Visiting Prague, Czech Republic

Finally the time has come, my first international trip of the year! It seems like half of the people living in Europe went to Prague this winter, and last week it was finally my turn to go because I also really wanted to see it for myself! I only spent one day there as I went to visit a friend in another city of Czech Republic, but I absolutely loved it. Let me tell you more about this amazing city, that you definitely should visit if you ever get the chance, you will love it!

From Milan, I actually took a plane to the Ostrava airport, as it was much cheaper than to go to the Prague airport (I mean like the round-trip cost me 25€ which is really not expensive for an international flight, right? ). The city of Ostrava didn't feel like a very big and dynamic one, it looked rather like an industrial area for the plane. I think the low-cost airport brings a lot of people there, so maybe some arrangements have been made to the city to welcome the visitors. All you have to do once your flight lands at the Ostrava airport is find the shuttle (which could be a bus or a train as there is an integrated train station in the airport) to the Ostrava train station and find a train to Prague, and that's it. This is not what I did because I went to meet my friend in Brno instead, which is the second biggest Czech city, but it's the same: I saw many trains going straight from Ostrava to Prague, so I could just as well go straight there, I just don't know how much the tickets cost. There are people to help you at the airport and train stations if you ever need, most of the time there is at least one person that can speak English, so do not worry.

This trip was actually my first time setting foot in Czech Republic. I had seen so many beautiful pictures of Prague on social media, by people who went to visit this city this winter that I was expecting to see something a really pretty city. And let me tell you what: I was absolutely not disappointed. For the other city, Brno, I didn't really know what to expect. My friends had told me she was having a good time there so I also felt enthusiastic to discover this city. In the end, I liked it, it felt like a good and quiet place. I will focus more on my visit to Prague in this post since I think this is where most of the people go when they go to Czech Republic.

Prague is also called Praha in Czech. We arrived in the Florenc bus station. It was pretty close to the entrance of the old town, so we were there about 15 minutes later, by walking. We arrived on the central square and I instantly loved the view: I could see all the high towers (like the Astronomical tower, which was unfortunately in renovation so we couldn’t really see the Astronomic clock) with their black roof and all the beautiful buildings all around. The façade of every single building was painted in a different color and that is something that I reallyyyy love. There was also an Easter market on this central place so there was music, stalls to buy souvenirs and of course some food stalls, that gave such a good smell to the place, the kind of smell that really makes you want to try the food. When we came back later in the day, there was also a concert.

It might be surprising to have an “Easter market”, but my friend told me that apparently the Czech people like to always have something to celebrate, and we can’t blame them for it! After all, these markets are a little different from the Christmas markets (but not so much, the atmosphere feels kind of the same, the main difference is that it's a little warmer outside), and they give a warm atmosphere in the city! And it's always nice to have some animations when you go to a new city, in my opinion at least. That being said, I would also have loved to see the central square with nothing on it to really have a global view of it and the buildings around! But well, maybe that means I will have to go back...

After spending a little bit of time walking around the market, we quickly went to see a cathedral. There was one right next to the central place, St Nicholas Cathedral. It was really impressive because of how high the roof was and with all the paintings and golden decorations. The admission was free but we were not really allowed to walk around, so we could just stay at the entrance to see the cathedral. At some point, I think it would get very busy.

We then walked some more around the city. Every single street was just so pretty with the colourful buildings, I loved to even just walk around. I basically took pictures every 5 seconds because everything was just SO pretty. We also found some other smaller Easter markets in the streets.

We somehow ended up in the “Dancing House” area. I don’t know if you have already heard about this building before or seen pictures of it, but the Dancing House is one of the most popular buildings in Prague. It is actually used as a hotel, so you can see it from outside and also stay inside, although the prices might be a little high for such a place. I loved to finally be able to see it with my own eyes after seeing so much of it on social media.

The neighbourhood around the Dancing House is also very nice: there is a river right next to it: the Vltava river (good luck pronouncing that). We walked along this river in the direction of the old town until the next bridge, that we crossed to go towards the castle, which is up on a little hill.

On our way there, we saw two touristic places: the first one was the John Lennon Wall. Back in the 1980’s, this wall was just a regular blank wall, and at some point, some artists started doing graffiti inspired by John Lennon and songs from the Beatles. Since that, artists are encouraged to come and add their tag over the old ones. I like the concept but I think it’s also too bad we can’t see all the old tags as they are covered by the new ones. But well, this is a place to see if you ever go to Prague, although it has become a very touristic place and people were mostly just taking pictures in front of it and I am not sure all of them actually knew about the history of this place.

While we were still on our way to get to the castle, we arrived around the Charles Bridge. This is probably the most famous place in Prague: it was so full of people. This bridge is very recognizable because of all the statues on its side. When you cross this bridge, you are actually "supposed to" touch these parts of the statues that are still golden and that should bring you luck, health, money...

We didn’t cross it right away as we were on the right side to get to the castle, but we climbed up a tower to get a view of the city from above instead. The tower in which we went is the Mala Strana Bridge Tower. Admission costs 100 Kč (€4) but if you show your international student card you get a discount and only pay 75 Kč (€3). Even though the stairs are quite old and tiny, it is so worth it to go up there, the view is amazing. We could see the whole city from above, with all the orange / red roofs and many buildings and tower. This was probably my favourite view of the day, as I love getting global vies of cities.

We then walked through a neighbourhood called Mala Strana. It is also a very popular area because of all the small and pretty streets there are. There you can see many tiny and colourful houses, and you can recognize the streets with all the grey pavements. This was quite a quiet area as there were not so many cars.

On our way to the castle, we bought a Trdelnik, which is one of the most famous and typical snacks in Czech Republic and that you need to try if you go there. You can find it basically anywhere in Prague and in the other Czech cities, and it costs around 50-60 Kč (about €2). It is very sweet as it has a lot of sugar all over. In some shops you can also choose to add Nutella or ice cream as a topping, but then I guess you have to really be hungry because that’s quite a big snack. I heard that Trdelnik was actually originally from Hungary, but the Czech people appropriated it and now it is known as a typical Czech thing.

We started climbing to get to the castle, and once we got there we ate our Trdelnik (that we had saved on purpose until here) while enjoying another view all over the city. We didn’t actually get inside the castle as we were in the city only for one day, and there was quite a queue to get in. We admired the view for a little bit of time before heading back down the hill and continue our visit.

Our next (and last) stop of the day was the Jewish neighbourhood. Once again, we saw such amazing buildings there, every single one of them in the whole city is truly beautiful so if you like architecture or even just pretty things, Prague is a city for you. There was also a little square that some people were using to make a movie and was actually a reproduction of Paris! I don't know if it's always like this or if it was just for the movie, but there were so many details I think it might always be a "Parisian square"! We walked around in that area before heading back to the central square one last time before leaving.

Even though the day went really fast, I really liked it. I think you could use at least two days to really visit Prague and take your time, but I did most of the things I wanted to do so I’m fine for now. Maybe I will go back in the future to do more, but for now, just by going there once, Prague is definitely one of my favourite cities in Europe! And I also understand why its popularity is increasing so fast and why everybody wants to go. My advice is: go there! It is quite easily accessible as it in right in the middle of Europe, so go for it!

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