I wake up early filled with excitement. I decide to get ready and get out early to get pictures before the world wakes up and inserts themselves into scenery. I start with the Charles River Bridge.
It is as gorgeous as described. There are few people already there taking wedding pictures and other photographers are out and about also trying to catch the beauty of the bridge during the calm. I take pictures and walk across the bridge to get all the different angles. I check the map once I am across and realize I am only a few blocks from the Lennon Wall. It is 7:30am. I decide to book it in an attempt to get a picture before other tourists awake and do the same. I get there and get a few great shots, just before other people start trickling in (we go again the next day in the afternoon and the wall is packed with people and very hard to get a clean shot). Highly recommend waking up early and getting the clean shot. Worth it!
I see a Starbucks and am in dire need of an iced coffee. It doesn’t open until 8am and it is 7:50. A lady is outside setting up tables and tells me the Starbucks in Old Town (close to my hotel (4 min away)) opens at 7:30am. I decide to head that way. I get my coffee and can feel it take effect as I become more alert and energized. I make my way back to the hotel to meet Brian.
I meet Brian in the lobby. The concierge (Erika) asks what we have planned for the day. We list all sorts of activities and she frowns. She says all the activities we have planned are good for sunny days. We look outside, and it is raining. She checks the weather for tomorrow. Sunny for the win. She tells us to save those activities for tomorrow and pulled out a map and began helping us plan this now rainy day. She recommended the Prague Castle (this was already on the to do list, so it was a great option), Manifesto, and boat bars (which she did say would be better in the sun also). She gives us free drink tickets to Manifesto and explains that it is all sorts of food carts (great recommendation that we would have never come across). She then gives us a great path way on the map to get to the back of the castle to avoid the lines and to have less crowds. She gives us a recommendation for local food called Lokal and added a great place to eat and take in a view for the itinerary tomorrow (Bellevista).
We take off on this adventure and try to follow the map to the back entrance to the schedule. Many stairs later, we find out that Brian I are both not so great at reading maps so we end up at the front of the castle. We get pictures of the guards of the castle and make our way in. The line is not bad since it is still early. We get in and the place is already packed with tourist. We get to the ticket both. They have 3 options for tickets that give 3 pathways of the castle. Erika recommended we do A or C based on our interests of art. We opted for C, but the ticket girl convinced us A was the better option (we still wonder if we should have gone with our gut with C).
We start the journey of A and the architecture is unreal. Beautiful is not a strong enough word. We start with St. Vitus Cathedral. I love the structure and the art on the ceilings. Golden Lane is next, and we see armor along with examples of the style of living at that time. We finish with Daliborka Tower which shows how people were imprisoned and hung. The castle was good overall, but I would probably not go back unless it was to see if C was better. It was good not great compared to all the other places we went.
As we leave we see a beautiful view and stop and take pictures and admire this amazing place.
It is too early to go to Lokal. It is 10:30am and Lokal opens at 11:30am. Brian needs coffee so we journey on to find the magic energy juice. We stop into a place (I don’t’ remember the name). The lady is not the friendliest and we get Brian espresso. We walk around contemplating our next move when Brian sees a garden that we venture into. The garden is Vojun Garden. We walk around and notice there are peahens. This is the first time I have ever seen a peahen (or even even heard of the name). We figure where there are peahens, there must be peacocks. We are right. We find a peacock nearby and then later see babies. I love detours like these.
We are both getting hungry. Manifesto is 1.5 miles away, so we decide to start walking that way and will have lunch there and save Lokal for tomorrow. As we are on the way to Manifesto, we pass by the swans that I saw from The Charles River Bridge. We detour and go down to visit with the swans. They are very domesticated and will come to you (especially if you have food).
We get back on track to Manifesto and when we arrive we realize this was worth the hike. There are food huts of all sorts. Czech food, Indian food, Korean food, burgers and fries, vegetarian and so much more. There are also drink huts. Due to rain there is not many people there, so we get to avoid lines. We get a Czech style BBQ sandwich with goat cheese and chili sauce and cheese fries with aioli and chili mayo. I get the special which is a Black Velvet (champagne and Guinness) drink as my free drink. It is good, but I would probably pick differently if I had a do over. Brian gets a bourbon lemonade drink which is pretty good. The food is incredible. I want to try more but am way too full.
Brian wants to do a hike in a Czech National Park. The idea sounds cool to me, but I’m hesitant because we have already walked a ton and there is till lots more to do. He says 6 miles, and I am out. I tell him he is on his own for a 6-mile hike. He drops it down to 3 miles and away we go. We get an Uber (the hike is 15 minutes away by car). The address for the entrance to the park is a little off and we arrive in front of a neighborhood. The Uber driver doesn’t speak the greatest English and we decide to get out and wing it. We google map our way to the trail we want to hike. We walk through a few neighborhoods, observing the different housing and finding trees with what looks like blueberries. Several hills later we find Divoka Sarka trail. It is an easy hike with alternating terrain and beautiful trees and other greenery. We see small pathways that detour to places and we curiously check them out. One takes us through trees with tiny apples and leads a huge wide-open field. As we continue, we find a stream and a lake and then we are spit out of the trail at a McDonalds. This conveniently lets us get another Uber back to the hotel. I am glad I didn’t miss this. It is something I would have never considered doing, but I am glad I did and will keep this in the options for other international adventures. I am also extremely sore and decide a massage will be a must once we get back to the hotel.
We get back to the hotel. It is about 3:30pm. We split ways so that we can rest up and so that I can get a massage appointment. I immediately go up to the 7th floor to the hotel spa and beg for an appointment. There are none available, but I’m told she will check with a therapist that is not in now to see if they can come in. She says she will call me.
I go down to my room and lay down. It’s not long before the lady from the spa calls me and says she has an appointment for 5:30pm (she later calls back and moves it to 6pm). Perfect!!! I text Brian my new itinerary for the spa and let him know that I am going to go check out the boat bars if he is interested. He says down in 5 and away we go.
We reach the boat bars and they look awesome, but they are closed due to the rain. They are literally boats you can bar hop one from the next. One is a pirate ship that only serves rum. Another is a beer boat. Another has cocktails and so on and so forth.
W e decide to walk around for a bit and eventually find the original Pilsner Urquell Restaurant and pop in. We order a pilsner and it is the best pilsner I have had to date. It is now 5:30pm and we make our way back to the hotel so that I can make my spa appointment.
I get to the spa and am escorted to a changing room. I’m handed a robe and slides and shown a container of paper panties (yep-the exact same ones from Ljubljana!) that are strongly suggested that I put on. I get changed and go to the waiting room. My massage therapist comes out and shows me to the room. She is the amazing. She starts working out all the pain points in lower back from all the walking. She even relieves the tension in my neck and shoulders from the plane ride. I finish up as a new woman feeling ready to take on the world.
I shower and meet Brian down at the hotel bar at 7:30pm. I have a glass of wine and we go over the restaurants he looked up over the time-lapse. He found some great ones. We narrow it down to 2. One has a good view (I am a sucker for a view), but it is a little expensive and a little bit further away (Restaurant Zvonice). The other is moderately priced is known for the local dish of goulash and close by (Mlejnice). It is sprinkling at the moment. We decided to go for drinks and appetizers at Zvonice and then do goulash at Mlejnice. We make our way to Zvonice. During the research process we found that it should take about 13 minutes to get there walking. We think we have an idea of where it is and decide to not use gmaps. We get to a point and realize we are turned around. We get gmaps out and realize we are now 18 minutes away (whoops!!). In that same moment, the bottom falls out. It is pouring rain. I mean really pouring. So hard! We jump under an awning. We lose signal on the phone. It lightens for a second and we decide to make a run in the direction that we were last instructed by gmaps. We don’t make it far before the rain intensifies again and we see lightning. We duck in another covered spot. A taxi pulls up. A woman gets out. I run desperately to the driver and ask if we can get in. He says yes, and we are saved (for now). We get to the restaurant and decide that we are enduring the cost and eating full meal here after the obstacles we just endured. We go in and go up to the 7th floor (the restaurant is on both the 7th and 8th floor). We walk in soaking wet. A waitress kindly asks if we have a reservation. We look at one another with the oh shit face. We say no. She tells us we can try the 8th floor. We do, but no luck. We go back down. We try to get an Uber. None available. We talk to some locals and they explained that with the rain, Uber and taxis will take a long time to get in the current weather. The ask where we want to go. We tell them the location for Mljenice. They recommend the subway. They tell us to go straight and it will be on the right. The rain lightens, and we make a run for it. Literal run. Lightening is striking in the distance. We never see a subway on the right but see one on the left. We bolt to it. Signage is not great, and we have no idea where to go. GPS still not working. We see 2 police officers. We tell them that we are trying to get back towards Old Town and ask which subway to take. They say abruptly “None. Let me see your passport.”
“I don’t have my passport on me.” I respond.
“What hotel are you staying at?” He says.
“The Emblem Hotel.”
“Okay you can go.” He says.
I think…go where? Remember…we were asking you where to go. We leave the subway back to the rain thankful that things did not get worse in that situation. We get a spotty signal and think we have the directions back and begin running again. Only to find out that it was the wrong direction again. We stop and find a local who can give us directions to get us back on the right path. We run in the direction provided until we get to the square. We then make a few more missed turns and have to turnaround but are eventually at the door of Mlejnice.
We order wine. It is needed after all of that. We are now starving. We order a cheese plate appetizer and a ham plate with horseradish and mustard. The wine is great and is $2 USD. The cheese is good, and the ham is AMAZING (I am still salivating over this ham)!!! For our main dish we get the goulash in the bread bowl. So good. Really really good. It was reviewed as the best goulash around and I believe it. We also got pasta salad to compare to what we are used to. This was different from American style pasta and was good. It seems to have mustard seeds in it and the flavor combination was unlike any pasta salad I have ever had.
The rain has turned into a drizzle when we leave the restaurant. We decide to go to a jazz club that I found that had great reviews. The club is Agharta Jazz Club. We get there and there is a cover of ~12$USD. We decide…what the heck #wheninprague. We go in to where the jazz is being played. It is a rock cellar type cave with amazing musicians. The music and sound quality are incredible. Well worth 12$. We later find out that structure was built-in the 14th century and is one of the greatest jazz clubs in the world. It is an unforgettable night of music and culture.
After the club, we go back and split ways to crash. It was an eventful day.
I shamelessly ask people for a penny or to break a 500 dollar bill. It’s 9:40am. Right. All of that happened in 10 minutes. Going back down the hill is not an option. It was a long hike and would take us until 10am to get back down, and we aren’t confident in our ability to find the cable car.
Woman Wanderer 