One of the oldest cities in Europe is Prague. It epitomizes the stereotypical "large city in Europe." There are huge towering Gothic churches and plenty of orange roof tops. The landscape is almost entirely orange from above.
For my first few hours in Prague, I was a little disappointed to be honest. It was hustling and bustling with tons of tourists. I know that I was a tourist there, so I shouldn't be one to talk, but at least I wasn't lugging around a fanny pack, hawaiian shirt, water bottle and baseball cap. I at least try to blend in with my environment.
After being in the city for a while, I decided that I didn't like this place and that I couldn't wait for the next day to come so we could go back to Vienna. Quickly, I realized that I was looking at this city the wrong way. If I was to have a good and unique experience, I needed to look for the Prague that all the tourists weren't seeing. This all started with nighttime (I love nighttime in Europe. It's magical).
This was the front, top half of a church. It could easily be a castle. This was actually in the city center. There weren't as many people running around because the sun had gone down. I really wanted to make it over to the Danube to see what it had to offer me. Of course, this river never fails to deliver.
I just wish that it was open all day and night. Then we could have climbed up there. I didn't want to imagine how many people would be up here during the day.
The next day, I was more excited to go out with my new perspective on what I should be looking for. I still didn't know exactly what I was looking for, but I think I found some things that made my trip very, very enjoyable.
This little group started off the morning. Who thought to put a bass, accordion, bassoon and a soprano sax-ish instrument together in an ensemble? Very charming sounds and they were very good players.
We saw them on our way up to Prague Castle. Inside of the castle was a very beautiful church. You could climb up one of the towers but had to pay a fee in order to do so. I decided that it would probably be the last time that I will ever be in Prague, so I went ahead and did it. My action was rewarded with two hundred ninety-something stairs, a great workout, a beautiful view and a sweet collectable coin. This is where I got the panorama from at the beginning of the post. Everyone looked like a bunch of ants running around.
Afterwards, we headed towards Charles' Bridge. On our way there, I found this.
A wonderful old lady making friends with the ducks. I should have bought some bread and done the same. She must have just finished her shopping. Her green, environmentally friendly bag was filled with her goods and I guess she just wanted to take a relaxing detour home.
We eventually made it to the famous Charles' Bridge, but I didn't really take any pictures of it. It was crawling with vendors and people. I could hardly see the bridge. It was a very beautiful bridge. I did manage to catch a little shot of it. You probably can't tell that it's a bridge, but I'm definitely standing on it.
A very rare window of opportunity opened this scene to me and I'm glad that I was ready when it happened. The bridge has several beautiful sculptures along the sides. This is just one of them.
Prague turned out to be very lovely and charming.
2 comments:
I just want you to know I'm totally loving all these blog posts and the photos. Amazing. Keep them coming. :)
Your first thoughts of Prague made me think of St. Petersburg. That city is also teeming with people although I think that for the most part they weren't tourists. It can be difficult to see the beauty behind the bustle. I liked your picture of the statue on the bridge, you had to get above the busy of life to see the beauty that was there to see. The bridge pictures were also great. Don't stop, I wanna see more! :)
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