Sixteen Hours in Prague

On our way home from Greece to London we made a quick 16 hour stop via Prague! Well, we had a 16 hour stop over and decided to make use of this time to quickly explore some of Prague haha!

We arrived late at night and were very much ready to get some sleep, as it turned out the hostel we had booked (Miss Sophie's Prague - in case anyone is interested) was absolutely amazing, better than most hostels! Jackpot!

The hostel room came with plenty of coat hangers (random) and a big blue armchair, which Michael immediately claimed!

We had a full nights sleep in our amazingly comfortable hostel room and the next day set off to explore a bit of Prague. 

We walked along the main river that runs through Prague, the Vltava river, and one of the first things we noticed was how beautiful the city of Prague actually is. We have seen a lot of different cities, buildings and churches in Europe but some of the buildings and monuments in Prague were among the most beautiful we have seen. Behind Michael is a monument called the Kranner fountain (yep, after thing long I most definitely had to look that up), which is a good example of one of the many monuments of Prague. 

In the background behind both of us is the Charles Bridge, the most well known bridge in Prague and featured in lots of advertisements, postcards etc. 

It was super hot - a feeling I can't really remember at the moment, so we had been sticking to the shade but to walk over the Charles Bridge meant a long hot walk in the sun! I kept telling Michael that we should enjoy our last moments of summer. Now that I am back in the chilly UK I would happily re-live this hot moment!

Walking along the Charles Bridge provided us with a pretty decent view of the Prague Castle on top of a hill which overlooks the old city centre. 

Some more photos of the beautiful buildings and architecture in Prague, in the photos below the Prague castle is in the background from two different angles. 

Above is a photo of Michael in front of the Prague Castle, which after a good many steps in 35 degree weather was actually a bit of a let down. There were definitely lots of other people in this square taking photos who, like us, had decided that they didn't want to fork out the money to actually go inside the castle.

Fortunately, there are some pretty nice views of the city of Prague in the immediate area surrounding the castle! Apologies for the sweaty/unkempt look that I was sporting post-stair-climb!

From the Prague Castle we headed back over the Charles Bridge (Michael was thrilled with the direct sunlight) and into the centre of the Prague Old Town. We have seen our fair share of 'old towns' and they are always fun but this was one of my favourites and made me feel a bit disappointed about the limited time we had to look around. 

Any wonder they call it a fairytale city! On every corner was another beautiful church or even just another building that looked like a castle from a fairytale! The above photo of Michael and photo of myself below both include the Church of our Lady Before Tyn in the background and it's absolutely amazing! Certainly one of the best churches I have seen in Europe and I feel like I have seen plenty!

The pictures above are of a monument called the Prague Astronomical Clock, this was build as a part of the City Hall of Prague and as this absolutely incredible clock feature. I wish Fossil would make a watch with this design on the face because it's absolutely stunning! I definitely cannot explain this clearly, especially given that I saw this two months ago, but I am fairly certain that each number on the clock represents one of the twelve apostles?! Either way the design is intricately beautiful!

A really good shot, thanks Michael, of me in the Old Town Square of Prague with the beautiful Church of our Lady Before Tyn in the background - I don't know much of the history surrounding this city centre or of the church itself but I do know that both were stunning and Michael and I spent a good deal of time just standing still and taking it all in.

Our last fairytale church or Europe for a while. Sigh..

We didn't have much time leftover at this point and decided that a true Czech lunch (complete with Czech beer for Michael) was a must!

We used the Hostel's recommendation (as we have discovered hostels always recommend the best, cheapest and most local restaurants on offer) and went to a traditional Czech restaurant for lunch, called U Medvidku. I have absolutely no clue how you are supposed to pronounce that! I have completely forgotten what we ordered now but I do remember finding that Czech meals were similar, in a way, to German meals - hearty and involving a lot of meat. I have absolutely no objections to this style of dining because you never find yourself full! haha!

We didn't have time for too much else during our short visit to Prague but one thing I definitely have to point out is this insanely weird kind of vodka that seems to be super popular (and sold almost everywhere) in Prague: cannabis vodka. Yep. That's right! It must be legal here because it's on display almost everywhere, which I found super weird!

And just to provide a bit of a contrast, I have put a lovely photo of some delicious, nutritious fruit from a local market next to the cannabis vodka and absinthe also being sold. Hehe!

We strolled back to our hostel to pick up all of our stuff before heading to the airport and back to cold London - I couldn't resist one last photo of Michael enjoying the hot weather before our summer holidays were officially over!

I am well aware that it has been several months since this trip happened and with work being full on, I have completely fallen behind in my blog posts. Fortunately I now have a week off (mid term break - woo!) and am planning on doing some catch up!

Hopefully my next post will be soon to follow!

xxx