Czeching Out Prague

After finishing up my first final abroad and walking around the Barcelona Christmas Market with Ally, Julia and I had a big weekend planned for Prague, Czech Republic.

We arrived in Prague early Saturday morning and treated ourselves to a nice breakfast on the river, overlooking cobblestone streets and intersecting tram tracks, with the castle looming in the distance.

Charles Bridge

We settled into our precious Airbnb flat with a view of the castle and began our exploration of the city.

First stop: Charles Bridge. While an influx of tourists attempted to cross from one side of Prague to the other, street vendors lining the bridge sold gaudy caricatures, braided bracelets, and hand-drawn sketches and paintings of the city.

Gripping onto the railings of the bridge, we saw the rapids below us and let the crisp, cool air nip at our faces.

We journeyed on to the John Lennon Wall, a well-known colorful tourist trap with inspiring, peaceful quotes and vibrant graffiti.

John Lennon Wall

Next up: Prague castle. We walked about 15 minutes, down winding roads of villages lined with colorful homes – it was such a quaint town, with all of the sites within a 15-minute walk. We started the trek up the steep staircase to the top of the hill, where the castle and its small town laid beyond the stone walls. We passed cafes and museums on our way to the giant castle, dating back to the 9th century, and the royal palace.

Prague Castle

We climbed an innumerable amount of stairs to the top for endless views of Prague, the towns that sprawled out from the river, the lush green mountains, and the light streaming in from the break between clouds.

We explored the little Christmas market at the entrance to the tower, trying gluhwein, one of our known favorite winter drinks – a hot, spiced, mulled red wine. Feeling adventurous, Jules tried Medovina, a hot alcoholic drink made with honey. We admired the other typical Czech treats: hot dogs, sausages, and potato chips fried on a stick.

Christmas Market behind the Prague Castle

Continuing down the winding roads, we stumbled upon Pernikovy Panacek, a gingerbread cookie store! Naturally, Jules, the biggest Christmas lover I know, had to go inside, so we spend awhile deciding which gingerbread delight we’d try. They sold gingerbread houses, cookies, truffles, and shortbread with strawberry jam heart cutouts.

Too cute of a place.

With a few hours to kill until the big Old Town Square Christmas Market opened at 4:30, Julia and I found a small Thai salon that – of course – had a special half price deal for fish pedicures. Skeptical of letting fish gnaw off my toes, I let Julia talk me into it.

Wearing oversized, flowy green pants, we climbed up and stepped into the fish tank. The little fish immediately attacked our feet and it was the most indescribable, ticklish sensation. We burst out laughing and honestly sounded like we were being tortured in the back of this small Thai massage spa. After a while, our feet became numb to the feeling, and we were able to relax for the rest of our half-hour treatment.

Sunset in Prague

Finally, it was 4:30pm. We eagerly made our way to the Old Town Square, and in the midst of everyone else in Prague that night, we could barely move. Amidst the people, we saw the Prague Astronomical Clock from medieval times.

However, city girls at heart, we were soon able to maneuver our way to the middle of the square under the bright Christmas lights next to the giant, flashing Christmas tree.

We helped ourselves to hot glasses of cherry-red mulled wine and chocolate covered almonds rolled in cinnamon. Surprisingly, the Prague Christmas market had more food than trinkets to offer – I was expecting to find endless rows of hats, Christmas decorations, and hand-knitted accessories like the Christmas market in Chicago. Instead, we found food stand after food stand of traditional winter Czech delights.

Soon, we got ready for our night out – our first bar crawl through Prague. We shared a cheese and salami charcuterie plate and ventured out to explore the freezing Prague nightlife.

Recalling how much amazing food we saw the previous day, Julia and I saved our hangry morning appetites for the Christmas market.

We tried Vdolky, a pastry filled with sauerkraut and pork (we had our pick from both sweet and savory – apple, poppy seed, plum, etc).

We washed down our savory snack with, quite literally, the sweetest hot chocolate we’ve ever had. They simply melted chocolate and mixed in cream – this hot chocolate was very similar to the iconic Angelina’s hot chocolate in Paris or the dark chocolate drink from the Funky Chocolate Club in Switzerland.

Christmas Market

Next, our cheese filled dreams came true with a literal GRILLED cheese. We paid 60 crowns for a heavenly, grilled nugget of cheese, handed to us on a thin piece of bread and topped with fresh blueberry marmalade. Of all the scrumptious Prague noms we treated ourselves to, I think this was my favorite.

Close second favorite Prague treat: Halusky, potato dumplings with cabbage and Canadian bacon.

Halusky

Feeling quite full and very content, Jules and I headed to Museum of Communism to warm up a bit and learn a little something more substantial about Prague and its rich history. Having learned a lot about the Iron Curtain and the Cold War from Modern World History during my sophomore year of high school, this museum fascinated me.

Museum of Communism

I would hardly call myself a museum junkie – usually I’m the quick in-and-out-in-thirty-minutes type. Yet I slowly perused every stop and reflected on its significance. The Czech people struggled immensely, after Hitler’s takeover during WWII and Russia’s influence after the war. This dedication, with pictures, facts, and narrative recounts of a different time, showed us a moment of history that we couldn’t possibly imagine.

After our excursion to the museum, we spent more time exploring Prague and peeking into little shops. Ready to head back to the airport, we finally stopped for trdelnik, a pastry resembling a chimney.

They twist the dough around a stick and bake it, and slowly peel it off the rounded pole, fill the inside with hot, melted Nutella – and we even got ice cream on ours. Jules topped hers with strawberries and I got apple strudel.

Trdelnik

Basically, Prague was filled with alooooot of food, warm cultural beverages, and little trinkets. The Prague Christmas market was a fairy dreamland, and the city itself is rich with a lesser-known twist of history – growing up, we learn so much about Germany, Russia, and France, it’s rewarding to absorb new insights from other places.

Random flock of peacocks we found wandering the park