Day one in Prague was idyllic. The weather was perfect, and the city is easily one of the most beautiful in Europe. The spires that define the cityscape across the Charles Bridge are magnificent, and the Prague Castle dominating the opposite side of the river is equally impressive.
Kevin and I stayed in a hostel right at the foot of the Charles Bridge, so we started our morning there and headed along cobbled streets into the Old Town Square. We happened to hit the Astronomical Clock (on the side of the Old Town Hall tower) right on the hour, and gathered with a mass of other tourists to watch the small statue of Death turn his hourglass and ring the bell. We took in the Old Town Square, awed by its beauty and uniquely European charm. The facades on all the buildings were each intricate in their own way, and the spires of Týn Church cap off the square’s beauty.
Earlier in the morning, upon arriving dazed in the train station, we accidentally bought tickets to Bratislava that we had already pre-booked online (fail), so we walked back to the train station through Wenceslas Square (which was thoroughly uninteresting) and obtained our refund before going back to sightseeing. On the walk back to the Old Town Square, we took in the impressive Municipal House and Powder Tower (so named because the building was previously where the city’s gunpowder was stored) and came across a beautiful synagogue near the Jewish Quarter. (As we found out later, this and every other interesting Jewish site in the city was closed for Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur, so we were only able to peek at the old Jewish cemetery, Old New Synagogue, and other Jewish Quarter landmarks.)
Back in the Square, we ascended the Old Town Hall tower for the best view of Prague. Orange-roofed buildings brought nostalgia for Lisbon, and the view makes it clear why this is the City of a Hundred Spires. The panorama was glorious, and I took my time circling around, overlooking the square, and reading about a riveting defenestration that occurred from the tower in medieval times.
After strolling down Pařížská Street (“Prague’s Champs-Élysées”) and encountering closed Jewish Quarter sites on every corner, we returned to our hostel for a brief respite before dinner. Kevin was still feeling under the weather from his illness in Krakow and went to an Asian noodle restaurant, while I wanted to try traditional Czech food and found a hit on tripadvisor — a place called Mlejnice, tucked away on a small street off the Old Town Square. I was lucky to get a table, as every subsequent customer was turned away at the door and told that “there might possibly be a table… around 9pm or later.” I asked for their recommendation and had their specialty — pork knee with Pilsner beer. The dish was massive (and delicious), and Kevin arrived midway through the meal to document the experience. Unfortunately, the meat was extremely heavy, and I met my demise at what would be my last supper for a few days.
More than full after dinner, we went to see Black Light Theater — a type of performance unique to Prague that uses black lights and features dancers wearing colorful, luminescent costumes to create the show’s special effects. It was a great show overall (“Afrikania” at Image Theater) and well worth the money for a unique Prague experience.
Although we planned to visit the Prague Castle and a few other sites the following day, I woke up in the morning unable to get out of bed for most of the day. Fever, headache, stomach issues, and other details that will be spared for this blog’s readers were intense and left me in the hostel throughout the day. Kevin headed to the Castle, bought me some bread, and booked a ticket direct to Vienna, since I was not about to pounce out of bed at 6am and head to Bratislava as originally planned. Our room was on the first floor overlooking a courtyard, and I can’t say I was pleased with the smokers and guitarist who played the same riff over and over again for hours.
Either way, I felt slightly better in the morning, boarded my train to Vienna, and met my parents there in the evening after a 6-hour journey. Things turned worse again at night, with new and even more lovely symptoms, and I was primarily bed-ridden for the following day in Vienna as well. A stomach virus and/or food poisoning was not the aspect of my Asia trip that I hoped to repeat, but unfortunately this felt like Vietnamese déjà vu. Let the saga continue in my first post from Austria…