good I had to get it the next day for lunch as well. After The Pub we went back to the apartment for a quick cat nap and then got ready to go out. We went to a 5 story club that night which ended up being so much fun. There was an ice bar that I snuck into without paying and every floor had a different type of music playing. I stayed out dancing (despite my ankle condition) until around 4 in the morning, which is crazy for me, a person who likes to be in bed by the latest 11pm. But it was well worth it.