Prague – Part I

Guest post!!  This is Jimena writing instead of Alex

Yet again, we almost missed the flight from Barcelona. There was no actual running this time, but we showed up at the airport with very little time. Maybe next time we’ll be better at figuring out how long it takes to get to the airport.

After getting off the plane, we took a bus, a metro and a streetcar to get to our new hosts. So, almost every kind of transportation!

We finally figured out the bank issues. Before, we were changing cash dollars at the cash exchange places, and it was a huuuuuge pain. In Barcelona, we waited in line at the airport about 40 minutes to change into Euros. Later when we went to a bank to change money, we tried to change $40 into Euros, and they were going to charge a 5Euro commission without telling us!! That would have been like a 25% commission!!

So, finally, we have an ATM card that does not charge a fee, so we walked up to the machine, took out some money in Czech crowns and headed off to the bus!!

This is particularly wonderful because a LOT of tourists get scammed in Prague changing money, they put in a lot of extra fees ad change the rate without telling you.

On another bit of logistics, this is the first country where we don’t speak the language!! It’s quite an experience!

Trying to get “home” from the airport, we couldn’t figure out if we needed the tram going south or north, and we COULD NOT ASK! Very humbling. Thankfully we had the name of the stop written on paper so we walked up to a police officer, pointed at the paper, and made the international face of “I’m dumb, can you help?” He was very sweet and pointed at the right stop. Right there, we figured out that we need to have things written down, because we can’t even pronounce them.

We’ve been having a great time in Prague.

Our hosts, Asia (pronounced like AH-shah, not like AY-zha) and Adam have been great. They are really laid back, and have taken us to a couple of really cool bars. We got to try some great Czech food, meat with a sauce, and bread. Yummmm

It turned out that they could only host us for 2 nights (we’re here for 10), because they are traveling to Portugal this weekend. When they met us, they felt comfortable enough to allow us to stay in their apartment without them!! That is SO incredible!! It is wonderful that we don’t need to look for other hosts, or hostels, but the part that feels the best is that we won’t have to move for 10 whole days!! We’ve been changing “home” almost every 2-3 days, and it’s pretty exhausting to learn a new address, and lose half a day each time packing up all our stuff and carrying the heavy packs to the other side of the city this feels like a great luxury.

On our first full day in town, we went on a great tour of the city. We went to the main touristy plaza, Old Town Square, and met up with the guides that offer tours for tips.

We started out with the English tour, but the guide was pretty obnoxious, so we switched to the Spanish tour! Alex is still getting language practice, but understood most of it.

We had a great time with the guide, he was very knowledgeable, and told some great stories. I don’t usually like guided tours, but this was pretty great. We walked around for about 3.5 hours, and got to hear some great stories about some of the most important sites in old town. Maybe I do like tours after all!!

At the end of the day we came home, and went for a great beer with Adam and Asia.

Yesterday we headed out to walk the outskirts of the castle. We started in a little neighborhood called Mala Strana, and got to see some pretty streets. Most importantly, I found a lot of ceramic shops!! And some of them even let me take pictures!! Lots of new techniques to try out.

The sun came out, and I even got to take my sweater off!

We took a funicular up the hill into a pretty park called Petrin. Walked around, enjoyed the flowers that were being enjoyed by the bees, and walked over to the “miniature Eiffel tower”. Alex went up and enjoyed the view (I was not climbing 299 steps, but he was all gung ho… at least on the way up). Later we went to a cool mirror maze. Even though it was pretty short (you could get out in about 3 minutes) it was pretty neat! It made the room look huuuuuuuuuuuuuge, like a never-ending hall, even though it was small.

We walked down the park, feeling a little lost, and came out at a monastery. We were told that we’d come down the hill behind the castle, having great views of it, but we couldn’t see a thing! Tired, and hungry, we stopped at a store and bought salami and bread with exactly the LAST of our cash. Still walking around, still lost, not finding the things the guidebook promised, after a long while we found a nice park with a bench, and sat to eat our sandwiches. In front of us was a big gate, but really, in Europe, we’re just used to seeing fancy old buildings everywhere. Some fancy carriages riding around with horses, a guy playing one of my favorite tunes on a violin and it was a great travel moment. Then they started doing something at the gate, and it turns out we were staring at the entrance to the castle! And we got to see them changing the guards!!

As soon as we finished eating, the rain started. So, we took a look at the castle entrance, an headed off walking down the hill, on a pretty street. Headed home for some rest and quiet. And picture editing!!

And now, off to have some brunch with Asia, some castle touring, and a beer with another couchsurfer in the evening. Lovely!!

For the full set of photos from Prague – Part I, see here: http://alexjimenartw.shutterfly.com/pictures/569