Prague – My favorite place

The capital city of Czech Republic was part of my 30th birthday trip to Europe and it was not on our original itinerary. After looking at travel plans that others have posted online, I began looking at Prague a little more. The more and more I did research, the more excited I became. Also, it didn’t hurt that the Santo Niño could be visited here. With that piece, it didn’t take much to convince my parents to add Prague to our list.

Our time in Prague was from September 20 - 22 with an average temperature in the mid-60s. Basically your typical fall weather, which was definitely a plus since all we really needed was a light jacket and a scarf.

Currency: 1 USD = 25.25 krona

Flight: We flew Eurowings from Krakow, Poland. There was a 3-hour stop in Dusseldorf, Germany for a total travel time of 6.5 hours. It was about $120/pp. There weren't any complaints about the flights, so I wouldn't mind flying with them again.

AirBnb: We ended up staying in an AirBnb in Prague. It was a 2 bedroom apartment located in Old Prague. It was a super cozy apartment within a 15-20 minute walk from everything that we had planned to see. There is an elevator to get to the apartment. Otherwise, there was a staircase with about 15 steps that you had to climb.

Transportation: Prague isn’t that big of a city so we walked pretty much everywhere except from the Airport to our AirBnb, which was only a short UBER ride away.

The first morning we were there, my brother and I wanted to check out the famous Charles Bridge before it got too crowded. We woke up before dawn and took a short 10-minute walk to the bridge. Once we got there, there were probably about 30-40 people walking on the bridge already, but due to how long the bridge was, it wasn’t crowded at all. The view of the city from the bridge was gorgeous. Walking toward the bridge you can see the famous red roof buildings and on the other side, atop the hill, you could see Prague Castle. Because we got to the bridge so early and there weren’t so many people on it, you could see from one end to the other and walk back and forth without any trouble. I didn’t realize how long the bridge truly was. I’m just glad we were able to walk the bridge freely without running into people. We stayed until the sun rose, and by that time, the other tourists started to come so my brother and I headed back to the AirBnB.

Our first stop was to find the Santo Niño at the Church of Our Lady Victorious in Malá Strana, which was just on the other side of the bridge. By this time, the bridge was super packed already so navigating through the crowds was a bit of a pain. It was a good thing my brother and I got up early to get our pictures because it would have definitely been harder to get pictures without random people in the background.

So to be honest, I didn’t really get what the big deal was about the Santo Niño, but apparently, it’s a big deal for Filipino Catholics. I will say... from outside some of the Catholic churches that we came across, they all just seemed pretty normal. There wasn’t a lot of detail to the facade of the buildings or anything. There was nothing too fancy about them, but once you stepped inside... man, was my mind blown! You walk in and you see these grand fixtures holding up photos and statues covered in gold and marble. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing inside the church since it was so different from the outside. If you didn’t know it was there, you would probably miss it simply due to the fact that the fixture is so massive compared to the foot tall Santo Niño.

After the church, we walked a few minutes and came across the John Lennon wall. There were many people trying to take pictures but also artists there sharing thoughts on the wall or putting their spin on some Beatles’ songs. On the wall, you can see love poems, artwork, as well as tributes to various causes. During the time we were there, the protests in Hong Kong were taking place so you could see some tributes to them on the wall. The graffiti on the wall was something special.

As we were walking we found a pop-up stand selling trdelniks, a popular dessert. It caught my attention because it smelled like a fresh bakery, but it was just a little stand. At first glance, it just looked like some bread spinning on top of a wood-burning fire. I thought eh, why not let's try it. Well, I ordered it plain and by the time it reached my hand it was covered in cinnamon and sugar. It reminded me of the smell of churros from Disneyland, but as soon as I tried a piece, the texture didn’t even compare. Since it was cooked in the shape of a hollow cup, when tearing a piece off, the food came apart like a spiral. It was super thin and was crispy on both sides. The only downfall was that it was not very big, so it didn’t last very long. It was by far my favorite dessert I had during this trip.

With some food in our stomachs, we took the climb up to the Wenceslas Castle a.k.a Prague Castle. In order to get up to the castle, we had to walk up some stairs. It was about 6 floors at a gradual incline so it wasn’t too bad. The view of the city going up the stairs definitely made it worth it and made me want to get to the top that much sooner. Once at the top, the view overlooking the city was to die for. Even though it was all buildings, it didn’t take away from the beauty of the city. Walking around all day the city didn’t seem that big, but when viewing from the top, the city seemed bigger than usual. At the top of the staircase was the castle and St. Vitus Cathedral.

There was a little farmers market in front of the castle that sold different types of foods and drinks. We ended up purchasing a schnitzel with sauerkraut and then, of course, completed it with a Pilsner. I’m not too much of a beer drinker, but the beer here in Prague was so light and so good.

After our lunch, we walked over to St. Vitus Cathedral. The outside of the cathedral was definitely a little grander than the previous church we had gone to but after all, this was a cathedral. The gothic style architecture is something that I didn’t know anything about previously. The first thing that caught my eye as we walked up was the circular window in the middle of the entrance. The detail in that alone was mesmerizing. I just knew after seeing how much detail was on the outside of a building that the inside would have to match, if not exceed it. As soon as I stepped into the cathedral I was speechless. The center aisle seemed to just go on. The big windows on each side of the church let the sunlight radiate through.

The walls of the cathedral were separated into sections with each section having its own stained glass design. The colors of the glass were very vibrant with the sun passing through. I couldn’t get over how lifelike the images looked. As we continued walking through the church, the detail of the inside exceeded that of the outside. I just couldn’t get over the fact that this was a church and how much time and precision had to go into building something this magnificent. The Wenceslas Chapel was the only part that was closed to visitors. You can see inside the room through an open doorway, but you aren’t able to walk in. The first wall across from the open door was something spectacular. You can see hand-painted images from the floor to the ceiling. It's no wonder they don’t let people into the room...just seeing that wall I was left in awe.

The second day we spent walking around Old Prague. Here we walked to go see the Astronomical Clock Tower. I guess this was the major tourist attraction besides the bridge because it was so crowded. Every hour the clock has a show of “The March of the Apostles”. It was pretty underwhelming if you ask me, but the clock itself was pretty cool to look at. You can actually walk up to the top of the clock tower, which my brother and I did. This was probably my favorite view of the entire trip.

In order to get to the top, there was a one-way spiral staircase. The view from the top was amazing. It was overlooking the crowd below as well as Old Prague. From the top, the number of buildings surrounding the clock tower seems to be never-ending. Everything came together all by itself. Nothing seemed to be out of place or as if it didn’t belong. In the distance, you could also see the Prague castle.

I could have stayed up there just staring out at the horizon all day. Even though we were in the capital city, it didn’t seem like we were in one. There weren’t many cars driving around and the city wasn’t busy, other than the tourists. Most people were walking around and it all contributed to a small, cozy city feel. After this, we decided to do a boat water tour which lasted for about 45 minutes. It wasn’t anything too grand, but it was a cool experience. It pretty much pointed out all the places we had visited on foot but instead with a tour guide. There were snacks and drinks (of course beer!) on the boat. The tour guide didn’t really tell us anything new, but it was really nice to just be on a boat having a beer while traveling under the Charles Bridge. Not a lot of people can say they’ve done that!

On the way back to our AirBnb we stopped by a small cookie shop, Perníčkův sen, which I had found online that was known for their gingerbread cookies. I'm not a fan of gingerbread cookies but these were pretty tasty. They weren't too cinnamony and not too hard. The ones I got were filled with Nutella and anything seems to be much better with Nutella. They also had these heart-shaped cookies with a raspberry filling which were beyond delicious. I actually had to go back twice because I wanted to get more! The cookie itself was super light and not sweet. It was more of a shortbread cookie rather than a gingerbread cookie. The raspberry filling was a nice addition because it wasn’t too sweet. I actually wish I had taken more home because I ended up eating them all before we left Prague.

For dinner, we came across another farmers market where we had sausages and beers once again. I loved seeing these pop-up food stands everywhere because everyone was so nice and it just gave the city that much more of a personal feel to it. At no point during our stay in Prague did I feel like we were in a capital city let alone in a different country. Everything felt right and gave me that homey feel to it and that is why I would go back to Prague in a heartbeat.

I would absolutely come back here again. It was by far my favorite place we had visited during our two weeks and my only regret is that I didn’t make our stay longer. With that being said, I will definitely be making it a longer stay when I return.

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