beautyfoodnerdrunningshoptravel

May 3, 2016

28 hours in prague - part 1

i'm not the least bit embarassed to admit that all of my "europe on a whim" expectations come from the mandy moore movie "chasing liberty." naturally prague, where the movie begins, was at the top of my list.

i've nearly run out of long weekends for work, the next and final one coming while my friends are visiting me, that will be an adventure! but back to prague. since i was only going to be in the city for about 28 hours, i challeneged myself to pack everything in my work backpack.

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totally worked, but that's another post


as mentioned in my "previous post," i had my weekend plan laid out well in advance.

i managed to save myself currency exchange fees by buying some left over czech republic korunas off of a co-worker. it worked out to $91 and it was actually enough pocket money for both days.

flying czech air, we were bused from the plane to the terminal. i made my way to the exit to take the 119 bus to the nadrazi veleslavin metro station. from there my plan was to take the b train to prague castle for the 3 hour self guided tour.

while on the bus a chinese girl asked me if i knew how long it would take us to get to the metro. she was visiting from holland where she was spending the year working abroad. we ended up chatting and i decided since we i seemed to be ahead of schedule, i would get off a stop early and see the astronimical clock with her. we arrived shortly before noon, naturally i got a little snack before the bells rang.

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nutella and strawberries, mmm


prague czech republic wanderlust travelblog europe astronomical clock
quite an epic clock


if you'd like to hear the chimes, head over to my "instagram" it was lovely.

from there we became facebook friends and went our own ways. i took a stool across the charles bridge and headed up towards the castle.

prague czech republic wanderlust travelblog europe charles beidge entrance
entrance to the charles bridge

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crossing the bridge

prague czech republic wanderlust travelblog europe charles bridge exit
exiting the bridge toward the castle

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bridge troll

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mission:impossible side of charles bridge

i ended up taking self guided tour b (cost). i opted out of seeing the art collection and some of the more private rooms, they didn't particularly interest me. the castle tour is very brief, the church is very detailed and sadly the stag moat was closed off a bit for maitenance, but the grounds were still beautiful.

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i love the narrow streets

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prague castle entrance

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st. vitus from the stag moat

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view from the top of the hill

prague czech republic wanderlust travelblog europe prague castle stag moat
me in the stag moat

there was a lot of ground to cover and i did need the entire 3 hours to explore.

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back of st vitus

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japanese inspired garden

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the most beautiful photo i've ever taken, no filter

from the castle i made my way down the hill for a little afternoon snack. my dinner wasn't until 8 and i hadn't exactly had lunch.

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trdelnik and mulled wine

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those stairs

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when the pa's don't bring my lunch, i know where to send them

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super creepy dolls everywhere

i decided to drop my bag at the hotel, i'd been carrying it the entire time. upon arrival i was told there was a plumbing issue with my room and i was being moved to another hotel. they assured me it was only 10 minutes away, a luxury upgrade and they would cover the taxi. not bad. sadly it was a 10 min drive away, not walk. i had specifically chosen my hotel based on location, i would have to use the train to get around that night and the next day. not a total bust, but it meant my schedule would be a little tighter. i took a quick disco nap, freshened up and headed to dinner.

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the coolest metro stations


my dinner was at hergetova cihelna, a reccomendation from a co-worker who'd worked on a film there a few years ago. it did not disappoint.

prague czech republic wanderlust travelblog europe fried cheese salad
fried goat cheese rocket salad


prague czech republic wanderlust travelblog europe braised fish
baked pike perch with lentil ragot and potato bacon dumplings

prague czech republic wanderlust travelblog europe apple fritter
crispy baked apples with creme anglaise and cranberry sauce

i'd seen this fountain when i was doing my research, but wasn't making it a priority. turns out it was right out front of the restaurant, perfect.

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david cerny "the piss"

here's where the night took a bit of a down turn.

in case you haven't gathered, i'm traveling alone. in the 3 months i've been in budapest, in the weekend i spent in paris and in all the times i've traveled to new york and lived in los angeles alone, i've never had a moment where i've felt uneasy being a woman, walking alone in a city. until now.

it's about 11pm when i was making my way across the charles bridge to go to one of the 2 bars on my list. i stopped to take a photo of the bridge/city at night, like the 40 or so other travelers on the bridge that night. it was raining and reflecting, beautiful, the kind of look we spend hours lighting and hosing down streets on set to get that romantic, late night scene in movies. while trying to balance my umbrella and my iphone a guy popped up next to me and said "do you speak german?" i looked at him, mid 50's and clearly a little drunk, smiled and said "no, sorry", and walked on. he follows me "oh, you are from prague?" no, i said again, still walking way. "no, no, you are," he said trying to keep up. at this point i stopped, turned to him and said sternly "i'm really not and i'm done talking to you now." i proceeded to take a few more photos while he and a buddy walked ahead, joking about me in german i'm sure. i thought great, that awkward moment was over. while waiting to cross the street on the other side of the bridge, he pops in under my umbrella, "no, you are from prauge." scared the shit out of me. again i said "i promise you i'm not and you need to leave me alone." this started a chain reaction of every drunk guy asking where i was from, where i was going and if i could take them to their hotel. after several swift walks around a few blocks into a more populated area, i managed to shake them. rather than heading to one of the bars as planned, i decided to just call it a night and go to the hotel.

i did manage to get a nice photo tho, until next time...

prague czech republic wanderlust travelblog europe charles bridge



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