Another break of the term, another place to discover.
After comparing flight deals for a few places to go during our winter break, we finally settled for Prague, which I believe wasn't a bad idea at all. Instead, we loved it so much that both my partner and I agreed that we had a really chill and exciting moment while travelling this time, alhamdulillah.
If you haven't heard of this city before, you might be wondering what is there to see in Prague? (or you might even wonder where Prague is in the first place haha) Prague is not a country, but it's a capital and the largest city of a European country named Czech Republic. Sounds not familiar? Czech Republic or 'Česká republika' in Czech language, is located between Germany and Hungary in Central Europe (at least that's the way I explained it to my family, hihi) Why don't I say between Germany and Slovakia? Well, read more below to find out ;)
Česko or CR was a part of Czechoslovakia, or 'Československo', which has now broke apart and forms CR and Slovakia. Prague, on the other hand, used to be the capital of Bohemia, the historical region of the Czech lands. (sorry guys I cannot help from not being triggered by the word Bohemia, has anyone read Sherlock Holmes' first short story 'A Scandal in Bohemia' in which Irene Adler is featured? If you already had, give me a high 5!)
In the old days of Prague, it actually consisted of four small towns; Old Town, New Town, Lesser Town, and Prague Castle (Pražský hrad). Yes, the castle complex itself was a small town of its own, so you can imagine how big the castle is. Now that you've got the geographical (and a bit of the historical) overview of Prague, let's move on to the exciting part which is the places that we managed to visit!
Day 1
From
Hostel Dakura located in Praha 6, we took a tram from Hradčanská to Starometská, the nearest station to Old Town Square in Praha 1 (it was just few stops away though) where the meeting point for our free walking tour is located. We had our breakfast in the Old Town area too, before wandering around the square, where one of the most beautiful Christmas markets in Europe is based.
We joined a
'Free Prague Castle Tour' at 11.00 am that lasted for 2.5 hours. From Old Town Square, we crossed the bridge over Vltava River and took a metro to the castle. The name of the river, Vltava, comes from the Celtic language which means 'wild' (Vlt) 'water' (Ava).
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| Vltava River |
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| Prague Castle (and the main courtyard) |
Prague Castle actually dated back to the 9th century, and like no other castles I have ever been before, it undergoes ongoing reconstruction hence you can never say when the castle is completed. Since the castle itself was a town in the old days, it consists of more than just the administration building of the city, but also cathedrals like St. Vitus Cathedral and residency area such as the Golden Lane. You can enter some parts of the castle for free without the entrance ticket, but you still have to queue for the security checks. (But I would recommend entering the castle if you have more time to spare, the tour itself wasn't enough to give you a more insightful overview of the castle). Meanwhile, main changing of guard in the first (main) courtyard occurs daily at 12 p.m. (hence the line for security check at the entrance at this time is super short) while the regular change of guards happens every hour on the hour.
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| View of the city from the castle (which is located quite uphill so yeah you can get a nice view from there) |
Since our hostel is located close to the castle (2 metro stops away) so we went back to the hostel to pray. After that, we went for a
cruise on the Vltava River at 3.00 p.m. You can book the cruise online or at the cruise departure point itself, near Charles Bridge Museum. Since sunset was at around 4.00 p.m, the scenery was beautiful though it was a bit dark, but at least we get to 'experience' Prague from a different perspective, including some accounts and depiction from our live guide (who's also the boat's driver) on the
horrendous flood that has drowned the historic city in August 2002, in which the water level had risen 7 meters higher than the present water level of the river that we can see today.
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| The path to the boat trips departure (beside the Charles Bridge Museum) |
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We highly recommend joining river cruise in Prague! It was very historically insightful!
Free refreshment, snacks and a complementary visit to the museum of the bridge too :) |
We ended our day by watching an opera at the New Stage Theater (because we couldn't find any (cheap) shows available in any other theaters...) but it wasn't really a good one though eheh so yeah if you're going to watch an opera please make sure to check out what it is about XD
Day 2
We kicked off the second day with another thing on our bucket list; visiting Letna Park! Yes, this park is worth visiting for an amazing view of the city from Letna Hill. We were truly glad we decided to pay this large park a visit!
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| Panorama shot of the river and the Old Town from a distance! (You can see Tyn Church and the Zizkov Tower from afar, and the 3 bridges I have always loved to see in Prague lol) |
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| (Unfunctional -_-) Metronome in Letna Park |
Here we were again, in Old Town Square for the start of our second walking tour in the city! This time we're joining a
Free Old Town and Jewish Quarter Tour, which is conducted by a local Czech lady! I guess this tour has been able to provide every basic thing that you should know about Prague. During the tour we visited quite a lot of places (that we actually need a break in between hoho) which includes the Master Jan Hus' statue that is located at the Old Town Square itself, The Estates Theater, Municipal House (located just opposite the Hybernia Theatre), The Old New Synagogue (because it used to be the new one but there is a newer one hence 'Old New'), Pinkas Synagogue and a few other places that I have (not really good) pictures of.
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| General view of the buildings (and cobblestone street) in Prague taken during the tour, 11.58 a.m |
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| The Statue of Franz Kafka (located in the Jewish Quarter; also known as Josefov Quarter). Franz Kafka is a German-speaking Bohemian Jewish novelist and short story writer who was born in Prague |
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| The Jewish cemetery |
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| The Spanish Synagogue, one of the synagogues in the Jewish Quarter |
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| The Powder Tower (this Gothic tower used to serve as a gunpowder store, as its name suggests, and was part of the original gate that separates Old Town and New Town) |
Our walking tour ended at The Rudolfinum, a building famous not only for concert venues and exhibition halls but also for its attractive architecture! (scroll until the end for a picture *wink*)
After the tour, we went to pray at a mosque located close to the National Museum of Prague and had our lunch afterwards. The State Opera is also located nearby, but there's some construction work going on so....the blue scaffolding in front of the building kind of messed up the picture I took of the yellow theater.
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| Historic Building of the National Museum (Historická budova Národního muzea) |
Haaaaaaaa so what's with the long queue man???? Guess what, we actually joined the line afterwards, because...what's a trip without a museum visit for Hamizah, right? Hehehe
We're lucky enough that the museum was going to be opened to public for free only until 31st December 2018! (now the queue makes so much sense isn't it...) I think there's nothing much to see in the museum when we were there because they're renovating it. But the interior design was sooooo beautiful it was definitely worth the wait!
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| Interior ceiling design of the museum |
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| Interior view of the museum |
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| New building of the National Museum (located next to the existing one) where special aka non-free exhibitions are situated |
It was already dark when we finished our visit at the museum - it was almost 7.00 p.m. by the time we came out. The National Museum is located just opposite the Wenceslas Square, which means, you can see the Wenceslas Square Christmas Market from the museum! We bought a
trdelnik (a
compulsory Prague street food that you have to try if you ever going to visit this city!) and roamed around the Christmas market. Food smells nice and it was really good to sit near the warm fireplace as the seller were making trdelnik huehue.
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| Chocolate trdelnik from Wenceslas Square Christmas Market! |
Day 3
After having breakfast in our room, we went to Strahov Monastery (but ended up not entering the monastery itself lol). There is an entrance fee for every single part of the monastery that you would like to enter such as the museum and the library. And, if you are one of the coin souvenir collectors like me, there is one coin souvenir machine in the monastery area too! The actual plan was to hike up Petrin Hill to see Petrin Tower but it was too cold and we don't feel like it's a good idea to walk up there :P
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| View of Prague from the Strahov Monastery |
As a substitute, we decided to visit
The National Gallery of Prague (Národní galerie Praha). The gallery is not just
a building, it is spread all over the city. Out of all 7 venues of the National Gallery, four of them are free for students to enter, which are
Schwazenberg Palace and
Sternberg Palace that are located inside the Prague Castle complex,
Convent of St. Agnes of Bohemia that contains display of medieval art in Bohemia and Central Europe from 1200-1550 and
Trade Fair Palace which exhibits the art of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. We wouldn't have time to visit all four venues hence we decided to visit Sternberg Palace, a venue for a permanent exhibition on European art from Antiquity to Baroque era.
At 3.00 pm, we joined another tour which is a bit different from the previous two for some obvious reasons. First, it wasn't a free tour, and second, instead of looking at the amazing architecture of the buildings in the city, this tour is all about the hidden part of Prague; The
Old Town, Medieval Underground and Dungeon Tour. Well, yeah you can guess that this is absolutely my kind of thing (read: it was my idea hoho); to explore what are the things that have been laying under the cobblestoned street of the city centuries ago and how good history has been preserved down there. I was too amused with the underground rooms, cellars and corridors that I didn't even remember to take any pictures haihhhhh. Most of the 12th century premises are now being used as cafes and restaurants, some of them used to be a chemistry laboratory, some was occupied by servants and one had a history of being an observatory tower.
What else is there to hunt on the last night of a trip if not for: souvenirs!!! We did our souvenir-hunting in the Old Town area, somewhere around Karlova Street, as far as I can remember. We then visited the Old Town Christmas Market which was so lively at night; no wonder it was rated as one of the best Chrismas markets in Europe!
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| Old Town Christmas Market performance at night! |
Day 4
Alright, I think at this point I have been writing a lot and maybe I should keep things short and let you guys enjoy the pictures. We checked out of the hostel and left our luggage there, before heading to our final thing on the bucket list of the trip, Kampa Island!
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| Hey room, thanks for hosting us for 4 nights! |
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| One of the small rivers in Kampa Island |
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| Prague Castle (and Vltava River) at night! View from Charles Bridge, 16.43hrs |
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So what has Prague taught me? You guys might as well skip this whole section of a long random rant that I can't help not writing so... don't say I didn't say I didn't warn ya...
In Prague, there's beauty in every corner of the city. From the 10th-century medieval uneven streets, to the colourful buildings, to the crystal clear river, every inch of its charm turned me away from things that didn't work out during our trip. I was quite amused that we can just shake off some things that weren't on our side, like being issued with a penalty fare notice for travelling with Oystercard to Stansted Airport (we're obviously not aware that we weren't supposed to do that unfortunately), exchanged our money with a lower exchange rate (get your CZK in the town itself okay), ended up watching a grotesque opera, showered with hopelessness after arriving at a closed fish and chips restaurant for lunch, or lined up for a sold out Klementinum ticket (next time book online hoho). But none of it got into us that much that by the time we called it a day, we weren't affected by them anymore (Take note of these things if you're planning of visiting!).
Somehow, we managed to stay positive, alhamdulillah thanks to Him for easing our way while we were there; weather in Prague wasn't too bad, forget about the rain forecast we looked into before the trip, free luggage storage in the hostel, free walking tours we found from a brochure in the hostel, free museum entrances, welcoming people at the airport and hostel, we got to do a lot of touristy things other people do (lol), and many more. And the last but not least, thanks to my travel partner, the trip was definitely much better with her around; seeing her enjoying our trip was the best thing I could ever ask for, and I was truly glad we had a great time together after being immersed with our own work for the whole term.
Hence, I am reminding myself of one of my all-time favourite quotes that I actually used as a caption for my Instagram post in Edinburgh last winter too;
'Being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect,
it means that you have decided to look beyond imperfections'
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See you guys in my next post! Insya Allah :)
-background: the magnificent Rudolfinum! |
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