Saturday, July 05, 2008

Prague, Czech Republic (July 17th - 21st, 2007)

My notes on this trip are tucked away somewhere out of my reach right now, so this is going from my horrible memory. I'll just post pictures now and maybe try to add the details later.
Prague was a fantastic trip because I got to see someone that I hadn't seen in quite some time and it was a chance to be in a location where I had no hope in understanding the language. It was completely foreign. For some reason, I strangely enjoy that feeling. Trying to understand the world around you in that situation makes it like a big challenge. The town was beautiful and had so much history and character to it. And seeing friends makes it all the more enjoyable!



The National Museum in the distance. Take a look at the old-school trams that they have.







Out for a walk in the evening and stumbled upon a beer garden. The Czech love their beer!




Inside the St. Vitus Cathedral of the castle. The castle itself is a group of buildings including a residence, cathedral and the cutest little town I've seen among other things. It's up on a hill on one side of the Vltava river. Cobblestones everywhere, so don't wear heels.




Looking down from one of the towers of the cathedral. the colour of the roofs will be etched in my mind forever. I also associate them with my trip to Croatia.



Another picture from the tower. The big bridge that you see here is the famous Charles Bridge. You can probably see how many people are on the bridge. There is a certain amount of elbowing involved to get through and I wasn't even there in the height of tourist season. Ugh.




Keeping everyone safe in the castle area. There were guards in little shelters just like you see at almost any other castle/palace around the world. My mind immediate thought of London and Athens for some reason.



This is the cute little town that I was talking about. Everything was miniature. Most people had to duck through the doorways of the buildings. Now they are a bunch of shops and restaurants. Oh yes, all of these areas you had to pay to get into. Money making machine these places were of course. I was considering buying something Kafka related as my Czech souvenir, but didn't think that it was really me.
No Kafka book, but yes to a wooden marionette. I couldn't believe how incredible they looked. This was my favorite shop and the location of my purchase. There were so many different types of marionettes and I considered getting something "pretty", but I was drawn towards a witch.
I looooooooooved this one. I'm not sure how to display it - I'm thinking that if I ever get a coffee table to get one that has a glass top and a shelf underneath and just lay her on it, but I don't know for sure. There's always the option of hanging her up too, but I'm not sure if that would be too creepy. I find her face strangely comforting for some reason. I think she looks incredible.












One of the many famous tourist attractions, it's the astronomical clock in the town center.
Crowds gather to watch the "show" on the hour and such.



This is the Žižkov Television Tower. For some reason there are babies crawling on it. Apparently it was supposed to be a temporary art installment, but they decided to keep it there.





See?!?! Told you. Babies.














I don't know if it's weird to visit cemetaries, but this one was very special. Centuries ago, the tombstones and memorials
made quite a statement. I felt like I was walking through an area of so much history. Seeing the growth of the plants as well. It was so neat. I've never seen anything like it before.



I have a thing with concert halls. I love them. I love them as much as I love opera houses. This concert hall was art deco (which I also enjoy) and beautiful. Sometimes I wonder what people coming to Toronto think of our architecture. It seems pretty dull compared to things in Europe. Maybe in a couple centuries our stuff will look cool. That is, if we don't keep tearing it down and rebuilding it.















Milunić and Gehry's Dancing House. Cool architecture.







We took a little side trip to Karlovy Vary, a town known for its hot springs. The town itself was beautiful and had completely different architecture to Prague. They had these big flat wafer cookies which were very tasty and of course there was the water. This famous water that was supposed to be really good for you somehow.


All of these different fountains were labelled with the temperature of the spring that it came from. They tasted GROSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!






So gross that I didn't want to buy one of these cups as a souvenir. I'm not sure why they had these special cups with the funny spout as opposed to just regular cups. I used my nalgene.

Yup. That's my trip in a nutshell. Prague is a very popular tourist destination for good reason. It's a beautiful city and I while I saw pretty much everything I wanted to see on my whirlwind trip, I'm sure that I could find lots more to do if I wnet back again. I would like the chance to get a better feel for the people who live there as well. To just walk around without being "on a mission" and feel the city itself. Knowing someone who lives there helped though. I got to do something things that I would never do if I was there by myself. We even lounged on a sand beach they created by the side of the river. So fun. And of course, going out at night was a lot of fun as well. A completely different side to the city.
Prague. I'd definitely go back.

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