Written by: Cedric Reese
Ahoy everyone, for those that don’t know, ahoy means both hello and goodbye in Czech! Its been two days since I got back from Prague, and oh boy, it was quite the adventure! The week started out as any other average week. Didn’t do or spend much because I knew that I would be doing a lot of that when I was in Prague. One thing of note that did happen this week is that the French President came to visit Krakow! Traffic was a mess, and I had no clue what was happening until my one professor mentioned it. I would’ve loved to go and try and get a peak at the event, but sadly I had class when he was scheduled to speak. I also finished my first class this week. One of my classes was a one credit Intro to Polish class and this week we had our “final”. It wasn’t super hard, but I did lose points on my spelling, I guess no matter what language I’m writing in, I can’t help but misspell a ton of words. I’m a little sad the class is already over; the professor was super helpful with all my questions on the Polish language. I’m in another Polish class, but in that one we don’t have as much time to ask questions and it’s a little more intense. This class was very laid back so that’s why I enjoyed it so much.
After an average week, I left for Prague Friday morning. I was somewhat worried as I had to take a bus and then a train, with only 6 minutes between the connection, and well, things aren’t known for being on time in Poland, so I was worried about missing my train. However, my fear was misplaced and we I made it on time. I arrived in Prague around 1:00 pm, and I quickly set off to find a place to eat. The station I was dropped off at was not the central train station, instead it was one on the edges of town, so there wasn’t much to see in the immediate area. I walked for about 20 minutes when I finally found a Czech bar that looked to have good food. And man was I right. I got a duck leg with sweet purple cabbage and some dumplings. Not only did it taste great, but it was also super cheap, even cheaper than food is in Poland. I also got a massive glass of lemonade, and I really mean it, it was huge. As a side note, it seems like the Czechs must love lemons, as they were everywhere. Every place I went to eat at had its only freshly squeezed lemonade that was always proudly advertised. Quite a few dishes I ordered also came with a lemon to squeeze on, even things you wouldn’t normally think a lemon would go with.
After a great lunch, I set off towards my Airbnb, where I dropped my stuff off, then set out to explore the city. My room wasn’t too far from the river, so I set off in that direction. As I walked, I stopped to take a picture of almost every building. They were all different colors and styles, something I had never seen before. I love architecture, so I couldn’t help my self every single time I saw a new building. When I arrived at the river, I noticed a hill on the other side with a park and what looked to be a great view of the city. So, I made my way there and it definitely was quite a view! I could see most of the old city from there, and it was right around sunset, so it looked even more dramatic. After that, I did some more exploring and got dinner at another Czech place. My friend Bryan from Krakow was also joining me, but he wouldn’t arrive at the city until 10:30. After he arrived, I quickly fell asleep, as I hadn’t gotten much the previous night.
Saturday, we got up around 8:30ish and set out to see the city. We had previously decided that we wouldn’t go to any museums, as they can eat up a lot of time and we didn’t have much. Instead we spent the entire day just walking around the city. We followed the river for a while, until we reached Prague Castle, we were there early so we managed to arrive before it got too busy. While we didn’t enter the castle of the cathedral, we did go up the cathedral tower to get the view. It was quite the hike up, 285 super steep stairs with barely any room, no rails, and people constantly coming down, forcing you to hug the way. We were both a little out of breath when we reached the top, but it was worth it. From there, we could see the entire city laid out before us. I must have taken over a hundred pictures just up there alone. I’m not sure how much time passed while we were up there, but quickly afterwards, we got lunch. For almost the entire trip, we ere able to eat at local Czech places instead of tourist restaurants, however this time was not one of them as the whole section of the city we were in was basically tourist central. Right after lunch, we set off to a cathedral I had seen from up on the tower, as it looked different from all the other ones in the area. The interior of the place was something entirely different from any other church I had ever seen. It was beautiful, with the walls being painted pink, marble columns everywhere, and gold trimming on the walls, paintings, and statues. It was the nicest church I had ever been to, but even now, I still don’t know the name of the place!
Before it got dark, we went to the Saint Charles Bridge, as it is supposedly, the tourist destination. I wasn’t super impressed. It was a nice bridge, but it wasn’t that nice. It was also packed to the brim with other tourists. There were also tons of seagulls, as groups of tourists were feeding them for some reason, and they swarmed all over the place. Overall, I’d say the bridge is kinda overrated. Once it got dark, we went back to the room to rest. In total, we had done around 27,000 steps for the day, and Sunday, we would do even more with a total nearing 30,000 steps. I was happy we were able to cover so much ground, but we were also super tired. Sunday, we cut through the city more instead of walking along the river. We saw several landmarks, including the old city square, the national museum, several other cathedrals, a huge park, and the massive tv tower at the top of the main city hill. We also managed to have breakfast that morning at an iconic cubist café. It was apparently designed by a cubist architect, and it was only one of two buildings throughout the city built in that style. There was also something very odd when we entered one of the cathedrals near the old town square, a woman was the one giving mass! I was so confused, as until my friend noticed it wasn’t a catholic church, it was Hussite one. The Hussites were a splinter Christian group that predates the protestant reformation. I couldn’t believe it as I had thought the religion had been wiped out. So that was really cool to see.
With the weekend over, it was time for us to head back. My friend Bryan’s train was at 9:50 a.m. but mine left at 12:15 p.m. So, I was able to see a little more of the city on my way to the train station. I walked up to another park on a hill, and while it was beautiful, it was also kind of a dangerous trek. It had rain that morning and the stairs were super steep, and the whole time I was carrying my rather full backpack with me. Thankfully I didn’t fall, but I was nervous about it the whole climb up. There weren’t many landmarks around my train station, so I just enjoyed the park and the good weather. On my walk, I managed to find a $50 Czech coin, which equals about $2 American, so I was pretty happy. On my train ride back, we had a problem with the train, so we ended up swapping trains with people on their way to Prague. So basically, both trains went back from where they came from with different passengers, which didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. When I arrived my bus wasn’t there, so I was worried that the delay had caused me to miss my bus. Turns out, my bus was late too, so I was able to make it back home without having to buy a new ticket.
So, there’s my trip! Of course, that wasn’t everything but if I wrote about everything I did, we’d have over ten pages for this entry! The whole trip was amazing and I’m glad I was able to see this historic city so soon. Next week I’m doing a quick visit to the Polish city of Poznan, and I’m also going to a classical music concert. So, until then, take care!
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