Here, There and Everywhere: Prauge, Czech Republic

Our last stop on our trip to Europe this year was Prague. Or as it's called and spelled there- Praha. Everyone talked up Prague before I left- how cheap it was, how beautiful it was, how much I was going to absolutely love it. And for the most part, I did.

BA and I decided to stay in a hostel to save some cash. A few of my old friends from tour had stayed at this place called The Mosaic House and said it was great, so we went for it. I really can't believe they call it a hostel! With the exception of the bunk beds, it was a super nice hotel. It was a "green" hostel, and very new. We had four beds in our room, a private bathroom, and the lobby was pretty swanky. And the staff rocked. We saw a big group of drunk idiot guys come in on our second night, and we checked with the front desk to make sure that they were not our roomies. Luckily, we got some cool girls from like Holland or something.

Our first night there we just wandered around the city. It was so, so beautiful. We walked over the Charles Bridge and saw the Prague Castle. Then we wound up in the Old Town Square where the famous Astronomical Clock. I thought it would be like the famous clock we saw in Munich and it was going to put on a fabulous show. So we stood there at the top of the hour, watched it, and then everyone started walking away. I was very confused. But it was pretty!

Prague had some great shopping, and we did a fair amount of it. More trying on clothes and having them not fit (damn skinny Euro girls), but I found a few new dresses and pants. It was much warmer there than we thought, so we literally had to buy clothes to get us by because my leather boots and wool coat were not going to cut it in 80 degree weather! On a side note, I think this is one of the few trips in my life I have gone on and had nice weather. Ever.

We ate at some decent restaurants, my favorite being La Boca, which was a little bit off the beaten path. A lot of the restaurants were in the tourist-y areas and didn't really have the old world charm I like when traveling. The waiters spoke English, menus were in English, prices were high... so we looked for places that were a little different.

One major sightseeing thing that we did was visit the Jewish Museum. It's actually an area that used to be the Jewish ghetto with five synagogues and the Old Jewish Cemetery. Sadly, the only reason this party of town in still intact is because the Nazi's kept it standing so that when they had wiped out the population, they could use it as a museum of an extinct race. Now it is used to teach visitors about the Jewish culture and history in Prague, within its small Jewish community. The cemetery was really something to see- I don't think I have ever seen headstones that old.

Unlike Budapest, for some reason we tended to backtrack a lot in Prague. We had the streets down pretty well after just two days. We must have walked across the Charles Bridge six times going back and forth between the different areas of the city.

On our last night there, we went to what wound up being our favorite place, called Maleho Glena. Bethanne's friend Lindsey spent some time in Prague and recommended it. We were pretty bummed we didn't go earlier, because I think we would have gone back every night! It was WAY cheaper than other places, had a cool atmosphere, good food, and jazz musicians. That last night I had to catch at bus to the airport (yep- brave of me, I know but it was the equivalent of $2 instead of a cab for $60) at 3:30am, so we just stayed up so I didn't miss it. Unfortunately on our way home we had to walk over the Charles Bridge AGAIN, and it was closed because they were shooting a movie. We walked so far out of the way to cross the water that I thought my legs were going to fall off. Looonggg night. :)

Overall, I liked Prague. I think it's different now than the Prague people told me about that they visited 10+ years ago. There were lots of tourists there which creates an industry to serve the tourists. Mobs of people in the town and on the bridge, and it was definitely the most expensive place out of the three that we visited. However, if you ignore the people, hustle and bustle around you, there is no arguing that Prague is absolutely a beautiful, breathtaking city.