Prague: Pt. 2

It has been a crazy week of transition. Adjusting to a new place, currency, and language – the sum of it all has left me little time to write a blog post. But now we are settled in France, and you will be caught up on everything shortly.

In the meantime: Back to Prague!

Our second full day in Prague, Jacob and I decided to cross the Vltava River that splits Prague in half. The city is well known for the many beautiful bridges that span the river – the most famous of which is Charles’ Bridge. 

The bridge is old, beautiful, and provides wonderful views of the city, but the real fun, as we had been informed, was playing “Spot the Pickpocket”.

Unfortunate though it is, Prague is home to many gangs of pickpockets who prey on unsuspecting tourists. (If you plan on visiting Prague don’t be deterred: simply using common sense should save you from any trouble.) In the meantime, you get to go pickpocket hunting. They are surprisingly easy to spot. Shady looking men, who are clearly not tourists, shuffle around crowded areas, gazing intently at groups of people gawking up at buildings or studying maps. Come on pickpockets – could you be any less subtle?

Anyways, avoiding the pickpockets, Jacob and I made our way over to the other side of the river to make a trek up Petrin Hill. Petrin Hill is a large public park that boasts an incredible view of the city from the top, along with an observatory, monastery, and (oddly enough) a miniature Eiffel Tower.

The view was spectacular. 

As was the beer brewed by the monks at the monastery on Petrin Hill. Probably some of the best we had in Prague – and that’s saying a lot. 

Aside from its bridges, Prague is also well known for beer. I can’t claim to be particularly devoted to beer, but my goodness. Prague was poised to change my mind. The beer was plentiful, cheap, and delicious. We drank a lot of beer in Prague (well – a lot of beer for us… which isn’t saying much).

Jacob and I headed to a nearby alehouse for lunch, and after perusing the menu, settled on a plate of Brawn. We did not know what it was, but we had been assured that it was meat, and it was included in the local specialties.

We received this. 

As it turns out, Brawn is another word for Head Cheese:  various bits of pork meat scraped from head, and bound together with gelatin. Flavorful, but not the most appealing texture.  Luckily, we had these to help wash it down. 

After lunch we went to check out the castle, and spent more time wandering through the streets. 

That evening we went to State Opera House to watch a performance of the ballet Giselle. We had picked up two tickets for an incredibly cheap $15 USD.  The ballet was incredible, the music was flawless, and the theater was breath taking. Apparently in Prague, a cheap ticket doesn’t mean you will be showing up for amateur hour.

The next day we left Prague for what turned out to be one of the most memorable connecting flights of our time so far. Stay tuned!

Prague: Pt. 1

Jacob and I landed in Prague on Monday afternoon after a grueling trek from Sweden that involved dragging our luggage across three different kinds of public transportation. Exhausted, and immensely frustrated that we packed so much crap in the first place (more on that in another post), we dropped off all our stuff and went to take our first bleary-eyed look at Prague.

We saw this.

We were amazed. And overwhelmed by the enormous crowds of tourists.  Unable to process much, we walked until we thought our feet would fall off, and decided to call it a night.

The next morning we started bright and early to catch a free guided tour of the city. Caveat: normally I despise tours. I hate being picked out as a tourist; I love being taken for a local. Being herded around a city with a large group of people gawking up at buildings is NOT my idea of fun. That being said, this tour was awesome.

Our tour guide was a young British expat who spoke and looked like Austin Powers. He was very knowledgeable, an engaging speaker, and had a penchant for acting out historical events a la Eddie Izzard.  Awesome.

Beyond that, it became abundantly clear how few details I knew about Prague. It is amazing how a pretty building can transform when you know the stories it has to tell. I have to swallow my pride and admit that guided tours can actually be a really great thing.

Prague is comprised of a mish-mash of architectural styles that makes for a very visually diverse city. It’s a pretty impressive thing to find Baroque, Art Deco, Communist Functionalism, and Cubism all in one glance. If you are not an architecture buff it means this: Lots of pretty things to look at.

Like this, the only Cubist lamp post in the world. 

In the evening, Jacob and I wandered back to the area of our apartment and into a local park. Hoping to just have a nice walk, we stumbled instead onto a popular local hangout spot. Groups of students studded the grass, all with their ½ liter cups of beer in hand, watching the sunset over an incredible view of the city.

Not wanting to be left out, we got our own beer (Czech beer: two thumbs way up), and joined them.

To Be Continued...

The Fairytale Forest

A few posts ago I left you all with a teaser.

I told you how Jacob and I had hiked up to a place called the "Valley of the Snakes" and flipped out over how surreal it was. It was all too much beauty for my camera as well, which subsequently went on the fritz and wiped all the pictures as soon as we got home.

So we went back. But now we knew what we were getting in to, so we went prepared to do a photo shoot. I lugged two extra pairs of shoes and 2 changes of clothing in a backpack, trying my very hardest not to sweat on the hike up. No one wants to look shiny during a photo shoot.

We got to the forest, and, if possible, it was more magical than before. This is the type of place that only grows more beautiful the more you see it.

It is an "old growth forest", where nature has been left unchecked and uncontrolled. Here, you can find ant hills that are taller than you, and fern forests that look prehistoric. You could probably also find trolls under bridges and unicorns in distant meadows if you looked closely.

The one downside is that where nature is left unchecked, the bugs are also left unchecked. If you stand in any one place too long, you will be overrun by gigantic ants. Just imagine that going on as we tried our best to look like models.

Enough with the talking. Here are some pictures.