Colorful Buildings + Street Food + Street Performers= Prague

Prague was definitely the most beautiful city we've visited so far. The buildings were bright, cheerful, and so colorful. Gorgeous. But, I think one thing I will forever remember about Prague is the amount of street food we consumed in our two and a half days there. After the long train ride and sad attempts to find our hotel room we ate some chicken kabobs and walked around the city. Jeff and I also grabbed some dessert. He got a piece of cheesecake at a small little store, and I got a trdelnik (rolled sugary dough) at a nearby street vendor.

Colorful buildings along the river. 

They make the trdelnik on these long rods and they wind them up. 

During our first full day in Prague we stopped to snap a few photos of the "Dancing House". We were disappointed in this place as the internet made it appear way cooler than it actually was. I think a little piece of me thought the building was going to do something cool...like dance.

We headed to the Prague Castle and stayed there for a few hours to enjoy the giant area filled with museums, churches, restaurants, and little shops. We got a ticket to visit seven different buildings, but only made it to six of them, while in the castle walls. We visited the Old Royal Palace, The Story of Prague Castle (museum), Basilica of St. George, Golden Lane, St. Vitus's Cathedral, and the Rosenberg Palace.  We were most impressed, as always, with the cathedral. We even said a few times while we were inside that the pictures will not do this place justice. Jeff and I were in awe of the stained glass as a lot of it was new since the Cathedral had been through war and a major fire. We stood there and discussed the stories each of the windows told. They were beautiful.

 Outside of the cathedral. 

 The stained glass windows.

The Golden Lane, which had a bunch of houses, shops, etc. set up like that time period. We were also lucky enough to see the last bit of the changing of the guards. Pretty cool!

 I told Jeff this picture looks fake, but we found this little area in between the trees and saw the opportunity to take a picture. 

We walked around the city some more, and grabbed some food...you guessed it, street food! This time it was a goulash. Jeff got some sort of chicken, potato, & onion mixture as I got a potato, onion, & bacon one.

 My goulash is on the left and Jeff's is on the right. 

We walked around the winding city roads, saw the Astronomical Clock & Tower, the Old Town Square, and the New Town Square. I loved all of the shops the city had, especially the toy shops.  There were tons of puppets, wooden toys, and crystal shops. Jeff and I are not big on souvenirs, but I bought this little red/green painted egg.  There were quite a few stands selling these eggs at the Easter Market. It makes us wonder if half of the street food, performances, & set-up would have been there had it not been Easter weekend.

 Toy store. The puppets in the center danced around in a circle. 

 At the top of the Old Town Hall & Astronomical Clock. 

I do believe at this point our "thing" is to climb towers.

View from the top of the tower. You can see all the vendor stands selling merchandise and food. The other pictures is the side view of the clock. 

We headed towards the Petrin Hill & Observation Tower. It was an interesting attempt to get to the top. We traveled through the city and by accident found the Embassy of the United States of America. We headed up and reached a park where we could see a map that showed how to get to the tower. We knew there were shuttles and trams you could pay for to take you straight to the top. There were also paths that we found when it was too late. We headed up a super steep dirt path (huffing & puffing, might I add) and luckily made it to a spot that was close to a real path. We headed up numerous stairs and headed uphill to reach the tower. 

The tower was 299 steps and was not in an enclosed stairwell like other towers we've climbed. This completely freaked me out. I felt like I was going to fall out, and Jeff was amused by this the entire time. Once you reached the top, you could feel the tower sway...creepy! Needless to say, I was pretty excited to be at the ground level once we climbed back down. 

 Embassy of the United States of America. I was hoping for an invitation inside. hehe

 The Petrin Tower on the left and the tame part of the walk to the tower on the right. 

 Amazing view from the top of the tower. 

The 5-day trip was absolutely amazing and were so happy to be able to both a modern city and a picturesque one. 

Total Amount of Transportation Between the Two Cities: 

• 2 plane rides
• 1 train
• 2 airport shuttles
• 2 transfer buses
• 3 metro rides
• 1 boat
• 2 car rides to/from London.

Now, we rest.