Of all
of the cities I have been to, Prague ranks either 1st or at the very
least in the top 5. I could list any number of reasons for this. The incredible
history and how many of the streets and buildings have remained the same; the
beauty of the architecture; the character of the cobblestone streets; the
amazingly cheap and efficient public transportation. The list goes on. However,
the food doesn’t even come close to Macedonia which goes to show that you can’t
get everything you want. They do make up for it in their desserts though…
After
arriving on our first day, we took a quick nap and decided to explore the city.
We started in Old Town which is aptly named because it is, well, old. Many of
the buildings there were constructed in the 1400s or before. (Some information
may be slightly inaccurate because I hate tours and just looked some stuff up
on Wikipedia.) In the middle of the square is a statue to John Huss, and it was
surreal to think that I was walking on the same streets as he had walked on,
and those before and after him. Many of the buildings were the same ones there
when he was alive, minus the tourists of course.
Hannah
did a good job of showing me around except for all the times she got lost. :p But
she did also help me know which foods to try and which ones really weren’t
worth it. Another cool thing about Prague is that it seems as if every building
has some cool history behind it. As we were walking, we decided to duck into a
church to see what was inside. It was gorgeous! I’m sure to those living in
Europe, it is nothing new. But when your exposure to gothic style comes from a
picture in a book, walking around inside and experiencing it for yourself is
not something you’ll soon forget. Huge ornate statues layered in gold, high
vaulted ceilings, and everything decked out to the nines. I would give a lot to
be able to play the pipe organs in those churches.
Prague
castle is supposedly the biggest castle in the Western world, but it wasn’t
that special. The cathedral inside of it though, was a different story. Hannah
and I agreed that the outside of it was way more impressive than the inside,
especially after the one church we had already visited where the opposite was
true. We climbed a spiral, stone staircase to the top to enjoy a great view of
Prague. Not far from there, we visited a monastic library that was used as a
model in Beauty and the Beast. Seriously, I feel I could spend a very long time
in this city checking out different things and never run out of things to see
or do.
Hannah
and I are now getting ready to depart for Munich where we will meet up with my
parents. It seems that whatever mystery disease I had is rearing its ugly head
one last time to give me a bad cold (which is nothing compared to its previous
rearings). It’s time to leave former communism and Slavic languages behind as
we venture into Western Europe.
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