Prague and Brno, Czech Republic

Prague was extra fun because we met our good friend, Tom, there! It was good to see him again after he had moved back to Prague this past May. He was an excellent tour guide showing us all around the city and a huge help with the language difference. It was nice not to have to worry about it for once 🙂

We arrived Sunday afternoon and took in quite a few sights before calling it a night. Our first stop was a restaurant to get some authentic Czech food. I don’t even remember exactly what we got now, just that mine was something similar to mozzarella sticks. And it was really, really good- Pablo exclaimed he felt the most full he’d felt in a while since being on the trip.

After we’d finished our food we headed up to see Prague Castle. I wanted to see it all lit up at night but also be able to check it out while the sun was still out too. We got there after the cathedral part had already closed, but still got to walk around the courtyard. It was actually good to have Tom with there to show us because it’s huge! It’s not exactly clear that THIS is the castle, it’s just one huge building. One guy even stopped right in front of it to ask us if we knew where the castle was. We thought he was drunk and joking, but he was actually serious and couldn’t figure it out! We pointed right behind us and all laughed. But the whole building and network of different areas is pretty crazy, including a million entrances, gardens and viewing points. We walked through the gardens a bit before getting kicked out when they were closing as well (probably around 6:00 if I remember correctly?). We did have some great views looking down on the city. Prague really is beautiful to look at from above with all the red roofs.

From there we headed to the old part of the town to see the Astronomical Clock. We wanted to be there in time to see it chime so the square area was pretty crowded. But we waited and were rewarded with approximately 30 seconds of noise and action. Then it was over. Honestly, not super thrilling to witness although the clock itself looks quite impressive. We wandered around the square for a while after that and Tom pointed out one of his favorite treats. Something like a long crescent roll wrapped around a long wooden pole. The pole is then rotated over coals until the dough is cooking and the dough is covered in sugar and cinnamon. I don’t remember exactly what it’s called but we bought some the next day and it tasted good!

We also began our long search for a famous drink in Prague that is similar to Coca Cola but tastes completely different. KofolaWe searched high and low to find it although Tom was shocked at how difficult it was to locate. Although I passed on trying it, Pablo liked it. They couldn’t quite describe it, just said it was something totally different that he’d never tasted before.

We walked around another square for a bit but it was getting late and our feet were getting tired. I wanted to see the famous Charles Bridge, so we made our way towards that direction as our final stop for the evening. I’ve heard it’s very crowded during the day so it worked out nicely that we were there in the evening. There were still quite a few people walking about but we found it without any trouble and had a good walk. There’s a famous statue along the way and the story is whoever touches it will ensure that they return to Prague someday. We weren’t quite sure which statue it was but I think we found the right one.

Tom dropped us off at a friend’s apartment after that where we stayed for the night (he was in the university dorm and said it was too disgusting to have us stay there haha). The next morning we had planned to check out Petrin Hill and maybe try out bobsledding. It was sad to see him go, but we hope to meet up again soon!

Unfortunately we woke up the next morning to, you guessed it, more rain. The bobsled place doesn’t operate in the rain for safety reasons so that made an easy decision there. I really wanted to try it but it was located about 45 minutes out of the city so we were debating whether or not the trip would be worth it. Instead, we decided we would head to Petrin Hill and then out to Brno to visit another friend of ours, Radim! We had been hoping to see him but didn’t think it would work out when he wasn’t in Prague. However, since we’d already seen so much the day before and it was now raining, we gave him a call and were able to find a train time that worked to meet him. Brno is along the way to Vienna where we were headed next so it worked out perfectly.

Petrin Hill was fun, but again it was raining. We took the funicular up instead of walking all the way. It was included in our train pass anyway so we figured why not. At the top there are a few things to do like go up the Observation Tower (we didn’t want to pay for it) and explore a mysterious hall of mirrors place as well (this sounded intriguing but we didn’t want to pay for it and weren’t sure we’d have enough time). We looked around for a bit and then decided to walk down to the half-way point of the funicular where the café is. It was a nice 30 minute walk and was pretty but I was getting tired of walking through the rain. We also had gotten some good photos of the city the day before from the Castle so this wasn’t all that different. If the day had been nice and sunny it would’ve been fun to spend more time up there and maybe have a picnic. Oh well.

We headed back and caught our train to Brno next where Radim and his girlfriend were waiting to meet us. It was another fun reunion to see Radim again and he proved another great tour guide as well. He took us to the famous crypt in Brno with bodies that had been there for hundreds of years. And the crazy part was that nothing in particular had been done to preserve them! They had somehow just lasted all this time. On top of that, we saw the room that was full of bodies of previous monks who had worked in the church above the crypt. They were too poor for caskets, so whenever someone died, they would hold the funeral, then carry the casket and body downstairs to a room. The bottom of the casket was removable so that they could open it and dispose of the body in the room. Then they’d close the casket back up and re-use it for the next person that died.

After the crypt we spent some time exploring a church and another tower we climbed to get some more good views. Brno is also very pretty, looking quite similar to Prague, just on a smaller scale. And minus the river going through the city. We only had a couple hours with Radim before we had to catch our next train continuing on to Vienna. But it was a very fun couple of days enjoying new sights with old friends.