Prague. Prag. Praha.
However you say it, this city is alive and busy, busy, busy!
We did a two day stint in Prague (we can always go back. It's about a 2 hour drive from our home), but something tells me I need to see Pilsen and Karlovy Vary before returning.
I was told that Prague is comparable to Paris, or even Salzburg, Austria. After seeing the city for myself, I have decided that people are crazy, and confused.
The drive to Prague from Vilseck, Germany was faster than it seemed. I had been given a breakdown of all of Czech's road rules, where to stop for a vignette, and how to deal with driving along side street cars upon our arrival by our MP neighbor, which was super helpful.
We hit the border, which is about 30 minutes from our home, and shortly after the border, we stopped for the vignette at a large truck stop/ gas station.
*A vignette is a toll sticker that allows you to drive on Czech roads (some other countries use these too: Switzerland, Austria, etc,.). Without it, you can be pulled over and fined on the spot. It's their version of paid road tax, also referred to as 'tolls'.
I was slightly confused as to how it all worked, so we pulled into the parking lot, parked, and watched other folks.
Some cars were getting into a line on the other side of the building, as if it were an inspection of sorts, and some cars were pulling up near us; the owners getting out and going into the gas station.
I walked to the car line and asked the man in a reflective vest if we had to get in the car line, too. He spoke NO English, but luckily he spoke German. I understand enough German, so I was able to comprehend what he was saying. As for understanding Czech? Ha.
I can say "yes,", "no", "thank you", and "please".
He told me that I don't belong in the car line. I still haven't figured out who the line is for...
I went into the gas station, asked for the 10 day vignette, paid €16, and walked to the car with my shiny new sticker. It was then that I realized we needed a pen to write our car registration number on the stub that stays in the glove box. The only time I really need a pen and cannot find one. UGH.
I asked a nice Asian couple (spoke very little English) to borrow their's, wrote down my number, and then needed to figure out where the dumb sticker goes. Thank goodness there are instructions on the backside. We put our sticker on the window (bottom passenger side), crossed our fingers that we did it right, and were on our way.
*Random piece of info: That gas stop is like party central. The entire time we were there, rave music blared, and young people were everywhere. T'was odd. Like a parking lot party!
1) There's a crazy flea market next to it (we've heard it's year round)
2) When we left this gas station, the Czech police stopped us before getting back on the auto route. They were inspecting vignettes to make sure they existed and were not expired. We passed the test. Guess I put the vignette on correctly!
After 1.5 more hours of driving, we had arrived in Prague!
We parked, checked in to our apartment hotel, and scoped out our temporary digs.
The apartment was pretty nice and modern; very clean.
It had two large bedrooms with the standard 'king' size bed in each (A 'king' size in Europe means two twin beds pushed together), and then a separate twin in each room as well.
There was also a shower/sink combo room, a toilet room, and a common kitchen/dining area.
The apartment, overall, is one of the biggest we've stayed in. Too bad we didn't spend much time in it. The name, for reference is: Alea Apartment House. It's a bit out of the city center, but arriving by car means that we couldn't stay in the downtown area (our car generally doesn't fit in urban city garages).
**Rewind: The night before we left our house, our apartment hotel sent me an email, notifying us that the main road in front of the hotel was closed off with construction. They attached a map to help us navigate around it, and also included a parking area. Without this, we would've been lost because our GPS didn't warn us of construction once we were in the area!
100 USD or Euro can likely get you a hotel room.
100 CZK can maybe get you a sandwich, or a bottle of water.
**Before we left our house, I traded some Euro for Koruna with a neighbor. She's from Slovakia, so she understands everything in Czech. She had given me some advice, and 900 crowns; some of it bills, some of it change. The change is kind of what confused me. Maybe because I'm so used to Euro now?
Let's talk MONEY!
The difference between Koruna (crown: CZK) and dollars or Euro:
CZK coin change isn't the same as Euro or USD change. It comes in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 & 50. But their coin change is paid out in conjunction to the bills, rather than being separate from the bills.
For instance, in the US or EU, if your total is $16.75 or €16.75, you can give the full dollar amount of $16 (or Euro, respectively) and then the .75 in change to complete the total.
*For people who haven't been to an EU country yet, the Euro is a lot like the USD. The only big difference I had to get used to is that Euro has a €1 and a €2 coin, that's used just like a Susan B. Anthony dollar coin.
In Czech, you don't see a decimal system, per se:
If the total is 745, you give them the 700 in bills and the coin change at 45, which equals the total of 745.
If the total is just 45, you can pay with coins, not 45 in bills.
Also note that it is wise to keep a currency app handy.
Before I went to the ATM, I looked up the conversion of $100 USD to see what it'd equal in CZK. It's about 2,500 CZK.
The ATMs give you random denominations to choose from: Anything from 40,000CZK+ to 1,000CZK. It's important to pay attention to the amount of zeros when choosing how much to withdraw.
I only wanted 2,500 (I don't like to carry a bunch of cash), but there was a 25,000 option I almost chose! That's almost $1,000 USD. Yikes.
Anyway, the meal wasn't bad, and in total for six people was 847 CZK, which is about $33.00. It was really weird to hand over a 1000 CZK bill to pay for a meal, but my first Czech transaction went okay!
There are ton of restaurants, souvenir shops, and cafes through the side streets around Old Town Square. We also found a Hooters, and a Hard Rock Cafe, too.
As soon as we set foot in the square, we approached the Astronomical Clock (Prague orloj), and duh, I stopped to take pictures. I was super grateful I had brought my 18-300mm lens on this day. Lately I have been ditching it, because it's heavy, but getting nice, detailed, close up shots of the clock made carrying my 300mm beast worth it!
We walked around the square, snapping pictures of randoms, and taking in the architecture and atmosphere, and then walked back to the clock. My husband nearly had a heart attack scoping out 'suspicious' folks that were near by.
You can always tell when people are up to no good because they eyeball the shit out of you.
I handed my camera to my daughter to get a picture of my husband and I with the clock, and then my husband got weird, and said "Let's move". My daughter got the photo, but he looks bugged eyed crazy in it.
Later, he told me that a small group of guys to the right of us were making hand signals to another small group of guys standing behind my daughter. Apparently they were pointing at her (or the camera), and made a head nod, as if to say, "snatch and run". We've seen these things play out in Paris to other people, so I can say you should be on guard, at all times.Whether that's what the guys were up to or not, I don't know, but I am glad I didn't find out the hard way.
Wandering around, I found my way back to the clock again, hoping to get a normal, less bug-eyed photo of us! We did.
After roaming the square some more, we set foot to find Charles bridge, which wasn't far. We decided to avoid the shopping streets, and went down Platnerska Street instead. Not much going on there. Some neat buildings, and statues, but otherwise quiet.
We took at left at the end and hit Charles Bridge (Karlův Most). Swarms of folks, everywhere! Though, I expected no less.
The bridge is beautiful, and often compared to Pont Alexandre in Paris.
Nope.
In my opinion, the two bridges are incomparable, and very different. You'd have to see both to form your own opinion!
All. Uphill. Sigh.
But once you make it up, you are rewarded with spectacular views of the city! Oh, and there's a Starbucks stand up there to quench your thirst, if need be.
We walked around parts of the castle, which is WAY different than you imagine a castle to be. Prague's castle is made up of numerous buildings in a complex like setting, rather than one large standing building. The Prague castle, in my opinion, is more like fortresses I have visited before. To me, this one was 'architecturally uninteresting'. The only interesting element of the area is the St. Vitus cathedral.
After walking around all sides of the cathedral, we followed the path near the western facade that leads out of the castle complex and then down to the river. At the water sits a lovely little area where swans had gathered, and tourists and locals sat feeding them. There, I found a picturesque view of Charles Bridge, waterfowl included.
A small group of Koreans showed up and started talking to my kids. The more outspoken guy went on and on; gushing about our beautiful family, our pretty children. Not in a creepy way, more so very curious and excited. I asked where he was from, and he told me, but all I caught was "Korea". After a few minutes, more of his pals showed up, and with their broken English, they asked to take pictures with our kids, us, and even the whole family. A few of the older ladies in the group were patting and rubbing the tops of my kids' heads, and petting their hair. One younger teenage girl was super excited to get selfies with my son, as if he was a Backstreet Boy or something. I even took a few seflies with them, and they thanked us, gave the kids gum, and were on their way.
I have figured out why Asians love our family after meeting our Asian friends in Paris and later in Dresden: We all have blonde hair. Natural blonde hair is rare in Korea, and Asia in general, but our children are all naturally blonde, and for a foreigner to see that (combined with the television image of an American family) for the first time must be a huge deal.
He says to us "Uhhhhhhh", shrugs, and then says "I not understand".
We replied politely and slowly "Onion rings". And he says "No. No rings"
We ask for a menu, and realized that the menu we saw out front on the street differs than the menu in the pub. We then ask for french fries. By the time the fries were done, everyone had left except for us! I felt terrible, asked for take-away boxes (in Europe you are more likely to hear the term "take-away" than "to-go"), payed our bill, and headed back across the street to the apartment. I really wish we had arrived earlier so we could've enjoyed the pub longer, but maybe next time.
NOTE:
When you ask someone in a non-English speaking country if they speak English, you'll get a "yes" or a "no".
The people who say "no" are generally the people who speak English really well.
The people who say "yes" are generally lost on the language, and only know small basic fragments of it.
The waiter at the pub was a "yes" in the English department!
However you say it, this city is alive and busy, busy, busy!
We did a two day stint in Prague (we can always go back. It's about a 2 hour drive from our home), but something tells me I need to see Pilsen and Karlovy Vary before returning.
I was told that Prague is comparable to Paris, or even Salzburg, Austria. After seeing the city for myself, I have decided that people are crazy, and confused.
We hit the border, which is about 30 minutes from our home, and shortly after the border, we stopped for the vignette at a large truck stop/ gas station.
*A vignette is a toll sticker that allows you to drive on Czech roads (some other countries use these too: Switzerland, Austria, etc,.). Without it, you can be pulled over and fined on the spot. It's their version of paid road tax, also referred to as 'tolls'.
I was slightly confused as to how it all worked, so we pulled into the parking lot, parked, and watched other folks.
Some cars were getting into a line on the other side of the building, as if it were an inspection of sorts, and some cars were pulling up near us; the owners getting out and going into the gas station.
I walked to the car line and asked the man in a reflective vest if we had to get in the car line, too. He spoke NO English, but luckily he spoke German. I understand enough German, so I was able to comprehend what he was saying. As for understanding Czech? Ha.
I can say "yes,", "no", "thank you", and "please".
He told me that I don't belong in the car line. I still haven't figured out who the line is for...
I went into the gas station, asked for the 10 day vignette, paid €16, and walked to the car with my shiny new sticker. It was then that I realized we needed a pen to write our car registration number on the stub that stays in the glove box. The only time I really need a pen and cannot find one. UGH.
I asked a nice Asian couple (spoke very little English) to borrow their's, wrote down my number, and then needed to figure out where the dumb sticker goes. Thank goodness there are instructions on the backside. We put our sticker on the window (bottom passenger side), crossed our fingers that we did it right, and were on our way.
*Random piece of info: That gas stop is like party central. The entire time we were there, rave music blared, and young people were everywhere. T'was odd. Like a parking lot party!
 |
| New sticker on the windshield. Woot. |
We stopped again to use the WC at a Shell station a few miles up (I saw the toilet line at 'Party Central' and decided to wait).
I mention this stop for two reasons: 1) There's a crazy flea market next to it (we've heard it's year round)
2) When we left this gas station, the Czech police stopped us before getting back on the auto route. They were inspecting vignettes to make sure they existed and were not expired. We passed the test. Guess I put the vignette on correctly!
After 1.5 more hours of driving, we had arrived in Prague!
We parked, checked in to our apartment hotel, and scoped out our temporary digs.
The apartment was pretty nice and modern; very clean.
It had two large bedrooms with the standard 'king' size bed in each (A 'king' size in Europe means two twin beds pushed together), and then a separate twin in each room as well.
There was also a shower/sink combo room, a toilet room, and a common kitchen/dining area.
The apartment, overall, is one of the biggest we've stayed in. Too bad we didn't spend much time in it. The name, for reference is: Alea Apartment House. It's a bit out of the city center, but arriving by car means that we couldn't stay in the downtown area (our car generally doesn't fit in urban city garages).
**Rewind: The night before we left our house, our apartment hotel sent me an email, notifying us that the main road in front of the hotel was closed off with construction. They attached a map to help us navigate around it, and also included a parking area. Without this, we would've been lost because our GPS didn't warn us of construction once we were in the area!
 |
| Construction in front of the hotel. YIKES. Glad they sent the detour email! |
After cleaning ourselves up a bit, we set forth to the city center of Prague from the area of Praha 4. The walk along the river is spectacular, and because I study maps before going anywhere, I knew that following the river meant we wouldn't get lost to and fro.
We knew we were at the city center when the sidewalks were packed with people!
I found an ATM in a strange 'tourist' tunnel that reminded me of Las Vegas, pulled out some Czech Koruna (crown) and found a Doner Kebob place across the street. Decently cheap meal, but my first time paying with CZK was interesting. It's a bit different than the USD or the Euro. 100 USD or Euro can likely get you a hotel room.
100 CZK can maybe get you a sandwich, or a bottle of water.
**Before we left our house, I traded some Euro for Koruna with a neighbor. She's from Slovakia, so she understands everything in Czech. She had given me some advice, and 900 crowns; some of it bills, some of it change. The change is kind of what confused me. Maybe because I'm so used to Euro now?
Let's talk MONEY!
The difference between Koruna (crown: CZK) and dollars or Euro:
CZK coin change isn't the same as Euro or USD change. It comes in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 & 50. But their coin change is paid out in conjunction to the bills, rather than being separate from the bills.
For instance, in the US or EU, if your total is $16.75 or €16.75, you can give the full dollar amount of $16 (or Euro, respectively) and then the .75 in change to complete the total.
*For people who haven't been to an EU country yet, the Euro is a lot like the USD. The only big difference I had to get used to is that Euro has a €1 and a €2 coin, that's used just like a Susan B. Anthony dollar coin.
In Czech, you don't see a decimal system, per se:
If the total is 745, you give them the 700 in bills and the coin change at 45, which equals the total of 745.
If the total is just 45, you can pay with coins, not 45 in bills.
Also note that it is wise to keep a currency app handy.
Before I went to the ATM, I looked up the conversion of $100 USD to see what it'd equal in CZK. It's about 2,500 CZK.
The ATMs give you random denominations to choose from: Anything from 40,000CZK+ to 1,000CZK. It's important to pay attention to the amount of zeros when choosing how much to withdraw.
I only wanted 2,500 (I don't like to carry a bunch of cash), but there was a 25,000 option I almost chose! That's almost $1,000 USD. Yikes.
Anyway, the meal wasn't bad, and in total for six people was 847 CZK, which is about $33.00. It was really weird to hand over a 1000 CZK bill to pay for a meal, but my first Czech transaction went okay!
 |
| Oh hey! It's a 'night gym'. Hahaha. |
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| The husband got a pic of me stuffing my face. You're welcome |
After eating, we followed the heard of people going towards [what I could only imagine was] the Old Town Square. Again, studying maps and key points of interest before hand comes in super handy. I always knew the general vicinity of where I was while in Prague because of knowing those key places off the top of my head.
There are ton of restaurants, souvenir shops, and cafes through the side streets around Old Town Square. We also found a Hooters, and a Hard Rock Cafe, too.
As soon as we set foot in the square, we approached the Astronomical Clock (Prague orloj), and duh, I stopped to take pictures. I was super grateful I had brought my 18-300mm lens on this day. Lately I have been ditching it, because it's heavy, but getting nice, detailed, close up shots of the clock made carrying my 300mm beast worth it!
We walked around the square, snapping pictures of randoms, and taking in the architecture and atmosphere, and then walked back to the clock. My husband nearly had a heart attack scoping out 'suspicious' folks that were near by.
You can always tell when people are up to no good because they eyeball the shit out of you.
I handed my camera to my daughter to get a picture of my husband and I with the clock, and then my husband got weird, and said "Let's move". My daughter got the photo, but he looks bugged eyed crazy in it.
Later, he told me that a small group of guys to the right of us were making hand signals to another small group of guys standing behind my daughter. Apparently they were pointing at her (or the camera), and made a head nod, as if to say, "snatch and run". We've seen these things play out in Paris to other people, so I can say you should be on guard, at all times.
Wandering around, I found my way back to the clock again, hoping to get a normal, less bug-eyed photo of us! We did.
We took at left at the end and hit Charles Bridge (Karlův Most). Swarms of folks, everywhere! Though, I expected no less.
The bridge is beautiful, and often compared to Pont Alexandre in Paris.
Nope.
In my opinion, the two bridges are incomparable, and very different. You'd have to see both to form your own opinion!
We slowly walked the bridge, and headed into the direction of the Prague Castle. You can see the castle area by finding the huge cathedral (St. Vitus) on a hill that overlooks the city (lots of people get confused by St Vitus, and actually think it IS the castle. Now you know).
By this time, it was about 5pm, and I wanted to insure that we'd have ample time to get back to Charles Bridge by sunset. I had photo plans with the bridge at sunset!
Walking through the streets below Prague's castle is tiring. All. Uphill. Sigh.
But once you make it up, you are rewarded with spectacular views of the city! Oh, and there's a Starbucks stand up there to quench your thirst, if need be.
We walked around parts of the castle, which is WAY different than you imagine a castle to be. Prague's castle is made up of numerous buildings in a complex like setting, rather than one large standing building. The Prague castle, in my opinion, is more like fortresses I have visited before. To me, this one was 'architecturally uninteresting'. The only interesting element of the area is the St. Vitus cathedral.
By the time we made it up to St. Vitus, the cathedral had closed for visiting hours. I have seen photos of the interior, and in all honesty, the inside doesn't look like anything I have never seen before. BUT, the exterior is really something to marvel at, and is one of a kind.
This Gothic cathedral is massive, and so intricately detailed; it rivals no other around Prague. You have to see it for yourself!  |
| Prague Castle guard |
From the river, we found our way back up to Charles Bridge, and crossed it. We sat outside of the Muzeum Karlova while tapping our toes; waiting for the sun to go down, and for the bridge lights to come on. To kill time, we popped into the weird 'Las Vegas' tunnel (I don't know the official name for this tunnel, but it's where the much talked about Ice Pub is) and bought some ice cream. Took our cones back outside and enjoyed them while waiting for the sun to drop.
During the wait, more and more people started flocking to the bridge. Apparently I wasn't the only one with the grand idea of capturing the sunset that day. I didn't think I would be, but I didn't expect to have (what seemed like) every tourist in Prague head that way.
During the wait, more and more people started flocking to the bridge. Apparently I wasn't the only one with the grand idea of capturing the sunset that day. I didn't think I would be, but I didn't expect to have (what seemed like) every tourist in Prague head that way.
A small group of Koreans showed up and started talking to my kids. The more outspoken guy went on and on; gushing about our beautiful family, our pretty children. Not in a creepy way, more so very curious and excited. I asked where he was from, and he told me, but all I caught was "Korea". After a few minutes, more of his pals showed up, and with their broken English, they asked to take pictures with our kids, us, and even the whole family. A few of the older ladies in the group were patting and rubbing the tops of my kids' heads, and petting their hair. One younger teenage girl was super excited to get selfies with my son, as if he was a Backstreet Boy or something. I even took a few seflies with them, and they thanked us, gave the kids gum, and were on their way.
I have figured out why Asians love our family after meeting our Asian friends in Paris and later in Dresden: We all have blonde hair. Natural blonde hair is rare in Korea, and Asia in general, but our children are all naturally blonde, and for a foreigner to see that (combined with the television image of an American family) for the first time must be a huge deal.
They were super nice people (probably the nicest folks in Prague), and my husband joked around after the fact that we should've asked to tour around with them.
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| A marionette shop near the bridge |
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| Souvenirs in the 'Vegas' tunnel near Charles bridge |
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| Ice cream helped keep the kids occupied while I waited for the sunset! |
Finally, the sun was dropping! I slid my way through the crowd, and got a few shots. Walked back to my family, waited a bit, then did it again. This continued for the next half hour. Sunsets change within the blink of an eye, and I didn't want to miss any parts of it. Once the bridge lights came on (around 21:00/ 9:00pm), I slithered my way through that crowd and snapped a few pictures. I was now satisfied, and absolutely happy that I got the shots I had coveted.
We started making our way back up the river toward the hotel. I stopped every 50 feet to capture a few photos of St Vitus with Charles Bridge in scene. I actually love these unplanned shots more than the shots I sat around waiting for. Night photography is NOT my forte, but I am still learning, and I LOVE the challenge.
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| My favorite shot of the entire day! |
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| Street repairs at 10:30pm |
By the time we got back to the apartment, we were famished, thirsty, and tired. It was about 23:00/11:pm, and we noticed the little restaurant/pub across the street was still open. We walked over and checked out the menu on the wall. I saw onion rings and needed no further enticing. A man popped out of the street entrance in business clothes ( we assumed he was the manager) and greeted us. He mentioned that in the back of the main restaurant they had a pub lounge area that had live music, food, and beer. We asked if it was kid friendly, he shrugged as if to say "I guess tonight it can be", and we headed toward the back through a side garden entrance.
The restaurant was crawling with locals. Not a single tourist to be found. The musicians had just finished a set, and we were seated at a table while some of the locals called it a night and shuffled out. A few tables were still occupied, but not many. A waiter came to our table, we asked if he spoke English, he said "Yes", and without looking at the menu, we ordered onion rings, water for the kids and two Pilsner beers for the husband and I. After 20 minutes, we started to wonder where the onion rings were. I asked the waiter when he came by the table, and he looked at me with the most puzzled facial expression I have ever seen anyone wear.
The restaurant was crawling with locals. Not a single tourist to be found. The musicians had just finished a set, and we were seated at a table while some of the locals called it a night and shuffled out. A few tables were still occupied, but not many. A waiter came to our table, we asked if he spoke English, he said "Yes", and without looking at the menu, we ordered onion rings, water for the kids and two Pilsner beers for the husband and I. After 20 minutes, we started to wonder where the onion rings were. I asked the waiter when he came by the table, and he looked at me with the most puzzled facial expression I have ever seen anyone wear.
He says to us "Uhhhhhhh", shrugs, and then says "I not understand".
We replied politely and slowly "Onion rings". And he says "No. No rings"
We ask for a menu, and realized that the menu we saw out front on the street differs than the menu in the pub. We then ask for french fries. By the time the fries were done, everyone had left except for us! I felt terrible, asked for take-away boxes (in Europe you are more likely to hear the term "take-away" than "to-go"), payed our bill, and headed back across the street to the apartment. I really wish we had arrived earlier so we could've enjoyed the pub longer, but maybe next time.
NOTE:
When you ask someone in a non-English speaking country if they speak English, you'll get a "yes" or a "no".
The people who say "no" are generally the people who speak English really well.
The people who say "yes" are generally lost on the language, and only know small basic fragments of it.
The waiter at the pub was a "yes" in the English department!
We polished off the rest of the fries in the apartment, and settled in for the night. I was indecisive about our plans for the next day, so before dozing off, I told the husband we'd play it by ear.
Then to sleep we went.
Next Post: Day Two in Prague
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