Prague, Czech Republic : Feb 18 – 21

Prague was never on my list until lots of people said it was great and worth it. It’s cheap, close by, and easy to do in a long weekend including travel. The trip came together slowly and unplanned. I usually always have long weekend trips booked and ready but with things going on in the world right now, it wasn’t so easy this time around. Luckily Leah was on the same page that we just wanted to relax, go somewhere new, eat good food, and have a good time together.

               Fun fact to get started – Leah and I met something like 5 years ago during a pool party at one of my co-workers’ house. Leah and Christine deployed together before that event and now we’ve bumped into each other in Germany. She introduced Christine to North Coast Church in Cali, where Christine later took me, and where still to this day I believe was the best church I’ve been to.

               We knew we didn’t want to wake up early Friday to leave – especially after seeing each other in the work parking lot at 9:30 pm Thursday night! So we left base at 10 with suitcases, snacks, and practically no plan. We were in Prague in 5 hours roughly. (Travel tip: you can get your Czech vignette online and enter your license plate number so you don’t have to stop and buy a sticker) Parking in Prague is awful so luckily I found MrParkIt Parking Prague – a site where you book a parking spot in a garage somewhere and pay by the six hour periods you’re there. Well, We got there and tried to follow the instructions to get the gate to open by calling the number provided.. it wasn’t working. So the service guy had to come help me (call a number ending in 9 instead of 8 *eye roll) We parked and then tried to find the stairs to get out the garage. I may have (I did) accidentally (unintentional because I didn’t read the sign) turned on the emergency exit alarm to the stairwell. We went up four floors and then couldn’t get out. Good thing it wasn’t actually an emergency. So we came back where we started when a guy was there telling us we have to walk up the ramps in circles up to the exit. That’s not a thing normally.. you don’t walk where the cars drive up five floors in a parking garage but we did.

               Finding the hotel was also a bit of a struggle. It was roughly a 13 minute walk from the parking garage to the hotel but we followed signs that we later found out took us to the breakfast area not the actual hotel (which were in different buildings). Luckily the nice receptionist found us in the back alley. There were a few other Americans in the lobby so we felt good about the stay. The room was surprisingly huge and awesome with entrance area, living room, bed room, a giant bathroom, and windows to look out into a little plaza area. The room was less than $300 total, split between two people for 3 nights was a steal! Hotel Metamorphis

               We got our bearing (a little bit) and went out for a walk to old town and to find Mexican food (the number one reason I was excited about this trip). Stopped in shops, wondered around old town, and found the restaurant a friend recommended, Las Adelitas.

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               Day 2 started surprisingly early, we were up at 7 and at breakfast at 8 even though they were barely set up yet. The receptionist was opening the lobby as we came down. I had read that nothing really happens before 10 in the city and that wasn’t a joke.. maybe 9, but that’s pushing it for most places I think. The hotel actually had a great spread for breakfast considering it was included in the price and two blocks from old town. We took our time and made it to the 10 am free walking tour with Sandemans. I’ve done these tours in a few other cities and they’re usually worth it – considering I knew nothing about Prague and its free unless you want to tip at the end. The tour was three hours and the group grew quickly – it was easily the biggest tour group I’ve been on and he said biggest he’s had in six months. The tour had people from: Ireland , England, Canada , New York, Texas, Ohio, Detroit, Israel, Pakistan and others. Really crazy. The day was really windy so it was cold but bearable at least if you were walking and found the sunshine in the streets.

               The tour started in old town where we watched the famous clock show. The clock was first installed in 1410, making it the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest clock still in operation. During this roughly 30 second ‘show’ at the top of the hour little windows open (see two blue blocks under the arch) and the 12 disciples “poke their head out.” The guide joked that it was the biggest let down to see in the whole country and at some point was the #2 most overrated tourist attraction in the world. I totally agree. The disciples don’t actually come out, they just rotate through. We did a tour inside the building and got to see the inside of this area where the disciples are. It’s lame. Also, you cant see the back of the clock at all. It’s not available to the public. Legends were told about how its never been worked on it, its always been right, that the person who made it put a curse on it that if anyone tried to see the back of it to recreated that they’d be cursed. Weird stuff, boring show. Do not recommend.

Through the tour we stopped by Charles University where Einstein taught, which is right next to the Estates theater where Mozart performed. We learned about an old folktale which in short is where the word Robot was first applied as a term for artificial being in the 1920s. We stopped by the Grand Orient Café, a building with Cubism architecture. I didn’t know it was a thing, it was kinda hard to see, but has a museum, gift shop, restaurant, and café. We went to the café the next day for lunch. We learned about how the country and land changed hands and split from Slovakia, about communism, and students protesting in the 1980s. We saw ‘the only Hebrew backwards clock in the world’ .. If you put that many descriptors on it then of course it’s the only one in the world.

               We walked through the Jewish quarter and learned about the cemetery and the buildings a bit. Leah and I found this most interesting so we booked a tour for the next morning through the whole Jewish museums.

               At the end of the tour we were close to the Charles Bridge, I still actually have no idea why this bridge is famous but we walked there, across it, and decided we needed lunch. Luckily one of the top places our tour guide recommended, Lokal, was right there so we made it to the other side of the bridge to the place, found the last table available, and ordered Pilsner Urquell and Smažený sýr – a fried cheese (see photo at the end from Pilsen). Pilsner Urquell is the first pilsner beer ever made, created in the 1800s in Czech, and the cheese is a popular local favorite. It’s the same concept as a mozzarella stick but it’s a sliced chunk with a much thinner, not seasoned, breading, and served with tartar sauce. It was good (because its cheese, duh) but nothing fancy. The beer wasn’t our favorite. I like pilsner, Leah likes dark beer, but we weren’t fans. We both got soup to warm up, which was yummy and the perfect portion size. While warming up we tried to figure out what else to do for the day, luckily I noticed the John Lennon wall was on this side of the river and really close by. We made it there, (un)lucky for us at the same time as a big group of college age American girls who were taking their perfect IG worthy photos. So neither of us got a photo with John Lennon’s face actually in it. I again, don’t know why this is so famous. It was underwhelming although cool for some since you can write on it if you want.

               We wandered around the city some more and went back to the hotel to relax for a bit. We walked 10 miles for the day so our feet were ready for a break and I was getting claustrophobic under all the sweater, coat, and scarf layer even though they were all needed for the bitter wind and cold.

               We decided on a place for dinner based on a recommendations from the tour guides website, not thrilled about the 15 minute walk there, we headed out anyway. I was unable to find it at the location listed on google maps, we went into a place that was a little pub where we sat down but then noticed nobody had food and no waiter came to us so we left to find something else.

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               Sunday morning started about an hour later which was great to stay in bed just a bit longer. Another good breakfast and headed out for the day planning to do the Jewish museum and the Cubism store. GPS had us walk through a tunnel/alley street that got us to the cubism place in like three minutes from our hotel. It’s so interesting how during the tour we felt like we had walked all over the place and turns out we were right next to our own hotel. It was closed since it was only 9:30 am so we made our way to the museum.

               Waited a bit for it to open at 10 but quickly got tickets, the audio guide downloaded to our phones and started. The museum is actually spread out across six locations, with a few other synagogues too. We started at the Spanish synagogue (stop #2 if you go in order) which was so full of info and artifacts. Then to the Pinkas Synagogue – the walls are full of the names of the murdered all handwritten and organized by where they were from and last name and also housed drawings from Children in the Terezin Ghetto; The Old Jewish Cemetery – which is said to be at least 10 levels deep of human remains which accounts for the height off the ground and uneven surface where approximately 10k people are buried; Ceremonial Hall; and Klausen Synagogue, then I needed lunch so we went back to the cubism place, and got lunch in the Grand Café Orient upstairs which was actually great and cheap! Hot chocolate with rum picked up the day.

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               We went back to the last couple museum buildings including the Maisel Synagogue and the Robert Guttman Gallery. We had a 4:30 beer spa Original Beer Spa scheduled so we wanted to rest for a bit before walking 20 minutes to that. We got there 10 minutes early but were welcomed and allowed to drink a beer immediately while we waited. The nice lady took us to the reserved room where she explained what the beer bath is made from – brewer’s yeast and hops and the medical benefits of each; their site says “On top of that, drinking beer during the procedure promotes mental relaxation.” For sure agree! This was HIGHLY recommended to me by a few people before we even started the trip so it’s the only thing we had booked before we started driving. It was $160 for two of us for the larger room for an hour. The smaller room didn’t have availability or we’d have gone with it to save a bit, but truly who cares when you’re on vacation. So we started with 25 minutes of bubbly beer bath with as much beer on tap as we wanted, we laid in the straw bed, sat in the sauna, and then the alarm went off that we only had 10 minutes left to get ready to leave. Luckily there is a tiny shower stall to rinse out the yeast and hops from our swim suits and we could change and head out. It really was refreshing, our skin was soft not sticky, and we didn’t smell like beer at all. 100% worth it considering this was supposed to be a relaxing weekend trip and it’s something unique offered around Prague.

               We had decided on Thai for dinner and Lemon Leaf, recommended from Lyle’s website, was a 5 minute walk from the spa. Dinner was good, cozy, and relaxed. We enjoyed the conversation and walked back to the hotel, through the busy streets to grab last minute souvenirs.

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PILSEN

               The last day, Monday, we finished packing up, had breakfast, and decided there wasn’t anything else to see in the city so we headed to Pilsen about an hour away. We had learned on the tour this is where the first Pils beer was created and found a small but informative museum for a few dollars entrance ticket which included a free beer from the pub right next door. The museum had all kinds of information, about how beer is made, how this beer was created different in 1842, the breweries started here, the social start of pubs, coasters form and purpose, ways of measuring liquid, ceramic/tin/glass containers, and beer branded keepsakes. The pub was small but great for a quick lunch and free beer, but was something that we appreciated because it was local and not full of tourists like the rest of the trip.

               The drive back was windy, rainy, a bit of hail, but back before 6 pm successfully completing a trip to my 28th country. In all, I wouldn’t recommend Prague, especially not over the other places I’ve been and loved, but it was a good trip country with good company and memories.