Travelogue - Prague, Czech Republic September 2012 (1)

One of the first cities I wanted to visit (rather adamantly, I regret to say) was Prague. It was my dream city since I was 17 when I read a travel magazine that featured Prague as a rather affordable destination to travel to, as compared to her other Central Europe counterparts. I googled Prague and saw more fascinating photos of her and further affirmed that it was my dream city!

Honestly I thought I would only be able to travel to Prague when I reach 35 but never did I think my dream came true a whole nine years early! Thank you Finnair for the free stopover that you provided and allowed us to choose ANY, I repeat, ANY city in Europe that they fly to! Without a doubt (and a fight), we (I) chose Prague as our stopover. Thank you Tex. Sweden next time, okay? :D

(Would definitely fight with him again for the next city in future. I soooo wanna visit Krakow, Poland! Am a sucker for Eastern European countries :))




Arrived at Praha Ruzyne Airport!

Czech Republic uses their own currency - the Korunas, but Euros are still widely accepted throughout the country. You might want to have some Korunas ready as some small food stalls, restaurants and bus services may only accept their local currency. Otherwise, for hotels, hostels and some shops, they may be more than happy to accept Euros.

What we found was that, because we had a very good exchange rate from SGD to Euros at SGD$1.51 to €1, we paid almost most of our expenses (if we could) in Euros. They are normally cheaper by at least 10% as compared to using Korunas. :)

Errr, signboard. Czech is really hard to get.

Took the airport bus from the airport and the journey was about 45 minutes. We dropped off at Dejvicka and took the Metro for 2 stops reaching Malostranka to continue to our hostel.

Retro-looking train! Yet, underground but no glass doors. I think the ang mos were sensible enough to not jump floor, or in this case, train.

Coming out of the station - "WAAAAHHHHH, so drama!"

Coming out of the station was a breath of fresh air. We looked around and we saw dramatic buildings everywhere! I imagined entering a post office that looked very bohemian in style. Okay, that was random.

We took a tram to our hostel destination, which was only one stop away. Got out of the tram and I had a queasy feeling - this place is so.. commercialised!

Proceeded to our hostel and dropped our heavy bags and went out for sight-seeing!

Ma bedddddd!

View out my window.

It was a glorious day! Quite warm though, around 20 degrees. Didn't have to bring my jacket out at all!




See what I mean? Anyhow take also got drama building!

That photo above, there is a traffic light towards the left side of the background, we just had to walk down that street and that would be the location for our hostel. We stayed at Charles Bridge Economic Hostel and like its name suggested, we were less than 30 steps away from Charles Bridge. :)




This was the street that led to our hostel.

Apparently it was a very tourisy place that we stayed at. Many shops sold souvenirs and funnily enough, I didn't feel as safe as I did in Helsinki. Held my bag closely to me most of the time. Tex and I found most of the Czechs to be really grumpy and I was quite disappointed that my dream city didn't turn out to be so friendly after all. They sounded rude, brash and curt but we weren't prepared to let them ruin our day!



Prague Main Railway Station

We went over to the Main Railway Station to enquire about our train tickets to Salzburg the next day. Salzburg is the second largest city in Austria, after Vienna. Yes, we stayed only one night in Prague as we would be returning to Prague again at the last leg of our trip.

Got our tickets and went back to Charles Bridge to take some infamous photos!

The Charles Bridge Tower

One of the many statues that was on Charles Bridge

 

 

 

 

A very Richard Gere moment with Visa

 

 

 

Very famous scenery!

 

 

I think almost every tourist who went there before had exactly the same photos. Haha!

 



 

Hello us.

 

 

 

 

 



People parasailing in the background! Really wanted to do it but lazy to find out where it was! Zzz.



Prague Castle in the background

The OTHER Charles Bridge Tower

We paid a small fee to climb up the tower to take more picturesque photos! Again, flash your student card to save more!

Awwwww.

Sneakily took a photo of this very-much-in-love couple but a friend later pointed out to me that the back of the shirt that the girl was wearing said "never mind"! Hahahahahahaha!

People like ants.

 

 

 

 

Right in front.




To the right.



To the left.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More street performers! This big bubble-blowing guy was really good!



All the kids were soooo happy.

Walked around the old town a little to suss out any quirky dining places!

Nope, didn't buy any to try.

 

Finally settled on one that was near our hostel and sold traditional Czech food! Cue pork knuckle.

 

 

 

 

We rested really early that night because we woke up super early that morning to catch a flight, and had to wake early again the next morning to catch a train to Salzburg! T.T

 

 



That's Tex massaging my feet in our private cabin on the train.

 

 

Bye for now, Prague. See you in a few days' time.

Scenic views along the route.

Wow, this was really a long entry with many many photos. I've concluded that although Prague wasn't as nice as I thought in overall, I would still like to be back to discover more about the city! Two days and two nights in this city just weren't enough! Really hope to do a backpacking trip with no deadlines involved and just plan our route along the way. That would be really exhilarating and liberating!!

Up next, Salzburg, my favourite leg of the trip!!!

Thanks for reading! :D