Prague

I am back from Prague already for two days and now I finally found the time to write here. After coming back on Monday night I was working on Tuesday on my thesis proposal and had a meeting with my supervisor. This morning I was working on it again and will sign up for my thesis tomorrow or on Friday; then it is official and I will have three months to hand the thesis in. So, no fooling around then!

Anyways, I went to Prague on Friday morning or rather in the middle of the night. I had to get up at 4 o'clock, had to leave the house at 4.30 to catch my train at 5 o'clock; the first of three trains that brought me to Frankfurt Airport. At the airport I met A., who came from Hamburg and we took the flight together to Prague.

In Prague we went to the hotel, but since it was so early - something like 10.30 a.m. - we could not check-in yet. We left our luggage and walked around the area. We bought some snacks and went down to the river to have an early lunch. On the way back we found a small cafe in a park, which most probably has the best coffee in Prague!

When we returned to the hotel we could check in and had a nap. After all we both had been getting up quite early and were tired from traveling. After something like two hours we got up, fixed ourselves and took the tram to the city.

We walked around the main squares and went over the Charles Bridge. On the other side of the river we turned away from the main tourist routes and walked the backstreets. We came along a small bridge with many locks on the rails and then to a wall with loads of graffiti. In the wall was a small entrance to a backyard, where we found a small local restaurant in which we had our dinner.

The next day we slept long, enjoyed the breakfast buffet and eventually took the tram to the city or rather the castle. We walked up the old castle stairs and were hit by the masses of tourists. We walked further, enjoyed the view from time to time, took some pictures and finally went into the castle.

The castle was way too full and over crowded by tourists and tour groups. Everything had an entrance fee and the line-ups were just insane. I could not really enjoy the beautiful buildings and the surrounding, it was simply too full. A. felt the same and so we decided to leave the castle.

We went down to the part of the city where all the embassies are and walked to the backside of the German Embassy. Back in 1989, when Germany was still divided in two parts, many Germans from the East went to Prague and climbed over the fence of the Embassy of West Germany; their hope was that they could leave Prague to West Germany and flee the political system in the East. As a reminder of this time a Czech artist has created a sculpture of a golden Trabbi with long legs, which is now located in the backyard of the embassy.

Anyways, the weather soon changed and we went for lunch and a beer in a restaurant close to the dancing building. The goulash-soup was good and I enjoyed sitting down; my legs and feet were hurting already a bit. 

We then walked around the city a bit more, went back to the hotel and used the vouchers for a welcome drink we hadn't used before. In the evening we went again to the city, had some cocktails and then went back to the hotel, when it started raining.

On Sunday morning it was still raining when we got up. So we did not hurry, had a relaxed breakfast and went to the city despite the rain. We walked into a cafe to have another morning coffee - the instant coffee in the hotel was not really good - and started to write postcards.

After the rain had stopped we walked around the city again - what else should you do during a city break ?! - and were trying to stay away from the tourist centers. We found a nice restaurant not far away from the center, which had reasonable prices and had lunch. While waiting for our food A. went on writing her cards.

In the afternoon we went to the hotel, A. had another coffee and we picked up our sparkling wine we had bought the day before. We also changed to summer clothes, since it had gotten quite warm after the rain had stopped. 

We took our sparkling wine and went up a hill opposite the city. We were walking around the park and were taking some pictures of the amazing view over the city. Then we found the spot with the best view over Prague, sat down and were enjoying our sparkling wine. 

In the evening we had our dinner in a traditional brew-house and were enjoying the atmosphere and the good music played by a concertina player. After the dinner we again walked around, sat on one of the islands and were having a beer.

The Monday morning we had our breakfast and packed our stuff. We checked out and left our luggage in the hotel. We visited the "yellow market", a market with loads of stands of Asian immigrants mostly selling counterfeit clothes and other things, mostly worthless rubbish. Anyways, I found a nice scarf and bought it.

 

We then were going back to the city and visited the Jewish quarter shortly, but again there were too many people and it was simply too full to enjoy it. We had lunch and slowly moved back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and headed to the airport.

All in all we had a great time in Prague and I am so thankful that A. and I got this trip from my parents for Christmas! I really like Prague and am happy that I was there again! We were walking a lot, we were eating a lot and we were drinking a little. Despite the short rainy period Saturday evening and Sunday morning we had awesome weather.

In the end we flew back to Frankfurt, A. went further to Hamburg and I took the train back to Bad Honnef. Now I am here, preparing the last things to write my thesis and will start writing it next week. I already have done some formal work and prepared the Word-document according to the requirements. Now I just have to sign up, write and hand it in... if it would only be "just" that ;-)

~M~