Prague, Day Three

Wow, remember how I said I was going to finish this blog before spring semester started up? Well, I blew that one, didn't I. Sorry about that. I do intend to finish this, though. You're not getting rid of me that easily. Ha-ha.

This post is probably going to be picture-heavy and text-light, in an effort to get myself moving again.

Our third morning in Prague dawned gray and overcast and a little chilly. While my mom slept off her travel stress, Savannah and I donned appropriate chilly-weather clothing and ventured forth for a final stroll through the city.

No idea what this building is, but it looked funky so I took a picture. The architecture in this city is so eclectic and interesting.

Man, I wish there were cute little plants growing between the cobblestones in Florence. Maybe if there were, I wouldn't be quite so starved for nature.

After grabbing a quick breakfast in a cute little bakery we found by accident while wandering through a residential area, we ran into a place we recognized: the contemporary art museum on the pseudo-island in the Vltava. We had considered visiting it on our first day but opted for lunch instead. We were on a bit of a timeframe to meet my mom at the Charles Bridge before Savannah had to get back to the train station, so we didn't go in this time either, but we did walk through the garden outside. Multiple people were playing fetch with their dogs and generally enjoying the plush green lawn. I found a statue I liked.

This pretty fountain was in the back courtyard of a restaurant we couldn't afford to eat in. I had to stick my camera through an awkward fence to get this picture.

At this point we realized we'd wandered a fair distance up the hill in the direction of the castle complex, when what we needed to be doing was heading back down towards the river, so we did an about-face... and promptly got distracted by literally a row of gingerbread shops. We bought cookies for everyone in our host family and I also found a teeny bite-sized gingerbread man for my mom.

Gingerbread adventure completed, we continued down the hill, passing this beautiful church on the way.

Then we met my mom on the bridge!

After saying goodbye to Savannah, my mom and I browsed through the bridge vendors for awhile and then decided to head up to the castle complex for a tour. I kept stopping to take pictures as we climbed the steep streets, which worked out well because she needed the pauses to catch her breath, struggling with a lingering case of bronchitis.

Finally reaching the complex, we floundered around for a while trying to figure out which kind of passes to buy so that we could see the most things for the least money. That done, we went through a huge archway and were greeted with St. Vitus Cathedral, also known (by my mother and I) as That Gothic Monstrosity.

The inside is absolutely cavernous. I have included the heads of some tourists for scale.

This stained glass window was done by Mucha and is accordingly scrumptious.

It was just all around very fancy in there.

Here's the back side of the cathedral.

The next building we visited was part of the palace where people actually lived.

A banquet hall, maybe? This is the only picture I got inside the palace itself, because photography was definitely not allowed, but I snuck a quick photo of this ceiling because it was awesome.

The palace rooms were interesting to see, if a bit plain inside. The really cool part was the inside of the defensive wall, where there were teeny little museums and shops nestled together in replicas of the original village where the wall-guards used to live.

My absolute favorite part of the whole complex was the weapons and arms museum inside the wall itself. The whole thing was a narrow corridor lined with suits of armor and racks of weapons, some of which were very strange but awesome. Look at these axe-knife-cleaver pistol things.

Look at that. What is that?

What?!

There was also a dungeon/torture device museum, where you had to actually go down this deep spiral staircase into the bottom of a tower and you really did feel trapped down there and the whole dungeon was full of hanging cages and pointy stabby things and it was really creepy but also kind of cool.

So that was the castle complex. And not only was it amazing, but I got to experience it with my mom, who is my favorite museum buddy in the history of ever and was a great sport and a trooper even though she was coughing her lungs out. Thanks, Mom!

That'll be the last we see of Prague, sadly, as we had to check out of the hostel and catch an overnight train to Switzerland after our afternoon in the castle complex. Tune in next time for some pretty pictures of mountains!

Thanks for reading,

- Kasha

Prague, Day Two

Our second day in Prague dawned significantly cloudier than the first, but we did manage to snap a shot of the Mosaic House before the rain started coming down. I think those are... giant mushrooms?... right outside the door there.

And there we are with our Irish gentlemen! They were so kind as to take us to breakfast, partly because we were enjoying each other's company and partly because they wanted to spend the rest of their Czeck coruna before flying back to Dublin. While in the coffeeshop, we chatted and hung out and I drank the densest hot chocolate I've ever had in my life. It was more or less a liquid brownie.

After the Irish dudes left for the airport, it started to rain, so Savannah and I hustled along to the Mucha museum and whiled away a good chunk of the afternoon there.

Unfortunately for this blog, there was no photography allowed inside the museum, which means I got zero pictures of the many original lithograph prints, sketches, and paintings that were on display. 

After thoroughly enjoying the museum, we backtracked a little ways to a soup shop for lunch. I had a delicious tomato something-or-other that warmed me up from the inside.

After the soup, we went to the Municipal House to see another Art Nouveau exhibit. The building itself was quite impressive, containing multiple museums we didn't have time to see as well as a concert hall.

The Art Nouveau exhibit was lovely, if rather small, but I still thought it was worth the price of the ticket. Check out all those magnificent vases!

There was also some jewelry,

furniture,

more of Mucha's drawings, prints and sketches,

and a gigantic mural, also by Mucha, that we sat and stared at for almost half an hour. Apparently it was originally commissioned for someone's fancy drawing room.

There were so many delicious little details!

Look at the way he does hair. Look at it.

Even the background was intricate and beautiful.

Roommate took this picture while I was absorbed in staring.

Later in the evening, we decided to hunt down a vegetarian restaurant Savannah had found on the internet, called Lehka Hlava, or Clear Head. On the way, we discovered that the city is just as lovely by night.

I didn't think to take pictures inside the restaurant, but it was super cute and had a cozy alternative vibe that I really dug. I had possibly the most interesting and most delicious salad I've ever had the pleasure of eating, with roasted tofu, dried cranberries, parmesan cheese, capers, and balsamic dressing. It was honestly incredible, especially since I'd been long starved for dark leafy greens. I also made the mistake of ordering a gigantic enchilada along with the salad, so we were in the restaurant for almost two hours as I slowly worked my way through the piles of phenomenal food in front of me. There was a middle-aged couple at the next table having, by the sound of it, an awkward first date, so we weren't lacking in entertainment.

Upon returning to the hostel, we chilled in the karaoke bar on the ground floor and listened to Czeck kids trying to sign American pop songs for a while. (This picture was actually taken earlier in the day, before it got crowded.)

And then around midnight my mom showed up! I'd booked her a bed in our room so she didn't have to deal with finding herself somewhere to stay, particularly after missing her first train to Prague. So basically we had a sleepover and exchanged travel stories until pretty late into the night.

So that was Day Two. Thanks for reading!

- Kasha