Pretty Prague

I have a feeling that some serial blogging is about to come your way, especially if every city on my Euro adventure is as amazing as Prague.

The trip started with an early morning flight on Monday 5th August from Heathrow to Prague. This was my first ever British Airways flight (or BA experience to the frequent British Airways customer). Annalisa and I were the last to get on the flight and as I said to the flight attendant, 'Sorry for keeping you waiting but I am very excited because this is my first time flying with BA', I got a wave from the pilot, that's right, the actual pilot! Then the flight attendant said she'd bring me a sticker so I would remember my BA experience and true to her word a sticker turned up near the end of the flight. I was a very happy camper!

When we got to Prague I had to put on my back pack for the first time, it took a few attempts but I finally got there in the end.

Getting the bag on...

I'm ready!

Annalisa's ready!

With our bags on we were all ready to take on Prague. The next challenge was travelling on the underground and finding our hostel. This was actually pretty easy because the hostel world website gave us some great directions. The only real problem was the people on the underground saying 'excuse me' to me and I couldn't actually squeeze in any smaller so did get pushed around a bit. The joys of travelling with a big bag!

The location of our hostel was great, right behind the Old Town square so once we dropped our bags off and settled in we were ready to get exploring. I knew Prague was going to be pretty but wasn't quite prepared for how pretty it was. It felt like every building was made to please the eye and every few metres Annalisa and I would stop and snap pictures so we would remember Prague's beauty. We struggled a little in the heat of the day but managed to do a big walk through town, crossed the river and took in some great views of the city from Prague Castle.

One of the churches in the Old Square

View of the Charles Bridge

Are we at the top yet?

Big wall, small Zara

View from the top

The walk up to the castle was tiring but the view was worth it. My favourite part of the castle complex was the St. Vitus Cathedral. I have talked before about seeing a lot of cathedrals and churches and finding special things to remember each one by. From this one I will remember the mosaic work and the stained glass windows, the colours were amazing. Maybe that had something to do with the amazing summer day outside but they were very spectacular.

The exterior

Mosaics on the outside

Pretty!

Stunning!

I like, a lot!

When we finished walking through the castle grounds we came across yet more spectacular buildings and of course found a place to buy an ice-cream from :)

Don't mess with the Czechs

Check out this stone work

Pretty small ice-creams, nice though!

On the way back to the hostel we walked through quite a busy street that had lots of shops selling traditional Czech things, one of which is wooden puppets, scary wooden puppets...

Creepy...

One of my favourite parts of my first day was going over the Charles Bridge, the oldest bridge in Prague. It had lots of cool craft stalls on it, talented buskers and many interesting statues to look at along it. 

Busy streets of Prague at the start of the Charles Bridge

Important Saint on the bridge - John of Nepomuk

One of the top things recommended to do in Prague is watch the astronomical clock go off on the hour, it is also one the biggest let downs. We waited patiently for it and were a bit baffled because nothing overly exciting happened. One good thing that did come out of the astronomical clock was climbing to the top of the tower and the taking in the views of city. We also came across a funky jazz band that we listened to in the Old Town square while we were waiting for it to do its thing.

Astronomical clock

The people gathered to watch the clock go off

Old Town Square

Nice sky line

Pretty city

Jazz Band in the square

We had a traditional meal of Goulash for dinner and when we walked back over the Charles Bridge saw another group of cool buskers playing violins and cellos, if we weren't already in love with Prague we were now!

Pretty darn cool!

Planning for our next day

Goulash! Mmmm

The walk back to the hostel was nice because I saw my first real life buzzing about. Annalisa proceeded to tell me to watch out and to not get stung by them because they burn you. I was itching all over after she said this and she later told me it was a lie, what a terrible lie!

I slept alright but wasn't going to let a poor sleep ruin my last day in this beautiful city. Luckily we found out about a free city tour and I can't recommend it enough. It was just fantastic! All the places we had wandered around the day before we were told about and our guide took us to unseen spots such as the Jewish Quarter and New Town part of Prague. I learnt a lot about Prague's long and sad history and feel it was very worthwhile. I will now be keeping my eyes peeled for other free tours on offer throughout this trip.

Tonight we are going to head back to Charles Bridge and probably pick up some funky jewellery (every girl needs some earrings to remember a city by) but apart from that it'll be an early night before our 6.39am train to Vienna. 

See you soon Austria!

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