Vacances de Toussaint: Prague

Almost 3 months ago now (just a bit behind on the blog!) I had a two week vacation- my first of 3 that are built into the school year (actually there are 4 but my contract will be up by the time the fourth one rolls around). It's a pretty sweet deal.

At the time of the vacation, I had been in France for a little over a month and we had only worked 3 weeks :) The reason for the break was All Saint's Day (Toussaint) on Nov 1 - the holiday Europeans celebrate instead of Halloween. Although I was bummed about not being able to celebrate Halloween, I was more than happy to trade it for the 2 week vacay.

My parents decided to come over to Europe during my break and we planned to travel to Prague, Dubrovnik and Rome. I was really excited because each city and country were new for me.

The Friday before break started I took the train up to Paris and spent the night in a hotel near Charles de Gaulle. I was originally supposed to get into Paris around 11 at night, but my "gardien" (he's kind of like the super of our residence), M. Martin, pushed me into moving up my train because he kept telling me I would "finir par morceaux," meaning end in pieces, aka get cut up if I dared crossing Paris by myself at 11 at night. He also told me, mind you after I had already booked my room, that the hotel I was spending the night at is infamous for bed bugs. Thanks M. Martin. I didn't end up getting bed bugs so hah.

Despite originally going to the wrong terminal at CDG, I made it 10 minutes before check-in ended and the guy kindly ignored the fact that my suitcase was overweight and let me go without paying. Although I had booked on some sketchy airline I'd never heard of before (Smart Wings - reminds me more of Role Models than an airline) it took off on time and I landed in Prague without a problem.

It was snowing the day I arrived and even though it made it quite cold, it made the city look magical. Prague is awesome. My mom kept exclaiming throughout the trip, "This is the most beautiful city I have ever seen." And I agree, even though my dad's response was always, "Don't let the French hear you say that!" And yes, Paris is beautiful as well, but Prague is just more enchanting. One of the coolest things about it is its range of architecture styles. The Old Town boasts gothic architecture, while other parts of the city exhibit anything from Baroque churches to cubist apartment buildings and the Art Nouveau style of the Municipal House to the deconstructivist (aka New Baroque). Did I just convince you there that I majored in Art History? I did take a year of it, but most of that came from Wikipedia. I can pretend right?

Trdelníks being grilled over a fire. They are then rolled in a sugar and walnut mix

Prague had great food, although most of the city seemed to be culturally diverse in terms of food as I saw various cuisines from French to Irish to good ole American with T.G.I Friday's. Since the cold had come, on the streets you could buy hot wine, pretzels and these awesome sugar pastries called trdelniks. I had many great Czech beers, including the famous Pilsner Urquell (which is also sold in the U.S.).

Original Budweiser we had at dinner one night
Has nothing to do with the American brand

Other sights and attractions: 

Powder Tower

View of Prague Castle from one end of the Charles Bridge

Charles Bridge crowded with tourists

St. Vitus Cathedral at Prague Castle

Golden Lane in Prague Castle
Historic houses from the 15th century that have been preserved to show artisan life of the time in which they were inhabited. Franz Kafka lived here for a period of time.

Astronomical Clock [Prague Orloj]
Councillors at the time blinded the clocksmith who designed it so he could not replicate the masterpiece anywhere else. Every hour on the hour a crowd forms in front of the tower to watch the clockwork procession of the Apostles and other figures, such as Death and Vanity. At the end this weird chicken comes out and clucks.

Old Town Square at night

Another shot of Old Town Square at night

Old Town Square again

Spanish Synagogue, don't mind my thumb.
Contrary to the impression the name gives, the synagogue was not a place of worship to Spanish Jews living in Prague (which of course is not what I thought...), rather a synagogue so named for the moorish architectual influences. 

Old Jewish Cemetery
If you can't tell by the picture, we did not actually go in

Creepy baby statues on the other side of the bridge on Kampa Island

Lennon Wall

Although Lennon himself never visited Prague, he was a symbol of freedom to the youth in Prague still living under the communist regime. When Lennon was assassinated in 1980, his picture was painted on this wall, which already served as an outlet to defy authorities through graffiti. Police tried several times to whitewash the wall, but within a day the wall would again be covered in paintings of Lennon and poems praising freedom.

Frank Gehry's Dancing House
Controversial at the time of its construction in the 90s since it stands out among typical Prague architecture. Gehry originally gave it the nickname Fred and Ginger (of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers) since the building resembles dancing partners, but then later rejected it himself as he didn't want to push American Hollywood on the city.

Wenceslas Square with the National Museum behind. A long street leads down from the museum towards the center of town and is lined with various shops and hotels that kind of reminds me of the Champs-Elysées.

It was kind of a bummer though since we couldn't go into the National Museum, National Theatre or the opera house since they were all closed for construction of sorts. 

We also went and saw a chamber orchestra concert at the Municipal House. Prague seems to be famous for these types of performances, as they were posters all around for concerts almost every night.

My parents looking like such tourists (couldn't leave this out!)

After Prague we headed to Dubrovnik and Rome, which I will be writing on soon. Stay posted!