Eastern European Adventures: Part 2 - Prague...12 Years Later!

In 1994, I was an exchange student in Köln, Germany, and my host family took me to Prague, then a recently-dissolved Czechoslovakia. Last time I was here, the city was still adjusting to Western influences, everything was cheap (combo of the de-Easternizing process and a strong US dollar), and it was HOT (mid-June!). This time, Prague has definitely modernized since then, and while not using the Euro, things have gotten a little more expensive, and it was still fairly warm!

We got to Prague around 6 am, bought open tickets for Berlin, stashed our luggage, and hit the dark streets. We got to Charles Bridge (Karlův most) around dawn, which all those photography hints are right- perfect lighting for picture taking! Unfortunately, my battery was dying and my back-up was already dead- NOT a good combo for a clear, sunny day in Prague! We found a cute little coffee shop for some breakfast, and I saw a plug in the corner of the room so I plugged in my battery pack to charge. An hour later, we were back on the bridge and I was taking pictures like crazy! Then we went in search of the Astronomical Clock (Pražský orlojgot). We got there at 5 minutes to the hour (perfect timing!) watched the saints march on through, and then wandered around the Christmas Market set-up in the exact square I had sat in 12 years ago, sweating my bum off waiting for the clock to chime the hour (it turned out it was broken and I never did see the chiming back then). By this time, the sun had really burned through the clouds and it had turned into a bright and sunny day! I even took off my coat! December in Prague? I was thoroughly impressed.

As we did in Budapest, we took various trams around the city and jumped off when the mood struck. We walked all around (for the second day in a row) and I saw a lot of things I didn’t see my previous visit (of course I saw things then I didn’t see this time too). We ended our day with a visit up to the Prague Castle, with more pictures and more shopping at the little booths lining the Old Castle Stairs (Staré zámecké schody). Truly the most perfect day we could have picked to be in Prague.

Then we returned to the train station to find that the train to Berlin was leaving from a different train station, so we headed back to the metro to go to the other train station. Along the way we stopped off at a convenience station for an authentic Prague souvenir and candy for our train ride to Berlin.