PRAGUE

Disclaimer: Most of these pictures were taken with an ipod/iphone. Sorry for potato quality.

Day 0.5:

Arrival at the Prague Airport. Lukas lost his luggage and I almost got stuck in New York. Don’t ever try to switch between airports there during your layover unless you have more than 5 hours. I had four and had to get from Newark to JFK via shuttle. I’m pretty sure I lost a couple of months of my life due to stress while we got stuck in two traffic jams and took a detour through the city center, but at least I got to see Times Square for 10 seconds. :/

At the airport: grumpy Lukas is grumpy 'cause we couldn't find change to buy tram tickets

Finding the hostel was fairly simple. We checked in after a tram ride to the city and a bit of wandering about trying to find the correct address. Hostel Santini used to be a castle, is now an UNESCO world heritage site, and comes with our highest recommendation. Despite chilly and rainy weather, we went to grab dinner. Goulash and wild boar. Crossing the Charles Bridge, there were fewer tourists and pedestrians than any other time we would cross the bridge. Once across, we found a medieval torture museum which Lukas quite enjoyed. His favorite was a replica of an iron maiden. I didn’t get any pictures, since I was busy being grossed out. However, my “favorite” was a man suspended by his ankles, getting sawn in half from the top down.

YAAAAY It's raining!

First Czech beer

Daniel in the lion's den on the Charles Bridge

Charles Bridge

Powder gate at base of bridge

We got back to the hostel cold and shivering and had an early night in order to get over jetlag.

Day 1:

The hostel offered breakfast sandwiches, cereal, coffee, and juice. I gave Lukas my sandwich and ate cornflakes and OJ every morning.

We went on the free tour offered by SANDEMANs NEW Europe. I've been on their Berlin city tour as well and would recommend them for getting an overview of a city. If you want to go inside any landmarks or museums, you can always go back later.

 The astronomical clock shows the number of hours since sunset, moon phase, as well as the time. The lower clock points to the name of the saint of the day. Every hour the upper four figures animate. The three sinners (Vanity, Greed, and Pleasure) shake their heads, and Death nods and rings his bell, showing that there is no escape. Afterwards, the golden cock crows, showing that if you weren't good today, you can always try tomorrow. The 12 apostles pass by the upper 2 windows as well.

Prague Estates Theater

 Mozart lived in Prague for a while, composing Don Giovanni. He debuted the opera at the Prague Theater and received a 30 minute standing ovation.

Don Giovanni

Smiley Lukas!

 It is very inexpensive to film movies in Prague. The above image shows the building in which Vin Diesel was eating while being targeted by a sniper in xXx. The entirety of Eurotrip was filmed here as well (they photoshopped in the Eiffel Tower for the scenes in Paris).

The National Bank

Adam and Eve Towers at the old town square

Building decorations

 Prague is a very beautiful city, with intricate decorations on almost every building and phenomenal architecture. Prague was not bombed during WWII, so most buildings are original. During the reconstruction and restoration of other areas in Europe, costs were certainly a factor, and often times, the small, intricate details were left off of buildings. Decorations such as the one above are too expensive today to put them on many buildings.

Catholic Church

Kafka on the shoulders of Bureaucracy

Spanish Synagogue

 The catholic church and Spanish synagogue were on opposite street corners of one another. There was also a protestant church at the same intersection.

Metronome symbolizing the rhythm of the city

 Before the metronome, a 15-meter statue of Stalin and then a 10-meter statue of Michael Jackson crowned this hill.

The Old-New Synagogue

 The lower clock on the Jewish town hall behind the synagogue is lettered in Hebrew and runs counterclockwise. To prevent confusion, a second clock was added. The Old-New synagogue is Europe's oldest active synagogue. Hitler actually didn't destroy the synagogues in Prague since he wanted to establish a "Museum of an Extinct Race" there.

Jewish Cemetery

 The Jewish Cemetery houses about 100,000 corpses. When the cemetery filled up, they dumped more dirt on top and started burying more people in it. There are 5 or so layers of dead people.

Building in front of which the tour ended

 After the tour, we decided to climb Petrin Hill to get a better view of the city.

Charles Bridge

Lovely afternoon

There were a ton of swans on the river

Cute park selfie

These things are LOUD!

Cute old ladies at the park

View of the city

Buildings at the top and the observation tower

Prague castle

 After getting sweaty climbing the hill, we stopped for a while on Strelecky island in the middle of the Vltava river where we ate kinder eggs and bananas for dinner. Yum.

Picnic!

View from the island

View from the island

So on the first day, we saw most of central Prague.