His View 

Czech Republic - Feliks' perspective

 

I had a few preconceived notions of Prague, I knew that it was beautiful, it had the Dancing House, and it was cheaper than western Europe. We got there pretty late after wasting half a day waiting for a train that would never come due to a strike by the train drivers. Note to travelers: apparently strikes happen all the time and they do not inform you at the train stations that your train is cancelled, atleast not in English. We got to Prague and Caywood was not feeling well because of the cold I gave her that I was just getting over. We decided to take some time to rest and relax, mainly consisting of watching a couple movies, 6 episodes of Marvel’s Agents of Shield, and a few naps scattered throughout the day. 

 

The next day we were still feeling pretty crummy but we pressed on anyway. We had a lot to cover in Prague and not much time to do it. We started with an area called Vysehrad. It was a park-like village; there were houses, a beautiful church, small castle-like buildings, restaurants, and shops, but it was at the top of a pretty tall hill. There was an awesome view of the city from the top and the area itself felt like a little world of its own. I would imagine that it would make a great place to walk your dog or take a run, or even have a sunset/sunrise picnic. 

 

A short walk down some stairs and we were right by the river walking towards the Dancing House. I had seen pictures of this building but it was really cool to see it in person, and even cooler to go inside and up to the rooftop terrace. The building was commercial offices and a restaurant on the top two floors with a really cool rooftop seating area. There was a weird giant ball of metal on the roof that took up a lot of good real-estate and in my opinion just didn't fit in. The house was really cool on the outside but pretty normal inside. 

 

Our next stop was the New Town Hall; we saw it. From there we walked a good bit all the way up to Mala Trana, the area with the Prague Castle. It was one of those areas that you see in movies. The streets were narrow with very unique houses that made it almost seem like they were hugging the street. There were old, at least old-looking, limousines driving around giving tours which made it that much more surreal. As you could expect, tourists at every intersection but it was still worth seeing this area. 

 

This was by far the most tourist packed area we’d encountered so far in Prague, but the area was well-worth the drain of patience. The details and craftsmanship that had to have gone into this place, you just don’t see this kind of work anymore. To think that they built that place brick by brick without the power tools we have today, and they are still standing. The St. Vitus Cathedral was definitely the most impressive. I can’t describe to you the scale and beauty of this structure, inside and out - just amazing. Again, lots of tourist so lots of vendors. We got to try some traditional Czech sweet bread, hot wine, and what I would call fries on a stick. 

 

We started making our way back toward the hostel and caught a few attractions on our way. Caywood had her dream come true and got within 2 feet of a swan, more like 100 of them. Charles bridge was really cool. The statues that line the bridge I believe tell a story. It really didn't get my attention because I was looking at all the street vendors selling art or drawing characatures. The bridge led you directly into Old Town which was filled with shops and restaurants where we enjoyed a nice hot soup in a bread bowl. We also walked into the Church of our Lady, which was a cool church. They were doing construction on it so we only could see the inside. They do this weird thing in Europe where they cover the entire structure with scaffolding so it's really hard to make out what it looks like on the outside. We saw the Astronomical Clock and the Jerusalem Synagogue which was a neat building. We also saw a really good street performer, actually a couple of them. One guy was throwing knives and playing with fire all while acting like he was on drugs. The other was a Russian musician that was really good on the piano and had a game where you guess the song he was playing. It was funny because he only had two responses that he would repeat twice: “close enough” or “very good.” 

 

Overall, I really liked Prague, not only because a pint of beer was only 75 cents and our hostel cost $8 a day per person, but it was truly a beautiful city. It had the history as well as the modern parts. It was clean and the people were nice, when you got farther away from Old Town. The landscape was hilly and rewarding. I would definitely go back in a heartbeat, even though we set our personal record for most distance walked, we were sick, and we didn't enjoy everything to the fullest. WiFi was difficult to find and people were pretty nice. English speakers were abundant.