Prague

Just one week after getting back from Athens for spring break, I took a quick weekend trip to Prague with two American exchange students. Tiffany is from California, and Lisa is from Oklahoma. The three of us are I think the only three Americans who stayed for the whole year at UCU rather than just one semester, so we've stuck together and have become good friends. As I write this, they have both already returned to the States, so now it's just me, but I really enjoyed our time together here in Utrecht!

Prague was beautiful. I felt it was similar to Budapest but a bit smaller. It also had a river running through it with many bridges and a castle on one side. I thought the architecture of the buildings and houses was so beautiful.

Lovely streets of Prague

My friend from UCU is from Prague, so she provided maps and helpful tips about what to visit. We stayed at an Airbnb very close to the center, so it was easy to walk everywhere. We arrived late Friday afternoon so just explored a bit that night and saw our first glimpse of the city. We went to the Old Town Square and saw the famous astrological clock and mostly just walked around that area. We also got a nice traditional Czech dinner and found that prices are also really cheap in Prague! It's pretty nice to travel in Eastern Europe because things are quite inexpensive...it's perfect for students!

Astronomical clock

We also visited an Easter market and thought it was so fun that there were easter eggs and spring decorations all over town. The stalls were set up just like Christmas markets, but they were for Easter instead! Such a great idea.

Easter market

The perfect end to the night was a stop in a fancy little bar where there was live music. It kind of felt like we were in the 1920s or something, haha..it was really nice. And beer there is super cheap! Especially Pilsner, which is Czech.

We spent our Saturday really hitting all the major attractions, which actually left Sunday to be a pretty chill day. There was like a marathon going on or something on Saturday, so it was a bit crowded in town but lively too, so that created a nice atmosphere. It was also the first day of the spring tourist season at the Prague Castle, so they had some different events going on there, like some special concerts and plays, etc. It was lovely to see the inside of St. Vitus Cathedral inside the palace walls after waiting in a very long line.

Beautiful stained glass from St. Vitus Cathedral

We walked around all over town, through the Jewish Quarter, over the Charles Bridge, to a huge park with a giant working metronome statue (the history was quite interesting...it had replaced a Stalin statue many years ago), took a quiet little rest on Kampa Island (just a tiny little island in the middle of the river that you get to by stairs that are halfway across a bridge connecting the two sides of the city), and saw some other famous sites like the Strahov Monastery, the Dancing House, and Wenceslas Square with its huge national museum (that is unfortunately under renovation right now).

View of Prague

John Lennon Wall

It was a very thorough day, and because we enjoyed the live music so much the night before, we decided to try out a piano bar directly across from where we lived. It was the best choice ever!! An old man would alternate between drinking with his friend and playing incredible music on this upright piano. We had so much fun just enjoying the music and sipping on our beer and eating our desserts and cheese platter. It was so fun just talking and laughing so much and enjoying our second and last night in Prague.

Our final day started with an early morning hike up Vitkov Hill, which was right behind our place. There's a giant monument on it as well as an amazing view of the city.

View from Vitkov Hill -- the TV tower is known to be one of the ugliest buildings in the world; if you look closely, there are giant crawling babies stuck randomly on the tower...seriously. Look it up -- Zizkov TV tower

The rest of the day before we had to leave was spent in cafes and in the very small but wonderful Dvorak Museum that Lisa found. After being informed that we could only use cash, we turned around to go find an ATM, but two older men behind us asked the lady how much it was and then just bought tickets for all of us! They were so kind, and we ended up talking to them for a little bit. We found out they were from the East Coast and that one of them was a UW alumni! It's always a lot of fun to meet Americans in other countries and to always somehow find some sort of connection. The world seems much smaller after you travel!

Dvorak's piano!!!

We then took a 13-hour overnight bus ride back to Utrecht and then walked all the back from the station since we got there so early in the morning there weren't even busses yet. But we loved our trip so much and have so many great new memories!!!

Happy on Kampa Island