2 Weeks in Prague
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May 3rd, 2009
I’m falling behind on the blog posts. I’ve been meaning to write about my trip to Prague for awhile now. A lot has already happened since I got back from Prague including moving into our new apartment in Zürich and flying to San Francisco, Seattle, and back to San Francisco again. More on those later, for now, here is my overdue writeup on Prague:
I love Prague. In a rather unexpected, last-minute trip, I spent two weeks in Prague, Czech Republic over the Easter holiday weekend and had a great time. Emily was with me for the first week, and I was on my own for the second week. Emily had been to Prague last year with work so she was already familiar with the city which made it a little easier to get around. Although it was surprisingly easy to get around anyway because it is so touristy and everyone speaks English (better English than they do in Zürich). Prague was much more touristy and westernized than I had expected. There is a very well defined tourist trail that runs through the city from the cathedral at the top of the hill down into the center of Old Town. But the good news is if you go just a block or two away from the main tourist strip, it is easy to find cheaper, less touristy places.
Even though Prague was quite touristy, I didn’t really feel like I was a tourist when I was there. In fact, we tried to avoid the crowds of tourists as much as possible. We didn’t go on any tours or feel a need to visit all of the “sites” of the city. Rather, we just relaxed and enjoyed being outside in the nice weather. It was a nice way to travel and a better way to see a city, in my opinion.
Two of the main reasons I enjoyed Prague so much were the perfect weather and the plethora of great parks. It was sunny and in the high 60s the whole time, and we found a new, beautiful park to explore almost every day. My favorite parks were Letna Park (on the hill across the river), the Senate gardens, the “secret garden” that Emily found with the peacocks, the Royal Gardens, and the parks just south of the Charles Bridge. My favorite spot in all of Prague was the beer garden overlooking the city in Letna Park; there is nothing like drinking good, cheap beer outdoors with a beautiful view. Highly recommended.
One other reason I liked Prague was because it was little more like being back at home in the USA: the stores were open late and on Sundays (even Easter Sunday!); prices were cheaper; English was more common; more international restaurants including good Mexican, bagels, and a Brazilian churrascaria. Those were some of the little things that we had been missing the last few months, so it was nice to get that little taste of home (although it did take some of the excitement away from our current trip back to the US).
We took a ton of pictures but haven’t gotten around to sorting through them and putting them online yet. Will update when they have been posted. Update: Pictures are on Flickr
