Europe Trip - Day 1 Prague, Czech Republic

Let the adventure being!!! Recap time! The last blog I wrote was about my arrival in Prague and some tips on how to get to the city just by taking the local public transport! So, now let's begin!

Most of the days on my trip I wake up between 7:00am or 8:00am depends on how long I check my facebook, messages, instagram and emails. When that is done, it's breakfast time! It's great 1 meal of your day out of the way! If not I'd probably end up have a toast and cup of coffee.

Park Inn Hotel Breakfast - Had this every day for the 5 days 4 nights stay.

The Park Inn Hotel provides continental buffet breakfast. Yep! All you can eat. Starts from 7:30am - 10:30am. There's toast, croissant, fried egg, scrambled eggs, salad, juice and loads more. I like the mushroom the most because I simple like to eat various of mushrooms. There's one odd thing that happened every day having breakfast, I had to ask for coffee or my friend had to just go and get a pot of coffee for our table. There are 5-6 staffs working out the restaurants, sometimes they ignore you or they aren't around. Anyway, it's fine by us. We didn't except it to be a 5 star hotel service. More information on the rest of the review click here.

After breakfast, my friend and I changed and gathered ourselves and head off to our first location of the day! The weather wasn't our friend on that day, so we had to bring our umbrellas.

Tip: During Spring season always carry an umbrella. You will never know when it's going to rain!

Everything is just a walk away! See more of Prague by walking!

Our first location was Basilica Of St. Peter and St. Paul! It was near where I stayed so, it was the first place I went to see! The walk wasn't bad at all if it wasn't raining.

St. Peter & Paul Church

Isn't it beautiful?! The basilica was built in the 18th Century and 19th Century. The location is in "Vyshrad fortress" There is a cemetery there "Vysehrad Cemetery" where many famous people like, authors, poets lay there. People can go inside the cemetery and pay their respect to the dead and look around some of the head stones. There are some modern and some old head stones definitely worth seeing if the cemetery doesn't freak you out.

The basilica is surround by a big park where you can see the whole Vltava River in Prague.

Isn't it beautiful! Even though the sky was grey but the view was stunning!

For more information about the basilica, read on wikipedia!

Where is exactly the Basilica St. Peter and St. Paul?

After the spending an hour or more at the Basilica, I headed back to the Vltava River. If you are at the end of the river where it isn't the tourist attraction place, you will actually see swans and ducks swimming around the river. Many locals there will feed bread to them daily. I guess that's why they are always around.

The Palackeho Bridge - Super cute swans!!!

To see the swans, they are in between the Zeleznicni Most Bridge (Train Bridge) and the Palackeho Most Bridge.

Off to the next location! The Dancing House! It's something fascinating to see a the entire block are old buildings and then you come a across a modern building that as an art feel to it. The whole building itself is a business building but on the ground floor there is a cafe next to the entrance.

The Dancing House

The Art Salon S Gallery inside has an art/gallery show room. You will need to pay an entrance fee to enter to see the modern arts. If you don't want to, it is alright. You can still sit at the cafe and enjoy yourself a cup of coffee.

For more information about the building you can visit praguemax.com! I find the information is very useful! praguemax dancing house

Due to the rain, my friend and I decided to go inside the cafe and wait for the rain to either slow down or stop.

3.92 Euros a cup of Latte. A little bit higher than Starbucks but it's fine since it was raining and cold. They also serve cookies, cakes and macaroons! Free Wifi access is available inside the cafe, simply as the staff there and they will let you know the password.

Where is the Dancing House and Art Salon S Gallery?

Finally the rain wasn't that heavy, we decided to head back out and continue our adventure! We were actually walking towards Charles Bridge, so we just decided to stay along the Vltava River the entire time. We didn't take any public transport because we want to see the most of Prague. We stay in Praha 2 and we were walking to Praha 1!

National Theater Opera, Prague

If you keep walking along the Vltava River, passing the Dancing House you will come across the National Theater Opera Prague and it's under renovation. Opera, ballets, musicals will be showing there. I don't think they provide any tours inside the Opera Theater, like the one in Vienna, so to see inside purchase a ticket on what they are showing now!

Where is the National Theater Opera Prague?

After you pass the National Theater Opera keep walking along the Vltava River. Approximately a 10 minute walk you will be at Charles Bridge. It isn't hard to find as the entrance of the bridge is not hard to spot and many tourists will be at the location already.

When you are at the entrance of the Charles Bridge, behind you will be The Old Town. Once entering the 13th Century Charles Bridge along the side there will be little souvenirs stands and beautiful statues where tourists will go and touch them for good luck!

Click, for more historical information on the Charles Bridge

At the end of Charles Bridge

Where is the Charles Bridge?

When you have come to the end of the Charles Bridge, you will be entering The Little Quarter "Mala Strana" For more information about the Mala Strana

Inside Mala Strana

The Little Quarter, the streets are much narrow. Everything seems much more packed together and you can go explore the little narrow streets!

After walking for quite a bit and the heavy rain started again, it was time for us to have lunch! Inside the little quarter, the restaurants are in tourist price! If you are on a budget like me, you will have to look around and compare the prices.

Pizzeria Canzone

We ended up at Pizzeria Canzone because my friend was craving for pizza! The restaurant itself looked very old. It looked like they worked in the place for a very long time. There are paintings on the wall too. The host was very nice to us and she spoke in English. We ordered a Hawaiian Pizza and we shared since we had a big breakfast earlier. What is amazing is that the restaurant used an old kind of oven to make their pizza. Also, they make it on the spot! Our drinks and food came. The pizza was alright. The whole meal cost about 5-7 Euros with tips included.

As soon as we were done, the restaurant was packed! Among all of the restaurants we looked, this place had a fair price for a decent meal.

Where is the Pizzeria Canzone?

I am not sure if the Pizzeria is really closed now. This is what google map gave me but I was there on April 18, 2014 it was open at the time. It would be nice if anyone can give me an update on this.

After lunch, our next top was to the Prague Castle! It was a pretty far hike, since we just walked straight ahead uphill and didn't really know which street were we on. While on the hike I just took pictures of the area.

Before you know it, you will be at the entrance of the Prague Castle looking down at the Little Quarter and the view of Prague. It would have been nice if the sky was blue but I cannot control the weather of the day.

Before entering the Castle, there is a Starbucks and some snack stands. I am not sure on the price for Starbucks but the drinks on the snack stands, it is a rip off for tourist!s A drink up there the price is doubled or even triple than the prices outside Charles Bridge. I advise you not to purchase any water or soft drinks, unless there isn't any choice.

Tip: Bring your own water bottle. Either bring the one the hotel provides you or you have your own bottle or purchase at a convenient store.

Entrance of the Prague Castle. There will be 2 guard on each side of the entrance. No matter what you do, they will not move, smile or laugh. They have been trained well for their job!

Inside the castle, there are no ticket office where you can see the chambers of the castle as it is used for Government offices except on the first Saturday after May 8. Other than that, the castle is free entrance. You can roam around an look at the architectures and gardens.

There are tickets on tours available. Click the link for more information about the Prague Castle

St. Vitus Cathedral

The St. Vitus Cathedral was breath taking. There is no words to express the structure of this building.
Click the link for more information on the St. Vitus Cathedral.

Where is the Prague Castle, St. Vitus Cathedral? 

After spending most of our day in The Little Quarter and The Prague Castle, we walked back down and ended up at the Rudolfinum Enduring Concert Half & Art Gallery.

Rudolfinum

The home where the Czech Philharmonic plays and art galleries. For more information, visit their website! Rudolfinum Website

Where is the Rudolfinum?

The sky was finally clear! It was nearly the evening and we decided to walk back to Charles Bridge and find a restaurant inside The Old Town Square to have dinner and we wanted Czech food! There are plenty of restaurants will serve traditional Czech food at The Old Town Square. The point is picking which one. My friend and I had a budget, so we searched for any restaurant we could see and look at their menu. 

We walked into small little alley and found U Vejvodu. The place was packed and the price was reasonable. We sat down and the server was very nice to us. We ordered ourselves a Pilsner Urquell aka Czech Beer and Beef Goulash.

It's my first time to try Czech Beer and it doesn't taste bitter which is acceptable to me and my first time to try goulash! Do Czechs like salty food? The goulash I had the flavor was strong and salty or is it just the restaurant itself. There's one thing I notice that Czech restaurants do not provide vegetables on their dish. You have to pay nearly the same price as a main dish for a salad. Either pay a full price salad and if you are lucky you land in a restaurant that you pay a little be more for a salad on the side. 

There is a history behind this U Vejvodu, the restaurant used to be a former hangman's home that dates back in the 16th Century. Read more about their history on their website! 

Where is the U Vejvodu? 

Satisfied after dinner, decided to end the night roaming around Old Town at night and walk back to the hotel!

Romantic at night in Charles Bridge

Next Blog... My Day 2 in Prague!!!