Picture Perfect Prague

We don't get many three-day weekends in England, so when we do, it's kind of a major deal. As such, five other Fulbright girls and I decided to go big May 3rd to 6th when we had our latest Bank Holiday weekend (called so because all the banks are closed on Monday and pretty much the whole country gets a three-day weekend). For our long weekend, we decided to book a trip to Prague. Everyone has been telling me how gorgeous and amazing Prague is and how it's a place you really just can't miss. I'm so glad I listened to them because they were right! The flights to Prague were almost double what we're used to paying for weekend flights, but every penny was well worth it! The city truly is gorgeous, the food was rich and delicious, and the people were totally different from other Europeans we'd met. All in all, it was a fantastic weekend full of new and interesting experiences. I loved it!

Everyone's flights arrived at different times throughout the evening Friday, so we didn't do much that evening. I got in at about 10 p.m., met Christy at the hotel, had a quick wander down the street to go find some good Czech beer, then came back to the room to wait for the others. But an easy Friday night meant we could get up and going the next day, which we did! After breakfast in a little cafe near our hotel, we set to explore the city, meandering down it's beautiful, ornate streets, stopping here and there but without any real destination. The architecture in Prague is truly stunning, with a mix of different styles from building to building, all of it gorgeous. I just couldn't get enough of the buildings! We also really enjoyed the cute old town square, which reminded me a lot of Bruges. The square had street performers galore, little cafes and bars, and even some impressive historical sights like the huge astronomical clock.

The clock is impressive and quite interesting. At the top
of the hour, it comes to life! Several figures come out and
move about, reminding us of all the bad things that can
happen to us if we're horrible and how we're all going
to die...or something like that. Clearly, I didn't get it but
was still thoroughly impressed! 

Here's a little video of the clock in action (sorry it's upside down!):

There's the Prague astronomical clock, the oldest working astronomical
clock in the world.

Old Town Square

Street musicians were all over the square. Check out
this guy's morning beer.  :)

Next we headed over the famous Charles Bridge, which is full of amazing
 little vendors selling all sorts of treasures. There are also incredible views
of the city and tons of really interesting religious statues.

Several of the statues have places for you to touch for good luck.

After touching lots of statues and buying lots of little treasures, we made our way up to the Prague Castle. This wasn't like any other castle we visited. Instead of one large fortress, the castle is more like palace grounds with lots of buildings you can wander in an out of. But first, you have to hike up the big hill to get there.  :)

Looking down toward Prauge after the climb up to the castle. 

Entrance to the castle

Hello handsom Czech soldiers! 

The cathedral at the castle

Inside the cathedral. The light from the stained glass windows was
literally dancing on the pillars. It was amazing!

Another part of the castle is this cool lane with little houses. Some are set
up with old furniture they way they would have been back in the day.
Others have been turned into neat little shops. 

My friend Emily who lived in the Czech Republic for
her Fulbright exchange said we absolutely had to try
one of these. They were delish!

Rebecca, Jessica and I headed back down to town while
the other girls went to a concert at the castle. 

Look who we ran into!  

We decided to have dinner at one of the restaurants on the town square.

Our waiter insisted I try the young duck...I wasn't too sure
about it, but I decided to go for it. As long as I didn't think
about it too much, it was quite tasty. It was served with
red and white cabbage (a bit pickled like sauerkraut but WAY
good) and dumplings. 

Hold cow! Check out our bill!!!
Actually, that's only about $75. A great deal for our bread, drinks, three mains
a dessert to share and a whole bottle of sparkling wine! 

Our plan was to go on a ghost walk after dinner but right as we were paying
our bill, an actual thunderstorm hit and we were forced to forgo the walk
for drinks in a cool. old basement bar instead. 

The rest of the girls found us after their concert.

Apparently, absinthe is a big deal in Prague. Here's our first try of it.

It burned SO BAD going down...unpleasant and not very nice. 

The next day, we set out again to do more exploring. We usually have to
go home on Sunday, but with the three-day weekend, we were able to
spend another full day and night exploring the city. It was fabulous!

We went to the Jewish Quarter Sunday where we got to
go through some neat synagogs, learn about Jewish customs
and the history of the Jewish people of Prague. We also
walked through an incredible Jewish cemetery but we
weren't able to take photos inside anything, so this is all
 I have to share with you.  

We had snacks in the afternoon on the town square. This is like a hunk of
potato, but spirally and fried up like a crisp but not yet crispy. 

We got lucky with gorgeous weather Sunday!

Marionette puppet are a really big deal in Prague. I liked
this Harry Potter guy!

To experience more of the culture of Prague, we decided to check out a marionette show. We saw Don Giovanni in this tiny little upstairs theatre. I didn't really know what to expect but enjoyed the performance and only fell asleep for a little while!

There is really no way to describe this without just having a look yourself. Here's a couple videos for you:


















After the marionette show, we decided to take a river cruise to see more views. We really lucked out with our timing because the sunset was phenomenal!

Our boat!

We had a few minutes to kill before the boat left, so we
headed over for a quick drink. Did you know Budweiser is
a Prague beer company?!?

We basically spent the whole cruise being silly, taking photos, laughing
too loudly and drinking wine! It was fantastic! 

After the cruise, we set out to find a neat place for dinner and saw some more pretty sights along the way.

On the way to dinner, we stopped into a proper absinthe bar where the
bartender did the whole routine for us. Pouring the alcohol, burning the
sugar cube. Quite a production.

It was fun but still pretty gross.

After dinner, we wandered around a bit more.

The statue of good King Wenceslas (you know, the guy
in the Christmas song)

The next morning, I had just enough time to get up, do a last minute touristy stop and buy a couple more treasures before I had to catch my taxi back to the airport.

Jessica, Rebecca and I set off to go see the famous Infant
 of Prague, a statue of baby Jesus. 

The church where the Infant of Prague resides.

You can't really take pictures of him, so here's a couple
signs. He's famous because the nuns dress him up in
fancy cloaks. 

I was literally running back to the hotel when I took a very quick stop
at our favorite little market to buy one more souvenir--a neat little
wooden clock.  

I flew out around noon and was back in London by about 2 p.m. Never in my life would I have thought I could just hop a plane and take a quick weekend mini break to Prague! I am so blessed to be able to take these fabulous little trips and see so many fascinating, beautiful places.