Czech It Out! Easter in Prague

Sorry I suck at updating this! But anyway, it's official: Prague is my favorite city. I spent our extended Easter weekend there with Virginia and Amelia, and completely fell in love with the city. The incredible weather might have played a big part in that, but it's somewhere I'll definitely be going back to at some point in my life. We had a very non-stressful day of traveling on Thursday, and arrived at our hostel around 11:00 p.m. We stayed at the Mosaic House, and if you're ever in Prague, you must stay here. It's a hotel, hostel, bar, music venue, restaurant, and best of all, owned by two CLEMSON alums :) These two guys David and Daniel who graduated in 2005 moved to Prague, found some investors, and five years later are running Prague's top rated hostel. It's incredible. When we showed up the place was packed with people drinking delicious Czech beer and listening to live music. We sat and had our very first Czech beers (Pilsner Urquell) and Greek salads. It was literally the best beer I've ever tasted. And it only costs 38 czk (less than 2 euro!!) We went to bed early that night so that we would be fully energized for sight seeing the next day.

Day 1
We got up early and headed out to explore the city. Every corner we turned, we were taking pictures of buildings. Literally every building in Prague is beautiful. The architecture is so different than the yellow with green shutters Italian standard that we've grown so accustomed to. We headed to Old Town Square, where the Easter markets were all set up. There were tons of adorable little stands selling souvenirs, traditional Czech food, and these beautiful hand-painted Easter eggs. From there we got breakfast at Bohemia Bagel. It was everything I dreamed of. A real bagel. It somehow tasted a million times better than any Italian pastry ever could at this point. Total comfort food. After obsessing over our bagels, we headed to the famous Charles Bridge. It was packed with tourists and street vendors, but it had an amazing view of both sides of the river including the Prague Castle. From the bridge, we ventured to the opposite side of the river to find the John Lennon wall. Apparently after he died, someone painted a huge picture of him on this wall. Ever since it's been painted over, but it has become the ideal spot for tourists like us to take cheesy pictures:

From there we hopped on the metro to Vysrehad to discover some of Virginia's insane family history in Prague. Her great great great Grandfather was the mayor of one of the sections of Prague, and a famous diplomat in the city. He's buried in a cemetery that is referred to as the "Who's Who" of important people in Prague. It was full of elaborate graves with really important looking people, and we were able to find her great great great Grandfather! Judging by his grave, he was a pretty important guy. The cemetery and church were next to a beautiful park with a view of the city, so we wandered around there and had another delicious Pilsner Urquell at a little restaurant. We headed back to the hostel to shower and regroup before going out to dinner. Happy again to be in a country with diverse cuisine, we skipped traditional zech for another homey comfort: Mexican. Not only did we eat at an amazingly authentic restaurant in a completely residential, tourist-free neighborhood, but I also got two frozen margaritas. In other words, I was in heaven. After dinner we decided to just go back to the Mosaic House to have a beer and listen to the band.

Day 2
We got up with intentions of taking a free tour, but it was too crowded and the guide was kind of annoying, so we adventured off on our own instead. We walked across the river and up to Prague Castle. We somehow managed to walk in backwards, and did the entire tour of the place in reverse order. We literally went in the exit and went out the entrance. After hiking up a fairly strenuous hill we found an incredible view from a mini-vineyard that overlooked the entire city:

We walked from there to the castle grounds where we visited three parts of the castle. The first was Katedrala sv. Vita, or St. Vitus's Cathedral. It was the most interesting church I've seen in Europe so far. It was obviously enormous, and was surrounded on both sides by these little alcoves, each with different stained glass windows. It was so beautiful. After the Cathedral, we visited inside the Old Royal Palace, and saw old government meeting rooms that we like to think V's great great great grandfather used to attend important meetings in. Lastly, we visited the small Basilica on the castle grounds which was much more Medieval. After exploring the castle we headed down the hill to the other Bohemia Bagel for lunch. They even had hummus. Too good to be true. After lunch we wandered the city a bit more and then took naps at the hostel so we could make it out that night. We also got to meet David, one of the owners of Mosaic House who we talked to for about an hour about Clemson and his life in Prague. He and his wife (high school sweethearts from South Carolina, aww) moved here five years ago and now they're having a baby in four weeks! They're even naming her a traditional Czech name since tehy have intentions of staying in Prague indefinitely. So cool. We ate dinner at the hotel bar and headed out for the night. We made best friends with a few of the hotel receptionists who knew us as "The South Carolina Girls," so our new friend Luis recommended a place called Harley's. We didn't even make the American connection to the name until we got there and found ourselves in a motorcycle-themed American bar that literally only played Queen and Journey. After a few cocktails we adventured down the street to find a place that David told us about. These were his only instructions: "It's a secret bar that was converted from a 2nd floor flat in an apartment building. You have to find white archways, go to the second floor, ring the bell, and wait until a light shines on you so they can look at you and decide if they want to let you in or not." We figured it was a long shot finding it, and even asked a few people on the street who had no idea what we were talking about. We eventually found white archways and wandered into a very sketchy looking courtyard in the pitch black. A man asked if we needed help and luckily he understood us when we awkwardly mumbled "we're looking for a secret bar?" He pointed us toward the stairwell and we luckily made it to the doorbell without getting killed. We then walked into the coolest bar I have ever seen in my life (and will probably ever see for the rest of my life). It was a gigantic old flat with a small bar, a big stage with a DJ, and a ton of trendy couches with trendy Czech people hanging out. Behind the DJ there was a projector screen with a slideshow of really whacky vintage photos, and they played all Czech music (including a Czech rendition of "Hit The Road Jack"). We didn't want to look like Americans so we couldn't take pictures, but I really wish there was a way to more vividly explain this place. It was unreal. We were casually chatting when I was awkwardly approached 8th grade dance style by a guy who said his friend wanted to dance with me. Considering there were no people on the dance floor, I suggested he bring his friend over. His response to this was bringing eight of his friends over. We were suddenly bombarded by two Portugese, one Italian, one Vietnamese, one Spaniard, one Irishman, and two others whose nationality I cannot remember. They all went to high school in Switzerland together, and one of them is doing his masters in Prague, so they all came to visit. They were quite the characters, and it took about 20 minutes until they got really creepy so we "went to the bathroom" and left for the night. Sorry boys.

Day 3
Happy Easter! We slept in and got free breakfast at our hotel from David (aw, Clemson family). Then we took the train to the church where Virginia's great grandparents were married. We were hoping to go to a full mass, but since we couldn't figure out the service times we showed up towards the end, right before communion. It was still cool to see the inside of this church. It was very traditional and was in a small, local neighborhood. It was fun to dodge the tourists for the day. From there we went back to a park down the street from our hostel and had a picnic with apples, pretzels, and granola bars. Everything in Prague is so cheap so we each stocked up on a lifetime supply of granola bars to get us through the next 20 days. After our picnic in the park we took the tram up to the famous Monastery at the top of Petrin Hill. Or so we thought. We found ourselves wandering through beautiful gardens, with a view of this beautiful church which we assumed was the monastery. We kept going "Wow, that monastery is so amazing" until we walked straight into a very familiar square. We were at Prague Castle. Again. We managed to walk in backwards. Again. We were staring at the exact same cathedral we toured the day earlier. Whoops. After laughing at ourselves for a good twenty minutes we finally found the monastery. The monastery was more like a huge estate with several buildings, and there were choir singers and organ players practicing for Easter Monday mass inside of this beautiful little church. We wandered through the gardens of the monastery stopping to bask in the sun every once in a while. There were amazing views from the top of Petrin hill. Prague is definitely a city of a million amazing views. From there we headed to a beer garden that David recommended. He said it's where Czechs hang out at least three or four times a week after work. It's basically this enormous park full of trees and picnic tables, overlooking the entire city of Prague. Not to mention, Pilsners are only 33 czk. That's not even 1.50 euro. Can I stay here forever? 

We were surrounded by Czechs drinking beer, playing guitar, and even smoking questionable substances in public. We felt pretty cool hanging out up there with all of the locals. After two beers we got pretty hungry, so we headed down to Old Town Square and ate a traditional Czech meal at a restaurant called Lokal. The waitress barely spoke English, and there was not a single other tourist in the place. The food was delicious. I had lemon chicken with spinach and mashed potatoes. Of course, accompanied with another yummy Czech beer.

Unfortunately, that was our last beer in Prague. We had to leave our hotel at 5:00 a.m. the next morning to make our flight in time, so we went to sleep and said goodbye to our new favorite city.

Until next time, Praha..