Our first night in beautiful Prague

The view over Petrin Park from our apartment, with the mini Eiffel Tower.
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We arrived in Prague on an Easyjet flight and had a taxi booked and waiting for us. We were staying in Mala Strana (on the Hrad side of the river) in an apartment. The outskirts of Prague near the airport, as with so many parts of Europe, was nothing special but as soon as we entered the Old Town you could tell this was going to be a beautiful place. I was slightly concerned however when our taxi started straining going up an enormous hill towards our apartment, which was at the top of Nerudova Street, which is a famous street in Prague. In the end this hill wasn't too much of an issue, although sometimes we would need to rest halfway up!

Our apartment living room.
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We arrived at the Redwood Apartment and were met by someone from the Castle Steps letting agency (there's that word steps that should have warned us!) and let into our apartment, which was just lovely. The building was 400 years old with beautiful coved ceilings and Ikea type furnishing. The best bit was the view over the Petrin Park, including the mini Eiffel Tower. The kitchen wasn't too shabby either, and in fact knocked the spots off the one in the house I was then renting.

We decided to get out to have a look around and walked down to the Charles Bridge, which is the famous pedestrian bridge with 30 statues along it. It is also just about the busiest bridge I have even seen, with buskers and souvenir stands the whole way across. You do get a great view back to the Hrad (castle) and Petrin Park from there though. We walked from the Charles Bridge through the Old Town, which was charming if a bit touristy, to the Old Town Square. My housemate was slightly disappointed that the "must see" Astronomical Clock was boarded up for the whole month, but there you go! The Old Town Square is just beautiful and lined with tacky souvenir stores as well as slightly overpriced restaurants and cafes. I encountered my first paid for toilet there - you have to pay for toilets everywhere in Prague. I had only just taken money out of the ATM so had to pay with a huge bill, which the brisk lady wasn't pleased about. This was also the first time I encountered what could be termed Prague inhospitality. For every friendly person, we encountered a couple of downright unfriendly - including in the tourism office! But more on that later.

A band playing on Charles Bridge, with the Hrad side of the river behind.
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We decided to sit down and have our first Czech beer - either a Staropramen or Pilsner Urquell, I can't remember which. The Czechs serve their beer with a huge foam head on it, but it is super cheap by English standards and very tasty. It was just great sitting in the evening sun on a beautiful square with cheap beer on tap! After that we decided to wander back to the other side of the river and find somewhere for dinner. Dinner was not that memorable, although I think it was Czech specific, and we did encounter a large Chinese family there that we would subsequently see for the next three days at every dinner! We also stopped into a really atmospheric pub that was just a few steps away from the apartment and full of both Czech and foreign students - our thirst for Czech beer was well and truly growing!