Chapter 2: Praha
Sojourn
We woke-up to a bright sunny morning in our dorm in Prague
(capital of Czech Republic for the uninitiated). The hostel dorm here was much
larger and the breakfast had more options than Cinema Hostel of Krakow. Rohan
had joined us from his bungee jumping detour and was already asking us to join
him for sky diving. We decided to avoid the topic for time being and went out
to see the city.
First spot - the old
town square (Staromestske namesti) of Prague. Like most other European capitals, old town plaza in Prague is the heart
of the city and overflowing with tourists. Each building in the square is rich
with history, full of colors and a treat for your eyes. The buildings are
mostly gothic in architecture with elaborate designs on brightly painted
fronts.
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| The Gothic architecture of Prague |
The cobbled streets are overflowing with cafes, excited tourists, and street
performers – the best of all European experiences. And no description of Prague
town center could be complete without the Astronomical Clock. It is most
recommended sightseeing spot of Prague and is bang at the centre of the square.
The clock is an intricate piece of machinery with roman numerals and zodiac
signs, all overlapping in an indecipherable way (at least to the untrained eye).
There are four animated figures (each representing one sin or something
similar) around the clock that do a periodic motion every hour when the bell
rings. This results in an amusing drama
every hour as tourists rush to capture the clock figures in motion. (The most
competitive clickers seemed to be Chinese/Koreans and yeah I am a bit racist)
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| The famous astronomical tower of Prague |
After spending a leisurely morning at the central plaza, we
decided to roam around and see more of the city. A small walk down one of the
lanes from the old square took us to Vltava River and Charles Bridge. Charles
Bridge has a series of more than 20 statues each with their own stories. One of
the statues was shinier than others; the reason being that it is believed to
bring luck to those who touch it and thousands of people caressing it daily
will of course give it better shine than the best of polish. From the bridge we
could see one of the largest castles across the river, the Prague Castle. On
our way back, we came across an old war memorial, that had WWII (1938-1945) engraved, reminding us that
for Czech the WWII started before most of the world.
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| The memorial that reminds all of us that World War II was a 7-year war for the Czech natives |
Next day me and Tauseef started with a trip to the castle
that had enchanted us from across the river last night. (Rohan was again
missing as he had gone for sky diving, and we as usual wanted to avoid anything
that could get our adrenaline pumping)
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| Night view of the Prague Castle |
We took one of the local walking tours that starts from city
square and takes you around in the castle - the guide giving you snippets of
history and trivia about each building. Prague Castle is a massive structure
built at the top of a hill overlooking the city. The castle is not one building
but a city inside city. There are cathedrals, monastery, administrative
buildings and gardens all inside the castle. You can get a brilliant view of
Prague from the top – orange roof tops, the parallel bridges, a huge old
network jammer (relic of communist regime), and far-away sky scrapers of modern
Praha.
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| Panoramic view of the city |
This evening we decided to do the famed pub crawl of Prague.
The pub hopping concept is simple; you pay 20 Euros for entry in 5 pubs/discs
and a welcome drink at each pub. Our pub crawl had unlimited free drinks for an
hour in the first pub (Vodka, Absinthe and Beer), with the disclaimer that if
you drink too much and can’t walk after that, you will miss all the action to
come later. The best thing about the pub crawl is you get a chance to meet
fellow travelers (mostly backpackers) from across the world. Our group was
around 40 strong and by third pub, three of us had gotten split as we all ended
up making new friends and joining different groups. The trip ended at Karlovy
Lazne, the self proclaimed “largest club in Central Europe”. This is a five
storey building, very near to Charles Bridge. Each floor had a distinct style
and different music theme – Contemporary, Jazz, Metal, 70s, and Pop;
effectively turning Karlovy Lazne into 5 clubs for price of one.
Next morning we woke up late - after effects of late-night
partying. There were still places left to visit in the city like Jewish Quarter
and the dancing house – but we decided to give those a ditch for another couple
of hours at old town square. This time we took a different route to the old
town square and did a much leisurely walk. We ended up buying some very
beautiful and reasonably priced trinkets for our sisters on the way. We also
enjoyed an amazing performance by one-man-band; his music as joyous and lively
as the city itself.
We ended our Prague visit at the place we started and our
favorite spot in the city – the old town square
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| A rare photo of all three of us together - Just chilling |
The evening train took us to our next destination, Budapest.
More in the next chapter:
Tale of two
cities – Buda & Pest
Things to do and see
1. Take the walking tour that takes you around the city
2. Visit the Prague Castle
3. Spend a lot of time at the city center and just enjoy the atmosphere
4. Do the pub crawl - if you want to meet new people and party
Photo Gallery
To be continued….
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