Our Prague Experience

~Be prepared for A LOT of pictures in this entry :). We couldn't help ourselves, the city is just too beautiful to not take so many pictures.~

Craig and I traveled to Prague last weekend. We had booked a "package" for the weekend which included transport to and from the train station, a walking tour, and a dinner cruise.

We left on Friday after I got out of school and went by train. The total travel time there was 4 1/2 hours, with us switching trains once in Dresden. Once arriving in Prague, we had someone pick us up from the train platform. We felt important when we saw our names on the sign :). The driver took us on a very scary drive to our hotel. We were trying to look around at the sites as well as hang on as the driver sped through the city.


We arrived safely at our hotel and were starving. By this time it was around 9:30 pm, so we decided to head out to find a nice restaraunt for a late dinner. We hadn't researched the area in which we were staying in Prague, and learned quickly it probably wasn't a place to be out in at night. We were walking around trying to find a place to eat and we heard some sort of "scuffle" taking place. We then saw a group of boys running in all different directions and another group walking quickly after them. At first we thought maybe they were just playing around and then we saw a guy with blood on his face, I'm guessing from a bloody nose. That's when we ducked into the McDonald's for some quick food we could take back to the hotel. We decided to leave our exploring for when it was daylight.

Oooohhh... look how rich Craig is ;). Just teasing.

In the Czech Republic they use Krowns. 25 Czech Krowns = 1 Euro. So, if you bought a meal at McDonalds it would come out to be around 125 Krowns. That is hard to get used to.

I find this at a lot of hotels in Europe. This is supposed to be a queen bed. But, we know better. It's actually 2 twin matresses on a queen frame.

On Saturday we got up early and enjoyed the complimentary buffet at our hotel. They had a great spread of food, however a Czech breakfast is a bit different than an American breakfast. My plate consisted of a deli roll, ham and cheese. Yes, I had a sandwich for breakfast and it was delicious :).

After our meal we decided to take the subway into the Old Town. This was a bit of an experience. We watched others use the ticket machine and thought we could handle it, but the machine ate our money. I actually think it was broken. We tried explaining this to one of the workers, but that whole language thing kept us from getting our point across. We then decided to stand in line to buy a ticket, only to learn we were in the wrong line. Finally, we found the right line and bought our tickets. I am happy to say that by the end of the day we had mastered Prague's public transportation :).

The Old Town is absolutely beautiful! It is also very crowded. Prague is a big tourist destination. We read that in the summer there are 9 tourists for every 1 citizen of Prague.

This is a very old and very big clock in center of the Old Town.



There was a wedding going on in the church to the left of the clock. I thought that it has to be cool to get married in such an awesome place. However, my view changed when I saw the bride leave the church and saw another one enter. I think that would take away from your moment a bit to see another bride entering the church you just got married in.

We spent an hour exploring the Old Town and then went to find our tour. We had scheduled a four hour walking tour of Prague. The following pictures and information are from our walking tour. It was very informative. Our tour guide spoke brilliant English but was born and raised in Prague. We learned that this is not only a beautiful city, but has a great deal of history.

In the first church we went into we saw this hand hanging from the wall (picture below). I am not for certain on the exact story becuause while we were listening to the tour guide we watched this mom smack the face of her little girl so hard it rocked the stroller. I was a bit mortified and missed a bit of information. Nonetheless, it is a hand of a very important person.

Pope Benedict XVI was in town this weekend also. Supposedly, he was going to be preaching at this church on Sunday (we were there on Saturday).

One of the streets we went down is known as the "Jewish Ghetto" or "Husband's Hell." This is the most expensive street in Prague. A long long long time ago it was where the Jewish people were forced to live. If they left this part of town, they were required to dress so that others would know that they were Jewish.

Below is a picture from the Jewish Ghetto. It is a Jewish Cemetery. Because they didn't leave this area of town, they buried the ones who had past here. The cemetery is up high because they would pile the bodies on top of one another. We learned that not only do they bring flowers to the grave but rocks. The reason for this is because when they were migrating from Egypt, people died along the way. Because they were in the desert they could not bury their loved ones. They did not want the animals to eat their bodies, so they put stones over them. It is still a tradition to bring stones to put on the grave.

Craig is standing in front of a statue of books. This was inside the library. I love this picture :)

In the distance you can see the castle and the castle's cathedral. The castle actually doesn't look like a castle at all. It is the row of buildings in the background.

The Charles Bridge. One of the most famous bridges. This is a huge tourist spot but it holds a great deal of history.

We learned that the people in Prague are very superstitious. On this bridge there are two pictures. If you rub one you will have good luck and if you rub the other you will have wealth. The pictures are actually of a priest being thrown from the bridge to his death (I don't see what's so lucky about that). The reason he was thrown was because the king's wife had made a confession to the priest. The priest refused to say what that confession was. Because he refused to speak, they threw him from the bridge.

So many people.

This is another sculpture on the bridge. Our tour guide told us that Mom's will tell their children if they are not good than they will put them in this cage :).

Another statue. We caught on quickly that religion was a cause of a lot of violence :(.

Creepy......

This is a picture from another church. Here, we actually barely missed seeing the Pope. Inside this church is a small, doll type, figure in a glass case. It's actually a bit silly because the statue started out as a wedding gift a long long long long time ago. When Prague was attacked, the statue was stolen. Prague was then able to regain the statue which now sits in this church. She has different dresses and someone actually changes her dresses. On this day she was wearing her best dress because the Pope was coming. We saw on the news the next day that he brought her a crown. Our tour guide told us that he was also supposed to bring her a new dress.

We walked up the massive hill to the castle. Unfortunately, it was closed due to the Pope being there. We were told that these guards change every hour. Still, how do you stand so still for an hour -- it's amazing.

View of Prague from the top of the hill.

Me in the Old Town.



After our 4 hour, very interesting but very exhausting walking tour, we had a dinner cruise. We scored some seats by the window and were very excited. The buffet was delicious. It consisted of stew, rice, french fries, sausages, deli meats, rolls, desserts... yum.

The only bad part of the cruise was there wasn't much "cruising." We had to go through a lock because of the dam and it took forever -- not as exciting as we thought it would be. We then ended up sitting for quite some time in the same place. During this time I had ordered a cola which the waiter didn't bring. Craig went and asked him again for a cola. He then explained (in English) that the machine was broken and I would get one in 30 minutes. So, we went to the top deck of the boat. I started noticing that there were people from other boats taking pictures of us. Hmm... that's when we started wondering what was going on. We then saw another boat show up. I thought they were here to bring me another coke, which by that time I didn't really want anymore. We then started noticing some people on our boat standing on the other boat (we are so observant!). We decided to go ask what was going on. So, we went to the same waiter and asked why people were getting on the other boat. "This boat is broken, you must get on the other boat to go back," he said. Ahh... so I guess that's what he meant by "the machine is broken?" I was surprised that they didn't announce this to everyone on board. Craig and I went over to the other boat and noticed a couple sitting by themselves on the first boat. They sat there,alone watching the other boat fill with people, for probably about 20 minutes until finally someone told them they had to get on the other boat.

This is our "what is going on?" face.

The next day we got up and enjoyed another wonderful breakfast buffet. Our hotel was so kind as to let us leave our luggage at the front desk as we went out for a bit more of exploration.

This is actually above the entrance to a church. If you click on the picture it will make it bigger. This picture is actually really violent.

I was in awe of the pink shopping center. What girl wouldn't be?

Yes, my friends, we found a TGIFridays and it was good, sooooo good. We eat very well here in Germany, but sometimes you just want a taste of home. Well, we got that taste and ate it up!

Need a toilet, here's one on the sidewalk . Very convenient.

We had heard that the castle would be open Sunday afternoon, so we decided to take another trip up the hill. This time we used the tram :). The castle still wasn't open but the cathedral was. This was an amazing place. Below is a picture of the Cathedral.

It is massive!

Inside was incredible!

It was also a little creepy. They have people buried inside the church.

This is an example of one of the caskets in the church. They were all very decorated and there were several like this.

Overall, Craig and I had a fabulous trip in Prague. It is certainly a city you have to visit. I would recommend a tour, because it is such an interesting city.

Another interesting tid bit we learned from our tour:

The people of Czech have 365 Czech names. When you have a child, you have to choose from one of these names. On the calendars they sell you can find a name for each day. So, even though you are born on the 23rd of September your name might be from the 5th of May. You then have a birthday and a name day. We were told that on your name day you get little gifts and flowers too; just like a birthday. How interesting!

Thank you for taking the time for reading this :)