I went to Prague totally alone, so I spent quite a bit of time just walking around, exploring, and reading in cafes. It was a lovely city to do that in though, I was surrounded in beauty everywhere I went. The people were nice, there was a lot of great art and architecture to see, and the weather wasn't too hot. I would love to come back to Prague someday... but with friends!
I realized in Prague that I feel a bit too old for hostels now. At 27, I am on average about 6 years older than the people I was meeting in them. The hostel I stayed in there was really strange to me too - just a complete party hostel! Bad music played loudly all night, squeaky bunk beds, irritable receptionists. It would be nice to find a hostel that was a little quieter, with an older crowd, yet one that still has a bar or good common area for meeting people. I feel like I'm in an in-between stage of life where I'm not traveling with a partner or kids, so I don't need a hotel, but I'm just too old for a youth hostel. I just don't fit in.
Most pretty city to walk around! There are just gorgeous churches and other buildings everywhere.
Tiring job...
I stopped into the Grand Cafe Orient my first day for an espresso. It's Prague's first cubist cafe and is about 100 years old. This is the staircase heading up to the cafe. The whole building, called the House of the Black Madonna, is cubist and now also has a cubist museum.
It started raining while I was there, so I sipped ginger tea with honey and read from my Nook (best device to travel with!) Not a bad place to get stuck in for a few hours on a rainy day!
The old town square in the rain - so pretty!
Walking around, I found the old town square and an exhibit there of Salvador Dalí and Alfons Mucha, both artists I love!
I had no idea Dalí had a line of perfumes!
From the Mucha exhibit. No photos allowed, so I had to be sneaky!
Such gorgeous work!
My hostel had Budweiser on tap. They asked me if I wanted the dark or the blond. I took the dark and it was delicious. Ohhhh Anheuser-Busch, what the hell are you brewing?!
Another walk around town took me to this river with a great view.
View of Prague Castle
An interesting statue in the Jewish quarter.
Peering in a tiny window to see the overcrowded Old Jewish Cemetery. They had been told they couldn't expand their cemetery, so they were forced to bury within the space and on top of each other - some graves are 12 deep and they had to add dirt so it's uneven.
I found the coolest park ever!
It even had owls in this building!
Mostly it was just dripped concrete, but sometimes you could see animals and faces hidden in the wall.
And the park had an albino peacock!
More of the pretty buildings
Creepy puppet shop!
These were cool - they had pulleys and when you pulled the handles, the eyes, lips, and eyebrows could move.
The St. Vitas Cathedral at the Prague Castle
While walking around the enormous castle grounds, I got caught in a light shower. Everyone was trying to get out of there and seek shelter, and when we got out this is the view we had. It was a full rainbow, but too big to capture the entire thing in one photo!
The Prague TV Tower
The David Černý sculptures crawling up the tower - he makes a lot of really funky public art, I love it!
I took trams all over town and really wish we had some of those where I live.
The Dancing House by Frank Gehry and Vlado Milunić. The building is nicknamed Fred and Ginger.
Not only are there incredible bridges and buildings in Prague, but great public art as well.
A cafe hides its tables from the traffic behind a fake tank facade
I love these lamps - I might have to make something like this!
The Lennon Wall is full of peace-isms, quotes, art. Really cool bash of communism!
"Love is an astronaut - it comes back but it's never the same."
In the past, authorities have tried to paint over it, but young people just keep coming back with more flowers and peaceful words.
In several cities in Europe I've seen these bridges covered in locks. Apparently it happens all over the world, but I hadn't seen it yet. Couples get their initials and anniversaries inscribed on the locks and put them on bridge railings.
If you look past the locks, there's a bridge goblin!
Prague is a such a romantic city...
They twist bread around this stick and spin it as it bakes and then its covered in sugar. Not a bad street treat.
You can't see it, but there's a newlywed couple in there still in their dress/tux. I also saw one other couple getting married that day.
On one of my nights in Prague, the three English girls I'd met in Budapest showed up at my hostel! Totally random surprise. We went out for a pretty stupid party boat event. I should have known better, but I wanted to get on that river at night. You pay some stupid amount, maybe it was $30 or so, and you get an open bar for two hours, then a ride on a boat with music and a bar. Total crap gimmick for tourists. First they took our money and stuck us in a basement club that is really meant for late hours, but it was only 9pm. So the club was completely empty except for the few folks there for the party boat. It was too loud to talk, the tables were sticky from the previous night, and the "open bar" meant only white wine, some draft lager, or straight vodka shots. Anything else you would have to pay extra for. And smoking was allowed down there. GROSS. It got better after that, the boat ride was nice, albeit chilly. Met a few guys from Sweden who sing in a band for fun, so they were pretty cool to hang out and sing songs with. Not a bad night, but I am never going to pay for anything like that again, what a waste of money.
The Vltava River at night. Please excuse the blur, I may have had a few glasses of wine that night.
