A few weekends ago we went to the Czech Republic for the first time. We stayed two nights/three days in Prague. We had a great trip and experiences some interesting new things, but I cant say that Id like to go back. I would love to tour more of the country though, and hope we have a chance to before we leave. Im going to break this post up into two since I have so many photos to share!
We stayed at an IBIS hotel. If you live in Europe or are going to visit
at some point, I highly recommend these hotels. I first told you about
this hotel chain in
this post.
Once again, it did not disappoint. It is incredibly inexpensive, clean, and has
secure parking and WiFi. The staff was also very friendly and
spoke English. If you're interested, their website can be found
here.
Prague is divided into two districts, "Old Town" and "New Town".
We stayed in New Town this time, which was a 20-25 minute walk from Old Town.
This was fine as there were interesting things to see in New Town, but if we
ever go back, we'll pay the extra money and stay in Old Town.
This country is know for its beer. Beer that is unfiltered and unpasteurized, which
means that I couldnt even try a sip. Our first night, we had Czech
food, which was interesting, but not great. The guys did enjoy a
flight of the local beers though. Their favorites were the wheat, coffee, dark and
banana.
Oh how I wish I could have tried the banana beer!
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| Flight of local beers |
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This was the Nettle beer and was definitely NOT a favorite.
I think they described it as tasting like dirty dishwater. Ick. |
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| Dessert! Honey cake and an apple strudel. Both were delicious! |
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| Gorgeous cathedral in New Town |
One thing about Prague that I didnt like was that I didnt feel quite as safe here
as I do in most other large European cities. Nothing bad happened to us,
but we saw a few things that just creeped me out.
For instance, the photo above is a museum, next to a very pretty little park.
As we walked by, we noticed a man lying on the ground, surrounded by cops.
The man on the ground not only looked homeless, he looked dead.
As we continued to walk, not twenty yards away from the cops, a man was
standing next to a park bench with his sleeve rolled up, shooting up.
Seriously.
As we moved past him, we noticed a car that had recently had its
passenger window shattered. We were warned that car break-ins are
very common in this city. After seeing this, we were very thankful that our
hotel had secure indoor parking.
This was all seen our first night in town. I was a little freaked out, but the rest of
our trip was very uneventful, thankfully.
One thing I wasnt prepared for was the sheer extent of the graffiti that covered
EVERYTHING. Almost every single building had some form of graffiti
or another on it. It really took away from the beauty of the old buildings. I know that
most large cities have graffiti, but Ive never seen it as extensive as this.
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| My fancy-schmancy freshly squeezed orange juice. |
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Puppets seriously creep me out. I think they are freaky little things.
I guess Ive seen too many scary movies/TV shows in which the bad guy is
a possessed puppet.
This marionette shops were on every street. Puppets must be huge here because
they were everywhere!
*shudder* |
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| The Astronomical Clock in the center of Old Town |
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| Beautiful |
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| The figures moved when the clock struck the top of the hour |
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St. Nickolas's Church in Old Town
(See the smoke from the street vendors?) |
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| Cool Darth Vader looking statue |
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A creepy marionette theater.
The skeleton has boobs!
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We did see one image of graffiti that I actually really liked.
Just
Be.
Happy Sunday!
