Journal

Prague

Tarynne Mingione, July 19 2013

By Tarynne

Previously we posted about our mellow Monday night in Prague, but I thought we would fill in the gaps incase you are at all interested about what else beyond drinking the capital of Czech Republic has to offer.

Friday June 14th, 2013

James and I arrived to Charles Bridge Economic Hostel around 9 p.m. James was sure his brother would be dead asleep after a day of traveling, but we were welcomed by an awake and ready-to-explore Oliver.

We headed out and immediately and crossed over Charles Bridge towards Old Town. Looking up, you immediately realize why Mr. Walt Disney was so inspired by this place called the City of a Thousand Spires.

Red rooftops snuggle up above the cobble streets below and the baroque and never destroyed buildings make you feel like you just woke up on a Disneyland ride.

We walked past the pastel buildings with pearly white painted shutters and tripped over the stone streets before finding a spot to order up a traditional Czech beer (Pilsner Urquell) while we started to catchup on the past five months.

Oliver had a decent head start on this city as he had a productive afternoon doing a walking tour (after attempting to figure out where his missing luggage was hanging out).

After a few beers we headed back to our hostel to see if their good friend Brian Bell had arrived yet, but our request to invade his room was quickly denied by the hostel staff, so we called it a night.

Saturday June 15th, 2013

Brian served as our wakeup call and we all headed to the mini-grocery store just across the street to get some supplies for breakfast. While the guys cooked up bacon and realized that the butter they bought was actually a chunk of pig lard, I snuck off to New Town to get a much needed haircut.

After three hours and a couple thousand Koruna more than I expected, my appreciation for my Seattle hairdresser was renewed millionfold and I was more than excited to get out of the chair and meet up with the boys.

It was only early afternoon and it was hot as hell. It was mid 90s, not necessarily unusual for a summer day in Prague, but unfortunately it appears that the capital city isn’t exactly prepared to shade its 1.2 million inhabitants and increasing number of tourists. There aren’t many options for escaping the heat besides eating or drinking, so don’t judge. No wonder Czechs are one of the top beer-drinking nations in the world (consuming roughly 18L per person of pure alcohol annually).

By 3 p.m. we were hungry and headed towards Old Town Square to grab some market street food, to checkout wacky street shows and Old Town City Hall and its popular tower (1338) and Astronomical Clock.

The clock is pretty to look at, but quickly you discover you could stare at the fine details for hours and not have a clue what it all means. The clock is easily the most elaborate clock I’ve ever seen and is one of the oldest still working (1410, then rebuilt in 1490).

The clock is composed of three main components: the astronomical dial, representing the position of the sun and moon in the sky and displaying various astronomical details, ‘The Walk of the Apostles‘, a clockwork hourly show of figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures, and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months.

The twelve apostles have an absolutely incredible show every hour on the hour (obviously this crowd agrees).

I’m sure Rick Steves wouldn’t want you to miss it.

After some hefty sausages and chicken kebabs we headed to a swanky lounge and sat at a table outside and ordered up some shisha and drinks while waiting for the sun to chill out.

We decided it was time to head back and get ready for the evening so again we made a pitstop at the mini-mart for the second time that day. Jacob and Tiffany happened to be strolling up the street and basically ran right into us while we were slamming waters on the sidewalk.

After exchanging hugs and hellos, we all headed over to checkout the John Lennon wall.

The wall has been around and changing since 1980 (after the death of Lennon), serving as a canvas for people to artistically recite Beatles lyrics and Lennon inspired grafitti. Oliver had made the discovery the prior morning that someone had thrown a GO COUGS up on the wall just immediately before we arrived in Prague.

We walked around and saw a bit more before heading back to get ready for the night.

That night we headed to the Prague Beer Museum and carried on with the Czech ways until early in the morning.

Sunday June 16th, 2013

After a late start we decided it would be a good afternoon to get some good views of the city so we headed to Petrin Hill.

We climbed the 299 stairs of the Observatory Tower and were treated with clear 360* views of Prague.

On the way back towards Lesser Town we ran into Jake and Tiffany again as they were headed up the hill while on a walking tour. We made plans for the evening and then carried on to get some Pilsners and traditional Czech food (goulash, inspired a bit by their Hungarian neighbors). Just so you know, if you are eating Czech food, you are eating lots of meat drowning in thick sauces and zero plants. Be prepared.

All six of us headed out to Lokal for dinner and drinks that evening. It was a sweet place and then we took the party to places that aren’t GA approved so we’ll just assume we had a ridiculous and fun night.

Monday June 17th, 2013

Another late morning start and then the six of us headed to Prague 3 for our communist bike tour. We jumped on our bikes and headed toward the Army Museum.

The museum was closed so we monkeyed around on the tank outside and then rode towards the largest equestrian statue in the world atop Vitkov Hill.

The statue is of Jan Zizka, a heroic defender of Prague in the 15th century and a symbol of Czech independence.

We then sat on top of the largest nuclear bunker in Prague (capacity 5,000 people) while sipping some waters and pilsners before cruising along to see communist apartments. We then went to see the Žižkov Television Tower.

This tower was built between 1985-1992 and the Czechs love to hate the damn thing. The babies (Miminka) however weren’t a permanent fixture until 2001. These 10 fiberglass baby statues, which are crawling up and down the TV tower represent the end of communism (somewhat) as people were once again allowed to drain hours of their lives glued to the tube.

Sweating buckets in the 95 degree day, we sped over to the Old Jewish Cemetery in Zizkov.

After three hours we all headed back for showers before Brian, Oliver, James and I went back to get vendor food from Old Town Square while Jake and Tiffany found a good Indian spot. We all met up in Old Town Square and the rest of the night has previously been captured in this blog:

Monday night in Prague

Tuesday June 18th, 2013

Unfortunately Jake and Tiffany were headed back to Germany on Tuesday so we said our goodbyes early that morning. Back down to a party of four, we got our hungover butts signed up for the late afternoon walking tour. The tour started in Old Town Square and we were shown the big highlights of Prague.

Feeling finally filled in on the place, we went and got some goulash before heading to McGees Ghosts and Legends of Old Town Tour to investigate the tales behind this supernatural city. We were shown some houses, hospitals, churches and spots with spooky stories associated with them.

The tour wrapped up after 10 p.m. and we called it a night so we could catchup on some much needed sleep and get an early start the following day.

Wednesday June 19th, 2013

The guys were up and out early to visit Terezin Concentration Camp, which is well worth the read.

I, however, decided to something a bit lighter with my day. I wanted to check out if Czech had yoga, and if so, if it were any good. I found a sweet studio in Prague 1, Yogame, which I fell in love with and wished immediately I had discovered five days earlier.

The owner was sweet and let me pay 12 Koronas (thats about $0.60) to try out the class. The teacher was incredible and spoke in Czech, but when sanskrit is sanskrit it’s easy to follow along.

The guys were back before 4 p.m. and we headed out to the KGB Museum before heading to Old Town and then back to Lokal for drinks.