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| View from the Charles Bridge. |
Oh, Prague. You are gorgeous and affordable, and I love you. I spent the most time here of my three destinations, and it was definitely my favorite. I stayed at this AirBnB, and I would recommend it. On the other side of the river from the touristy Old Town, so a little quieter, but there were plenty of shops and restaurants on my street, and the tram stopped just down the block. Pretty much perfect. Some highlights from my time:
- The food. Oh lord, the food. So good! I had a great portobello burger at a vegetarian restaurant, fresh pasta and pesto, all sorts of goodies at a vegan cafeteria, and quite possibly the best pizza of my life. Reservations seem to be a big thing in Prague, but since I was a single, a few places let me sit at the bar/grab a quick bite if I promised to be done in an hour, so I got by without making any. Plus, they have trdelník and Angelato. I loved it.
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| Freshly made salty caramel gelato. |
- The sights: I visited the Karel Zeman museum, the Kafka museum, Strahov Monastery, the Lennon Wall, the Astronomical Clock, saw a blacklight theater performance, and went the movies (to see Home Again, in English. I had a rough day and needed a break, lol). I'm a movie buff, so I really enjoyed the Karel Zeman museum, which delved into his use of special effects and different film techniques before CGI was a thing.
- The public transportation: I thought it was easy to get around in Prague. A lot of things were walkable from my apartment, but if I wanted to take the tram or metro, it was pretty straightforward (you can buy a three-day pass on their app, and plan your routes on Google Maps). I also took a day trip to Karlovy Vary (2.5 hours from Prague) on a bus for about $10 roundtrip.
- Karlovy Vary: I spent a Saturday here, and it was a great day. Arrived in the morning on the bus, grabbed a quick breakfast, and then went to the spa for a few hours. I had a mineral bath (a literal bath in a copper tub, you just soak for 20 minutes and then they wrap you in a sheet to relax/dry off), a massage, and went to the pool (with sauna and whirlpool). It was nice and very relaxing, but a little different than the states, procedurally. My appointments were booked in separate rooms, and I dressed in between each treatment (they're not about that white robe life). Also you have to pay for your time in the pool, and I got scolded for going half an hour over my projected time (it was inexpensive and not a big deal, but how am I supposed to estimate how long I want to relax in the nice warm water? Ninety minutes was just not enough). I spent the rest of the day wandering around the town, which is full of beautiful old buildings, rolling hills, and fall foliage. Just gorgeous.
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| This is what Europe should look like, right? |
- Not speaking the language: Not knowing Czech was not much of an issue. It would've come in handy for picking out a tablet, but when I asked if people spoke English, most of them did, at least enough to get the point across. For directions and bus routes, I would just remember the general idea
of the street or stop name (like "the one that starts with SD" when I needed to get off at Švandovo Divadlo), which worked out just fine.
The one thing I didn't like about Prague (and Europe in general, really) was all the smoking. So many cigarettes, y'all. Colorado has fairly strict smoking laws so I'm not really around it much here, and the smell really bothers me. But what can you do?
