Prague Passage

outside the church
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Now I realize this is becoming a pattern, but I must say that I have a new favorite city. Prauge was unlike any other city we have been to. The architecture was captivating, the cold biting, and the food delicious. The food was TGI Fridays, and oh boy was it nice to have a little taste of home, never has a quesadilla tasted so good!

After a 14 hour bus ride through the night we arrived in Prauge on a crisp Friday morning. We found our hostel, located nicely in the center of town and almost immediately set off to find food. TGI Fridays was just the ticket for some grease starved American kids burgers, fries, salads, sinful deserts! It was also the perfect way to fill up before our 4 hour walking tour of the city. We met with our guide underneath the Clocktower in the Old Square and headed towards Charles Bridge. The Bridge connects the city of Prauge to an older part of town and Prauge Castle high on the hill. Charles Bridge is a long wide bridge lined with vendors selling everything from artwork to wooden jewelry. There was even some nice background music from a few people playing the guitar or the accordion. In the 40 something degree weather, something I have not gotten much of in Southern California these past two years, we headed up the hill to the castle. The castle lies within walls, and outside stand two armed guards all day long (they switch guards every hour)you can take your photo with them, but if they feel threatened they slam their rifles hard into the ground and bark something in Czech. Needless to say 15o American students running up and posing with them provoked a few rifle slams into the ground. The ground is white underneath where there rifle stands, so I guess we werent the first obnoxious tourists to get on their nerves.

The purple and pink skies were the perfect backdrop to the enchanting town.

pretty sky and sunset
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Inside the Castle Walls are government offices, housing, old homes now converted into shops, a couple cafs and a few other buildings, but the most impressive feature is the grand Cathedral. The grandeur of the place is quite breathtaking. It took over 600 years to complete the church is HUGE and inside the most impressive thing are the stained glass windows. No flash photography is allowed, but I did my best to hold a steady hand and get some pictures.

The little houses that line Golden Street are so tiny you cannot imagine anyone living there, let alone an entire family! Today overpriced gift shops crowd the space. As we made our way down our hill back towards town from the castle we were able to catch the sunset. The purple and pink skies were the perfect backdrop to the enchanting town. The landscape around the city was quite a view in itself. It is such a pretty time of year all over Europe right now, the leaves are changing colors and the hillsides are covered in emeralds and ambers.

sunset over prague
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After our tour of the Cathedral and Castle grounds we headed into the Jewish Ghetto, here there is a cemetery where the Jewish people were buried piled layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer of each other. It is quiet and sad sight gated in just near the river. This part of town is especially peaceful and spotted with many simple synagogues.

On day 2 of our adventure we took time to walk around the city, eat some corn on the cob from a street vendor, drink hot cocoa and the specialty of Prauge hot spiced wine, a little sweet for my taste. The highlight of the day were the hour long twenty euro Thai massages, it was quite a treat after being on the bus for 14 hours and walking around all day. Prauge has lots of great and cheap shopping, the specialty stone is amber, because it is only found in Russia and because it was the only thing Prauge was allowed to sell during Communist times. The people in Prauge were all very friendly and surprisingly the city was quite crowded, either with tourists or locals I am not sure, I think a mix of both.

mmmm
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On Saturday night we enjoyed a buffet dinner at on of the Pilsner breweries and some concoction of champagne splashed with a little beer, it actually wasnt half bad. I didnt try the absinth which is supposed to be one of the specialties of Prauge, but I heard it tasted pretty terrible and burned like a hot tamale.

I think my favorite thing about Prauge was the architecture. All of the streets lined with historic buildings made you feel like you were in a storybook town. I am sure it is magical in the winter when it is snow covered and a delight in the summer when you can cruise down the river and enjoy the summer air, the temperature supposedly is in the 90s during the summer months. Most of all I enjoyed how quite Prauge was. Even with all the people there wasnt a lot of motorist noise, no vespas here. It was a nice change of pace from the loud and busy city streets of Florence!

"Thai Foot Massages"
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On the 14 hour bus ride home from Prauge I would have to say that driving through Austria was the highlight (one of our travel guides, Pieter who is from Austria, would LOVE to hear me say that). The hills here were covered in trees with the amber and emerald leaves. The mountains were snowcapped and at one point as we rounded a curve in the road you could see the full moon rising between one of the tree covered hills and snow covered mountain topsit was one of the prettiest night skies I have ever seen.