czech republic: prague (something new every time)

Prague is another place I always know I can visit and see something new, no matter how many times I've been there.
I took a taxi straight from school to the airport in kyiv. Since I was flying a 'real' airline (vs a budget airline,) I got a snack and drink on the plane. Yippee! An easy direct flight, I wish that was possible more often.
I landed in terminal 1 of the airport in Prague, which is where you land when you're coming from outside the schengen zone. I thought I would see mom outside baggage claim, but she wasn't there. I checked the arrivals board and saw that ken's flight was coming into terminal 2 (schengen arrivals,) so I walked there and found mom. Ken arrived a few minutes later and I introduced the two of them.

We bought tickets for public transport and hopped on bus 119. It is super convenient, and cheap. There is also a shuttle bus to the city center, filled more with tourists than locals. It costs more, but I don't know the price since I've never ridden it. Either way, I think it's awesome that there are public, easy options to get into the city. Our bus took us to a metro stop, we rode that line to a stop across the street from our hotel. Yay!
Ken found out mom likes indian food, so he searched for restaurants in the neighborhood. He found one, so we went to mom's flat and she joined us. We walked for a bit before realizing we didn't know exactly where we were going. Ken's phone wasn't behaving, he wasn't able to find the restaurant on the map again. Fortunately it started working again after a few minutes.

Originally we thought the restaurant was indian, it ended up being vegetarian more than indian. As we entered we found out the menu was more according to how much you ate as opposed to what you ate. There was a select number of options available, you could have any or all of them, a little or a lot. You pay for a small meal or a big meal.
We all had rice, a vegetable curry, apple chutney, and a salad with cabbage and peanuts. Ken and mom had some sort of spinach patty too. The meal wasn't what we expected, but I think we all enjoyed it. And it was cheap! The total bill ended up being about $4 each!

I suppose ken and I could've gone out on the town, but we were exhausted, so we called it a night, after making plans for the next day with mom.
The next morning ken and I took the metro to malostranska. As we came out of the station, I looked to my right and saw people coming out of a door. I wanted to see where they'd been, so I walked and peeked in the door. I saw a pretty garden, so I called to ken to come explore.
Waldstein garden is pretty. Since it is only the very beginning of spring, nothing is blooming. I'm guessing in a few weeks it will be full of beauty. As we walked around a small pond, we heard a strange sound. Just after, I saw a peacock coming in to land. I had no idea peacocks can fly! There were two or three peacocks tellin at each other, it was loud. (It sounded like yelling to me; for all I know they were singing to each other.) The birds yelling at each other were all male. Two normal peacocks, and one albino peacock. It makes sense that every animal has potential as an albino, but this was a first for me. A white peacock!! Beautiful. In another area we saw two female peacocks.

Since Ken was getting hangry, we hopped on the next tram and took it just one stop, to a small platz. This is where a lot of tourists start their walk up to castle hill. It was 1100 by that point, so at the cafe we chose, I had a caprese salad. More impressive than the food was our view of the towers of st Nicholas, which was about 300m away.
We opted not to go in st Nicholas, as there is an entrance fee, and both of us have seen more than our fair share of European churches and cathedrals. Someday I will actually go in at Nicholas, but it didn't happen during this visit.

Continuing up the hill, there is one switchback, the corner of which has a nice view of the city. As we came to the top of the hill, I realized there was a crowd just inside the gates of the castle, and I could hear military style music. I quickly saw the musicians were actually standing just inside windows on the second floor, an there was a changing of the guards happening, or something along those lines. We watched the end, just because we were there.
Just outside the gates of the castle we saw a group of members of the red hat society. I've heard and read about this group, this was the first time I'd seen them. Very very cool. This group was from an area near Rotterdam, in the Netherlands.

We went through the castle, and got to the front of st Vitus cathedral. The castle is very close to the cathedral, it's really difficult to get a picture of the entire front of the cathedral. You just can't back up far enough. As it turned out, we got there while the cathedral was closed for the midday, so we continued walking, on the shady side of the church. I kinda wish we had waited around, (it's lovely inside) but 40mins of waiting didn't sound like fun.
We took a photo together at the back of st vitus, as that side of the church is also quite beautiful...plus, there is a small square of sorts that allows photos to be taken with the entire side of the building in the photo (unlike the front side)

We walked past the entrance to st George's church, skipping the interior of that one as well...(another church which I have not entered, but hope to do someday)...the path next to st George's takes you past the church, and closer to the entrance of the so called 'golden lane'...it also requires an entrance fee, argh...(we didn't go in the street)...
From there we walked down the hill, passing a few musicians along the way...ken was happy to donate to the one who played freebird when he asked...hee hee...

The bottom of this hill was just around the corner of malostranska station...instead of going back up the hill, we crossed the river on the bridge next to the famous Charles bridge...not too long after crossing, ken saw a restaurant/cafe/brewery (I'm not sure which it was) and he wanted to stop, so in we went...our food took a bit longer than we expected, but it wasn't bad...(not great, not bad)...as we paid the bill our waiter gave me an orange rose 😀
We followed the street parallel to the river, coming to the tiny square at one end of Charles bridge...it's always filled with people; some are about to cross the bridge, others have just come over, and still others are just hanging out...on the platz (it's really small) are two churches that are now used for evening concerts, often with an organ...I don't know architecture all that well, but I'm pretty sure they are both baroque, which I don't particularly love, as I think it's too 'busy'...we peeked inside one of them, just because we could...

Then we crossed Charles bridge...all the postcards have beautiful photos where you can see all the statues, an it looks empty...the reality is very different...it's packed with people, and there are vendors all along both sides of the bridge...depending on your mood it's either awesome or really annoying...thank goodness ken is tall, I didn't have to worry about losing him in the crowd...
We took stairs down from the side of the bridge before reaching the end...I don't remember why, but that's what we did...there are plenty of little shops, cafes, etc...since it was a beautiful day (still a bit chilly, but there was a lovely blue sky, which made it feel warmer,) there were plenty of people out walking, sitting outside at the cafes...

A bit further along the river ken found a display of American military 'stuff'...even though the American military didn't liberate Prague itself during the war (they only made it to rokycany (sp?) in the west) many Czechs are very grateful and show it through museums and displays like this one...ken loved the motorcycle...
We got back on the bridge and walked to the end, going under the tower...(there are towers on both ends, both appear in various postcard photos)...
Not far from where we'd eaten breakfast that morning, we met mom at the entrance to vrtba gardens...it's not a well known sight, but I think its popularity is growing...the entrance isn't obvious, the sign out front isn't big or splashy...when you first go in, you can't even see what it is you are going to see...

Vrtba garden was originally a private garden, belonging to one of the wealthy folks in the city...it isn't huge, it is landscaped, and there are levels...it is a beautiful location for weddings, and when one of those is taking place, the garden is closed to the public...(meaning Saturdays in the summer are not good times to visit)...
The garden was closed during the communist years, due to its location next to the U.S. Embassy. During those years the small area in which you see beautiful frescoes was used as a pram storage room. The former mansion was used as a kindergarten.
We walked through the garden, going up each level of stairs. Some of the stairs are rather skinny, not made for large people or two people going in opposite directions.

As we got to the top level I was able to show ken why this garden is my favorite location in Prague. You can see over the entire city, and you feel like you are close to the city at the same time. (While I love beautiful city views, you're often far away, or very high up. Somehow, this isn't the case with this garden.) we sat and chatted for a while.
Eventually we wound our way back down all the stairs, and back across Charles bridge. Since mom is not as tall I had to keep an eye on her so we didn't get too separated among the crowds. Ken was still easy to see.
After we got back to the old town area, mom and I took a quick detour to show Ken a particular piece of art. I think I've mentioned it before, but in case I haven't, this is a sculpture of a guy hanging off a pole over the street. If you aren't expecting it, it's quite a surprise. It looks realistic enough to make you think (initially, anywho) that it's a real person hanging over the street. Mom says Czechs have mixed feelings about the sculpture, as it isn't very traditional.

As we came around a corner that gave ken his first glimpse of the old town square, ken said he was officially wowed. Yahoo, mission accomplished 😀
We walked past the astronomical clock, it was nowhere near the top of the hour so we didn't wait around. (At the top of each hour you get to see the twelve apostles 'march' by, it's cute, and people crowd in to see.)
A little bit further into the square ken and mom saw a cafe and they were both a bit hungry, so we sat. We could see quite a bit of the square, which was full of booths selling all sorts of stuff. Some food, some decorations, some random knick knacks, etc. The booths aren't there most of the time, mom said they usually appear around Christmas/New Years and Easter.  After we ate (all three of us chose traditional Czech food) we walked through some of the booths, coming upon a pen holding a couple sheep and a donkey. Ken had fun feeding them.

From there we walked out the other side of the square, walking under the powder tower. I can't remember why that tower is important, even though mom has told me a few times.
Not too far from the tower we got to the tram stop where we hopped on tram #5. It took us directly back home.
The next morning we slept in, then got up and packed up. Mom and I had planned to go with ken to the airport, but he had another idea. We ended up eating breakfast, then he caught a car to the airport.

Mom and I went back to her flat, then relaxed for a while. Eventually we went back out, and took a combination of metro and tram to get to Strahov monastery. Mom hadn't been there in a while, but she has memories of being there when she was younger.
The garden on one side of the monastery is big, and offers another view over the city. Absolutely lovely. We entered one courtyard and building, buying tickets that gave us entry to the cloister area. Several of the rooms around the cloister had been set up with exhibits, mostly of art. We walked through the rooms with paintings on display pretty quickly, neither of us enjoys dawdling in front of paintings. My favourite part of that area was when we stepped into the summer refectory. The entire ceiling is painted, it's gorgeous. I took a heap of photos, none of which do it justice. I got a crick in my neck from staring up so much.

We exited that area, and walked around to the entry of the church. Unfortunately, we were only able to peer inside through a couple windows in the inner doors. I don't know if the church is always open that way to visitors, or if we were there at an unlucky time. Regardless, I saw a sign indicating no photos were allowed.

At another entry we bought more entry tickets, and walked up a flight of stairs. This was the library. WOW...AMAZING...it was incredible...I'm not usually a huge fan of paying extra to take photos, but in this case I thought it was worth it.
The library is divided into two halls, the theological hall and the philosophical hall. Both are beautiful. The walls are covered with bookshelves in both rooms. In the philosophical hall the books go up high enough that a special laser is required. Both halls are now blocked off by a rope at their entrances, visitors can only peer in. Mom remembers walking where a she wanted, back when she was a student. I wonder when the library essentially closed to public use and became a tourist sight instead.
I took as many photos as I could, of course. Each hall has a lady who checks those taking photos, making sure they've paid. As annoying as that can be, it's nice to know it's tough to sneak the photos.

After getting my fill of the library, mom and I exited the entire area. A little way down the hill toward the castle, we stepped into a cafe for a snack. Both of us had sandwiches and a sweet. Then we walked all the way down the hill, and when we got to the bottom I wondered out loud why there weren't more tourists at the monastery. It's not totally quiet, but it's also not overrun; considering how close it is to the castle, I'm surprised there aren't more people walking up the hill.
We took the tram and metro back home, picking up dinner at the food court in the mall across the street.
The evening was spent just relaxing. Mom bought flights and made a hotel booking for her visit to Kyiv in May. Yay!
The next morning was the same as the previous morning in terms of waking up and packing. Then mom took me to the airport and we said 'see you later' again.
I will be back!