January 3, 2023

📍Prague, Czech Republic 🇨🇿

The city with beautiful views and countless forms of potatoes. 🥔

Day 1: We got off the train and checked into our hotel, High Heaven Residence. It was later in the evening so we asked the front desk staff where to eat and went to dinner at U Parlamentu. This was the start of seeing potatoes in very dense forms on every. single. menu.

We went back to the hotel and decided it was probably a good time to start planning our Prague visit.

Day 2: We decided on a walking tour to start the day, but needed to eat before the tour because god forbid we ever go hungry. We went to U Pivrnce for a “light lunch.”

Yet another form of dense potato. For the record, I opted for a salad this meal.

We watched the clock tower show and then began our walking tour around the Old City, the New City, and the Jewish Quarter.

The amount of people gathered to watch the 30 second show is crazy!

One of the stops was the Basilica of St James, which is a church with a lot of “bling” (I’m sure that’s what they called it when they made it). Apppparentlyy, someone was trying to steal some of the said bling and was caught and as a punishment, they cut off his hand. Ouch. Well, that hand is now hanging in the church to warn people against theft. There’s a bit more to the story but the take away is: don’t steal.

The **Opera House**—where Mozart played.

We learned that Prague, for the most part, was untouched during WWII, so this synagogue was not destroyed during the war. Our tour guide explained that Hitler was so sure he was going to win the war that he wanted to leave one synagogue standing to use as a museum once he won. Luckily, it is still a synagogue.

After our tour, we quickly explored the local market for a bit and then found some food (shocking…I know).

J had actually been to Prague before, so he brought me to a couple spots off the tourist map.

The elevator has NO DOORS in City Hall. NO. DOORS. 😅

Everyone has been asking how we do laundry during our travels. The answer: 1) most hostels offer laundry service, 2) we drop it off at a laundry place, 3) we rent an Airbnb with a washer, or 4) we spend a wild night like this:

We may not always look cute living out of a backpack but at least we don’t smell most of the time.

People also ask me what I miss most. The answer…our family and friends (ya, ya nice typical answer). The ~~real~~ other answer: SUSHI. We had not found good sushi…until this night.

One picture wasn’t enough. Had to zoom in on this one.

Day 3: We went to Prague Castle to see the changing of the guard. Without thinking it through, we watched the ceremony from inside the castle rather than outside, so we missed a solid part of it, but from what we say it was very nice. Note to self: next time, watch from the outside so you can see what’s going on.

We walked around the castle grounds and found a restaurant with the most amazing views.

And then went to explore some of Prague’s unique art work.

The views were great on the walk from one naked statue to the next.

We found the city’s smallest street (yes, that is a traffic light for pedestrians and, yes, it is used).

We went to the Lennon Wall.

We stopped at a coffee shop off the beaten path for a lunch time pick me up.

And finally crossed the famous Charles Bridge (by foot, as we had seen it but hadn’t walked it yet).

We made our way over to the Revolving Head of Franz Kafka, which J made us stay for the entire 15 minute rotation. Typical J. 🙄

We tried a chimney cake from Prague to compare it to those in Budapest (ya know, we selflessly do this for science) and decided we liked the one in Prague better. Fun fact: they originated in Budapest. So thank gosh we did this as we could’ve missed some good fried dough.

One of J’s friends, Simone, had moved to Prague for school 5-6 years ago so he called her to see if she was around. It turned out she was free, so we met up with her and her husband Jirka (who is Czech) and had some dinner. We were a bit done with potatoes (never thought I’d say that but here we are) and tried a Vietnamese restaurant near their house.

Jirka was telling us all about the different alcohols they drink, so we decided it was only right to go to a bar and try them ourselves. We met up with some of Jirka’s and Simone’s friends and had ourselves a night at a local bar. 🍻