Erin: Day 8: Prague, Czech Republic

The plan was to wake up nice and early and head to the Prague Castle but that didn’t quite happen…  Instead, we slept until around 11am and when we finally got up, had only an hour before having to check out of the hotel room.  So, we showered, packed up and checked out of the hotel room.  Leaving our bags with the concierge, we headed into the beautiful, 18 degree weather (Celsius for those wondering!) and to the Amstel metro station.

It was a short metro ride to Mustek where we switched trains and headed toward Hrandajic station.  We got out and made our way to the Prague Castle entrance.  It`s not easy navigating maps when you’re in a country like the Czech Republic.  The reason is because the signs here are not in English at all – and I don`t just mean the street signs.  There are touristy signs that point you in the right direction of the touristy spots and in most other cities, they are English.  Here, they are written solely in Czech which makes it very difficult to follow them.

In any case, we found the Prague Castle entrance and looking up, realized it was a bit of a hike to the top…  So, we put our head down and started walking up the hill (mountain?)  Along the way, we realized something of great importance…  To our left-hand side was an amazing view of the Prague skyline.  Up until this point, if I’m being honest, other than the one beautiful spot in Prague, I didn’t find myself too impressed…  In fact, I couldn’t wait to get out of the city.  Now, seeing the panoramic view of the city and seeing it’s grandeur was totally impressive and I realized why it made its way onto our travel map.

View from the Prague Castle.

View from the Prague Castle.

Once we got to the top, we stopped in at a cafe to have a quick coffee and rest our weary legs.  It’s hard work being both a backpacker and now a mountain (hill?) climber!  We headed back out into the beautiful Prague sunshine and wandered around the Prague Castle grounds.  Now, let me tell you about the Prague Castle…  It’s not your typical castle.  This isn’t just one building with some gardens, etc. this is an entire village.  It has your typical castle like walls but it houses a palace, two churches, gardens and many other buildings.  I’ll link to the history of the Prague Castle so you can read more but it’s simply stunning.

Prague Castle interior.

Our first stop after buying a ticket was to St. George’s Basilica.  This is a smaller church on the grounds that has amazing ceilings painted in the 16th century.  The church itself is smaller than I expected inside but it still holds such beauty and depth.  The Gothic age that was present when the Prague Castle was built is definitely present here.  The detail and richness is present while there is still an overall feeling of masculinity and strength.

St. George’s Basilica

Our second stop was to the Royal Palace and it was beautiful.  The first room you walk into is this gorgeous banquet hall.  The ceilings and walls were my favourite part.  The stone is carved into these curvy lines and they interweave one another like nothing I’ve ever seen.  There are gorgeous, black Gothic chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and the floors are made of gorgeous wood – original and still in fabulous condition.

Inside of the Royal Palace, you will also find other interesting rooms.  There is a chapel, the throne room and a few other rooms that didn’t contain much except some period furniture and period clothing.  It was still amazing to walk through there.  This castle reminded me a lot of the Boleyn time whereas the previous castle we saw was very Queen Elizabeth-esque.  I know those both aren’t appropriate terms to describe eras but you gotta work with what you know!

Outside of the Royal Palace, we then made our way to the St. Visus Cathedral and stood in the really, really long line-up.  This is one of “the” things to see when you come to Prague I suppose and you can tell – people really were excited to get inside and explore.  Standing in line, we were actually behind two other young women who were traveling.  They had out their Europe?  Let’s Go! book and they were talking about Austria… Maybe they too were headed there next!  Outside of the Church, you can begin to take in its Gothic gloriousness as you glance up toward the sky…  The view is just breathtaking.

Beautiful Gothic Church inside of Prague Castle.

Inside, you walk into the main area of the Church and are met with a beautiful altar with the most splendid stained glass set in behind it.  It’s really a lot to take in so you just have to stand there for a moment and really, do a 360 turn to see it all.  Along both the left and right hand side of the Church, there are little compartments and inside each compartment is an altar, more than likely for a particular upper class family or for a member of the Church, and more beautiful stained glass.  Each set of stained glass tells a story and it’s impressive to just stand back and take each one in.

Although most of the vaults were closed due to “technical difficulties”, the Church itself was worth the fifteen minute wait.  It was gorgeous.  One neat thing that happened when we were there was one group of people that were in a tour started singing a beautiful song in a different language.  They all just started, sang their song (which echoed so beautifully through the Church that I had to stop and listen… and of course, it almost brought me to tears) and then moved on like nothing magical just happened.

Outside of the Church, we headed out of the Prague Castle grounds and back toward the metro station.  Before we did that, we went toward the river so we could get a view of the city from the water and a view of St. Charles’ bridge.  Snapping a few shots and taking in the water was a nice break after the long, downhill climb we did.

View of the water and across the river near Prague Castle.

The story after Prague Castle is not as exciting…  We hopped on the metro (we were pros now), went to our hotel, had a quick bite to eat (I had lasagna and Trina had penne pasta – much better than the previous night’s dinner) and then it was backpack time!  We headed back to the metro (you do a lot of back and forth traveling when you’ve got a backpack as you want as little time carrying it as possible!), to the rail station and then to the platform for our train.

Now, here I am sitting on the train to Austria, Vienna.  It’s dark as the sun has set already and we’re on a train that has mini-compartments.  We’re sitting in one with a guy who speaks English, he’s young – probably around my age – and he’s sleeping.  Otherwise, it’s just Trina and I and while I type away on my computer, logging in the day’s activities, she’s reading the book I recommended to her – The Alchemist.

She’s reading me some of her favourite quotes as she reads and I can’t help but stop, in this moment, to realize how amazing it is to be able to look out the window, into the dark night, and know that on this Saturday I am traveling between the Czech Republic and Austria.  Both were unknown to me before and one still is but I am blessed to have this opportunity and I am certainly not taking that for granted.

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