The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of: A Weekend in Prague

Cold wind railed against me as I plodded down Narodni Street.  So far, all I had to show from my trip to Prague was a stomach full of granola from the hotel breakfast, achy feet, and waning interest in a city I had so longed to visit.  What was it I came for?  What really was there to see?  I asked these questions while meandering through countless stores with my group, browsing through merchandise like in any old city. It was a chilly, rainy, dreary day, but still I continued on the journey toward our destination: the Kafka Museum.  After all, as an English major and German minor, I felt it was my duty to pay my respects to the man.

As we neared the end of the street, I noticed the swirling black river against the grey sky.  After hours of roaming, I felt like we were finally getting close.  And then I saw it.  

In my relatively considerable experience with traveling, I can recall only a few times when a scene has truly amazed me to the point of stopping and staring in wide-eyed disbelief: standing on the side of a mountain in Delphi, Greece, overlooking the beautiful valley below; waking up in an Alpine hut and seeing the tranquil morning mist covering the mountains as far as the eye could see; seeing the Tower of London in person for the first time.   As I weaved my way across the intersection by the Legii Bridge, before my eyes danced the vision of the Charles Bridge, with Prague Castle in the distance and the medieval, fairy tale-esque Lesser Town below it.

In no way does this picture do justice to the astounding beauty of Prague.

So, besides standing by the river and gaping at the scenery, you might be wondering what else I did in Prague....

I left Vienna with a group consisting of six cohort members, plus our international coordinator, Friedrich, and student services coordinator, Jutta.  Unfortunately, one of my cohort members neglected to bring his passport to the bus station, and had to reschedule his trip for the following morning.  At this point you might be thinking, "Well gee, Sara, I didn't know you needed your passport to go from Austria to the Czech Republic! After all, they're both EU countries and both in the Schengen zone.  What gives?" And to that, dear friends, I say that the people at the bus station are pros at dishing out and enforcing bull**** because both countries are, in fact, Schengen countries, and nowhere along our four hour journey did we get stopped and have our passports checked by the authorities.  In fact, I didn't even notice a border between the two countries at all; it wasn't until I started noticing that all the signs were in some strange, consonant-happy language that I realized, "We're not in Austria anymore, Toto."

ANYway, enough about the incompetence of certain individuals.  The seven of us made it safe and sound to our destination.  After successfully navigating the subway and finding our hotel, we met up again for dinner at a nearby pub.  My dinner was a chicken dish comprised of chicken, cheese, and....peaches.  Yes, peaches.  I never would have thought to put those three things together, but you know what?  It was surprisingly delicious!  

A good Czech meal after a long day is a lovely thing indeed.

After dinner, the rest of the group headed out to party and do some bar hoppin', but I was utterly exhausted and opted to head back to the hotel for some shut-eye.  As lame as I felt at first, it turned out to be a good decision: I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

The next day, after hitting up the free breakfast buffet (granola and yogurt for me, per usual), I headed out with Tabitha, Carly, and Jutta to do some shopping around the city.  It was a few hours later, after a bit of misdirection and a lot of retail therapy, that we made our way to the river and then headed to the Charles Bridge.

Tabitha (in red), Carly, and me taking a break from shopping.

But first, we stopped at the Museum of Medieval Torture Instruments on our way! 

You're not technically allowed to take pictures inside, but I'm a ninja so I did anyway.  Besides, how else would I show you all such gruesome objects as:

This little number....

The infamous iron maiden, aka the "virgin of Nuremberg".....

And the ever-so-popular torture rack.

I have many more pictures of torture devices on Facebook.  I figured I'd spare those of you who are faint of heart, or who just get grossed out really easily.

Anyway!  After exploring the vast world of agony and repulsion, we finally made our way to the beautiful Charles Bridge.

Beautiful and charming, despite an infestation of tourists.

I don't think he particularly likes his job.  He looks cool doing it, though.

The view of Lesser Town while crossing Charles Bridge.

After crossing into Lesser Town, as they call it, we strolled through the charming, picturesque streets.  (Sidenote: in my opinion, there is nothing "lesser" about this part of the city; I'm quite fond of it and I daresay it's my favorite part of Prague ^_^ )

I wouldn't mind living in a place like this. Sigh!

We took a little rest a small pub and met up with the rest of the group.  Then we all headed to a nearby Czech restaurant for dinner, compliments of Webster University 8-)

At dinner, the effervescent waiter convinced us all to have a round of pear brandy, or as he called it, "medicine."  It was STRONG.  We all managed to take it like champs, though.

Prost!

For dinner, I had some absolutely DELICIOUS goulash soup in a bread bowl.  Seriously, the Czech know how to do it right.  It was also the perfect meal for a cold, rainy day in Prague. 

It even has a precious little lid! <3

"Take the picture already, I wanna nom this thing!"

After dinner, it got COLD outside.  Carly and I decided to take the subway back to the hotel while the rest of the group walked.  By the time we crossed the Charles Bridge, though, we were freezing and had no idea where the nearest station was.  We decided to forego the mission and instead took a cab home.  This proved to be a fantastic idea (and relatively inexpensive!), as we got home expediently and basked in the warmth of our hot showers.

After the rest of the gang got back to the hotel, everyone got ready to go out for a crazy night of partying.  Long story short, I got all gussied up and ready to go when disaster struck in the form of a stomachache.  I had to stay in for the second and last night in Prague while everyone went out on yet another crazy adventure.  Still, though, staying in proved to be a good choice because I was fully recovered by the next morning, thanks in large part to a good night's sleep.

On the final day in Prague, we all pretty much split up to go our individual ways.  We planned to meet back at the hotel at 3:30 to go to the bus station together (we left our bags in the baggage room while we walked around the city).  I also made plans to meet up with Carly and Tabitha at noon by the Charles Bridge.  

The first order of business on my agenda was making a mad dash over to Lesser Town to FINALLY see the freaking Kafka Museum (after all the trouble we went through the day before, we never did make it there).  After successfully navigating the subway and jogging through swarms of tour groups on the Charles Bridge, I made my way to the museum, via a quaint and surprisingly empty street.

I don't even have anything witty to say for this one, I love it so much.

Word of advice in case you're ever in Prague and decide to hit up the Kafka Museum: you buy your ticket in the gift shop, NOT in the actual museum.  Knowing this would've given me a few extra minutes and would've saved me the trouble of sprinting back and forth across the courtyard (by the time I got there, I only had about 20 minutes until I had to meet Tabitha and Carly).

This was another place wherein you're not allowed to take pictures, but I once again put my ninja skills to use and managed to get some decent shots.

Finally made it! Victory!!

An original of one of the first stories I ever read by Kafka: "Ein Hunger Künstler" ("A Hunger Artist").

A first edition of "Das Schloss" ("The Castle")

Kafka's passport

By the time I finished browsing the museum and hit up the gift shop, it was already noon.  I put my running skills to good use, but the throngs of tourists on Charles Bridge prevented me from getting anywhere very fast.  I ended up meeting Carly and Tabitha on the bridge.   They had yet to check out the Kafka Museum and I wanted to browse the streets of Lesser Town, so we made plans to meet up again at Prague Castle. 

I perused a few souvenir shops and made my way slowly up the winding, hilly streets toward the castle.  Believe me, walking up to the castle is some pretty darn good exercise.  Along the way I passed an absinthe shop that also sold "cannabis ice cream"....

Yep.

No, dear friends, I did not partake in that particular culinary wonder =P

View on the way to Prague Castle.

Did I mention I love this city? 'Cause I do.

Carly and me at Prague Castle.

I met up with Carly and Tabitha, and we made our way through the castle complex.  "Prague Castle" is actually a huge grouping of buildings, not just one castle.  We didn't manage to do a tour of the actual old castle, but we did see a lot of awesome things within the complex.

Guards, for instance.

St. Vitus Cathedral

Inside St. Vitus Cathedral

I've seen a lot of cathedrals in my day, but I daresay St. Vitus has the prettiest stained glass I've ever seen.  The colors are astoundingly vibrant and beautiful!

I love the purples, blues and greens.  So pretty!

The whole purple/pink/red color scheme isn't particularly common in cathedrals (at least not that I've seen).

After making our way back downhill from a street on the other side of the castle, we began to realize just how pressed for time we were.  We began a sort of "jogging tour" of Prague in order to see the next few things on our list, namely the Lennon Wall and Cafe Louvre.

On the way to the Lennon Wall, we crossed over a bridge covered in love padlocks.  I'm not sure exactly how the legend works or why someone adds one, but it was still pretty cool - I'd never seen one in real life before!  Sadly, we had no padlocks of our own to add. Just another excuse to come back, right?

We then found the Lennon Wall and triumphantly crossed another thing off our "must-do" lists.

*insert hippie joke here*

After a minor subway mishap, we managed to make our way to Cafe Louvre for a victory snack.  

I'm sure a lot has changed since Einstein and Kafka were patrons....

Cafe Louvre is famous for being a hangout of such notables as Franz Kafka and Albert Einstein.  We didn't run into any celebrities while we were there, but we did enjoy some delectable dishes.  It was a perfect end to a wonderful, exciting afternoon in Prague.

Warm pumpkin almond cake, and a little note commemorating my visit.

And thus ends the tale of my Prague journey.  It was beautiful and it was dreary, but most of all it was unforgettable.  

Until next time, I bid you good night once again from the land of Schnitzel and Mozart!

Liebe Grüße,

~SB