Pretty, pretty, pretty Prague. This is another city, like Krakow, where the mere act of wandering around is enough (although the public transit was fantastic!).  The pastel buildings, the curlicue Art Nouveau detailing on doorknobs and windowsills, the crooked streets of Old Town. Not to mention the beer. Speaking of, one of the most surprising and delightful parts of our week was this: Prague reminded us so much of Denver.

I KNOW. Old world, gracious capital with hundreds of years of history similar to outdoorsy, trendy Denver? I swear it’s true. Keep in mind we stayed in Old Town and spent most of our time there, which is definitely one of the tourist centers of this big city. HOWEVER, I can only share my opinions and I’m telling you, Prague is the Denver of Europe. Here are the facts:

1. Prague is full of those beer-mobiles, just like Denver. You know, those happy tipsy trolleys where a group of friends pedals, drinks beer, and “wooooOOOOooOOOos!” at passerbys? We saw at least one every single day. By the way, I always WOOOOOO back at them. They are having a great time! I love it!
2. Probably drawn by the beer-mobiles and the beer in general, we noticed so many groups of young men rolling around the city in packs having an absolute ball. If I squinted, I would swear these Prague bros were in RiNo.
3. We got more than one whiff of Denver’s other favorite pastime walking around. It smelled like home!
4. Prague has a Denver-style brewery that we, of course, went to and had a flight and amazing beers. AND There was a Breckenridge sticker on the wall.
5. Prague has tons of contemporary public sculpture all over the place, not just the historical statues that are common in European cities.
6. Prague was relentlessly sunny and hot the whole time we were there (again, I doubt this is the normal weather, but I can only write what I experienced), but was surprisingly chilly at night and in the morning. JUST LIKE DENVER. And many other places. Fine, I’m stretching with this one.

We loved Prague for far more than the Denver similarities, of course. We observed Rosh Hashanah here, and were able to go to services in a historic synagogue with a welcoming community where we made new friends, Lauren and Abby. We were also really lucky that two friends, Kevin and Chris, had lived/spent a lot of time in Prague and could give us a ton of recommendations. We are finding that the absolute best way to see a city is to pester an expert and beg them for ideas, especially in a big city like Prague that has SO MANY things to do, see, eat and drink.

Note: Ben took a bunch of these pictures. He is killing it with the big camera. 

WHAT I LOVED IN PRAGUE AND WOULD RECOMMEND WITHOUT EVEN BEING ASKED

Our Air BnB!: Once again, we hit the jackpot with our Air BnB. We are living in the golden age of Air BnB and loving every second. This place was smack dab in Old Town, a ten-minute walk from the synagogue we were going to for Rosh Hashanah, and so spacious (two bedrooms!) and full of amenities! It had a DRYER. Haven’t seen one of those since we left Baltimore. I loved sitting in the kitchen and looking out the huge windows at the sky. Plus it had a great coffee machine AND an elevator.

Activities

The free walking tour (again): These are quickly becoming our favorite thing to do. Our tour guide, Melanie, was absolutey wonderful and knowledgable about Prague. We learned a ton from her and she covered everything from Jan Huss and the infamous Defenestration of Prague to the Holocaust in Prague and the Velvet Revolution. The tours meet in the Staromestske Namesti, which is also where the famous astronomical clock (sadly under construction when we were there), the statue of Jan Huss, and the giant Church of Our Lady before Týn.

Letna Park: This steep and pretty park was right across the Vlata from where we were staying, and we had a great morning wandering around this park, enjoying amazing views of Prague, and enjoying the greenery. The steep and lengthy staircase to get up into the park also counted as our exercise that day!

St. Agnes Convent: We stumbled upon this place coming back from Letna Park, and I loved it. It is a little far from the Old Town Square, which must be the reason for the lack of tourists This graceful old convent has a contemporary sculpture park tucked in the walls. It was so fun to have the place to ourselves! A great spot to play with our fancy new camera.

Tesco My: This was an awesome grocery store, and worth the 15 minute walk from our place. Since we were there for a week, we cooked two dinners and ate breakfast at home every day. This place was huge and we were able to stock up on everything, including pringles. No apologies for those.

Jewish museum: This was my favorite paid attraction in Prague. The ticket gets you into six places and you can use it over a few days.

Here are all of my pictures from the Jewish Museum sites.

I started in the Pinkas Synagogue, where we had Rosh Hashanah services. This time, I was able to take pictures and spend some time walking around. The synagogue is now a stirring Holocaust memorial. The names of the Czech murdered Jews are written on the walls, and the synagogue is empty except for the names and the bimah. There is an informational exhibit about how the Holocaust unfolded in Prague outside, and then you can go into the Old Jewish cemetery from the synagogue courtyard.

The cemetery is another heartstrings-pulling place, especially placed in context with the memorial in the synagogue. I kept thinking to myself walking amongst the stones that these people each get a stone, a physical marker, instead of a name on the wall…and how much I wished that each of the people written inside had lived a normal life, died a normal death (although I know that tragic deaths must also be represented in the graveyard), and had a gravestone somewhere instead of what actually happened to them.

I was also very happy that when I was visiting the Pinkas synagogue and the cemetery, everyone else was extremely respectful. Visitors were asked to put on a kippah, and there were signs posted reminding people that this was a pious and sacred place. This was a big contrast to our experience in Auschwitz.

After, I went to the Klausen Synagogue. The exhibit here is interesting but disturbing: the items were gathered by the Nazis to establish a museum of an extinct race. You kind of can’t forget that fact when visiting the building. However, it is a beautiful old synagogue, and the exhibit is an interesting explanation of Jewish religious services, holidays and customs. If you are Jewish or took a whole bunch of classes to become Jewish, this information is nothing new but still interesting to read.

The most glorious, and possibly my favorite part, of the Jewish museum sites was the Spanish Synagogue. The building is MASSIVE and so ornate that my eyes couldn’t take it all in when I walked into the main hall. So very worth a visit just to gasp, and it is also nice to visit a stunning house of worship for a different religion in Europe, where so many of the WOW buildings are churches, basilicas, and cathedrals. We are really looking forward to visiting mosques, temples, etc. in other countries for this reason. After enjoying the main hall, I found the most whimsical and delightful exhibit downstairs in the gallery space. This was called “My Cup of Kafka”, and was an exhibit of the work of Jiří Slíva. His cartoons about Kafka, Freud, being Jewish, and psychoanalysis were just so clever that I smiled the whole time.

Hanging out at Strelecky Park: Since the community that was hosting us for Rosh Hashanah didn’t have day services on Day 1 of the holiday, we spent it here reading our kindles and reflecting on our year. It was such a nice spot for a picnic, with a beautiful view of the Prague castle and lots of shade. They even had a food truck!

Using public transit: The public transit system in Prague was so great! We didn’t use it much since our Air BnB was so central, but when we wanted to go to Beer Story, we started walking and then realized we would have to climb a very very steep hill to get there. I was in a beer mood, not a hiking mood, so we got on a bus and then took the subway to the brewery. Everything was on time and easy to use! We took a subway and a tram back, and again–impressive.

Going to a concert in the Mirror Chapel: There are concerts advertised all over Prague, and we were really happy with the one we went to. We saw a string quartet in the Mirror Chapel at the Klemintinium complex. The space was incredibly beautiful, and, as people who don’t really go to classical music concerts, it was special treat just to listen to this type of music.  The best were from Czech composers in such a fabulous place, especially the famous song “The Moldau” by Smetana, and “A New World” by Dvorak. After the Czech composers, the quartet played the entire Four Seasons, which I could have done without and listened to more Czech composers, but ah well. I also had to sush some women behind me who would. not. shut. up. Have to maintain my skills for when I return to the classroom.

Walking around Prague castle but not paying to go in: We got up early one day and hit a bunch of the big Prague sites when it was cool and relatively uncrowded. We strolled the Charles Bridge and almost had it to ourselves (in the afternoon it was literally wall to wall people), hit the Lennon wall (see below), and finished at the Prague Castle. The steps to get up there are no joke, but the view from the top is amazing–evidenced by the THREE brides we saw taking photos on our way. It is free to walk around the grounds, and you can also go into part of the St. Vitas Cathedral for free. If you wanted to go further into the cathedral, you would have to pay (they had a seperate entrance), but just looking at the stained glass inside was enough for us. Plus, my favorite things were outside: the gross and funny gargoyles I could spot with our zoom lens. Barfing, check. Howling in pain, check. Creepy cat? Check.

Lennon Wall: I was shocked this wasn’t more crowed with Instagrammers, but we really had it to ourselves (again, the whole “early bedtime early wakeup” lifestyle has some advantages, even if it makes us uncool). It’s a fun place to take pictures on the way to Prague castle.

Food

*Lokal: This one deserves an asterisk because the first time we attempted to go here, I hated it and it sent me down a wandering-worries spiral. Let me explain. One thing I was really, really, really looking forward to with this trip was the food. I have an average interest in historical sites, museums, etc., but I desperately want to stuff my face with the best stuff in each country (I’m sort-of exercising to atone for this. Sort of.) My food-pride was wounded by a disastrous attempt at a food tour in Copenhagen (hopefully, the subject of a future post), and I was feeling cuisine vulnerable.

So we get to Prague, hungry and excited to be in a new place. Everyone recommended this place Lokal for cheap, authentic Czech food, and I was thrilled when I spotted a branch a block away from our place. On our first night in Prague, we went in, excited to eat Czech food! The place was pretty crowded, but there was no staff at the front talking to any customers so we just stood there like scared kindergarteners on the first day of school. Ben finally approached a waiter, who informed him they were full, and ALSO said, laughing, “no soup for you”. HE SAID THAT. HE TOLD BEN HE COULD NOT HAVE SOUP. It is hysterical now but at the time we were super dejected, hungry, and tired from the somewhat gross Flixbus experience. We shuffled into a Banh Mi place across the street and ate Vietnamese food our first night in Prague. Which actually ended up being really good. However, the experience in Copenhagen and Lokal really made me sad. Could I not hack it in international restaurants? Did they hate us for being tourists? Would the emporiums of delicious food be closed to me in every country because of rude waiters and language barriers? Would I end up at Mcdonalds and Starbucks?

After a long walk in Letna park and a long talk resetting our travel goals and objectives (we can’t help it, we are teachers), I was determined to conquer Lokal. We went for lunch, I marched in, finally found someone to take pity on us, and got a table! Wooo! Trip triumph! Our waiter ended up being really nice, and we loved our potato dumplings, cabbage, and of course, Pilsner Urquell. I also shared my knowledge on the walking tour later with some fellow tourists: if you go here, go at lunch. Don’t be put off by the lack of help and confusion.

Grils: We walked about 25 minute from Old Town to get to this place before going to Beer Story, and it was SO WORTH IT. They had amazing roast chicken and cider on tap. I can ask for nothing more.

Beer Story: We took public transportation to this brewery, and we loved it. We each got a flight of beers, every one interesting and delicious. We loved the vibe and they had snacks too.

Lunch at Field: WHAT AN EXPERIENCE. This is a super fancy restaurant in our neighborhood that we read about in the guidebook. We went for lunch, which was much less expensive then dinner would have been, and got the prix fixe menu without the wine pairings. It was still pricy, but doable. This is one of those “food as art” places with waiters pour things into your plate and bowls come with mist floating around and everything is sprinkled with pretty things: all types of fun theatrics. We loved it. The food was so good, and one of the courses including “birch water”. It really did taste like a tree, too. In a delicious way.

WHAT I WOULD SKIP NEXT TIME

Not much, because Prague was awesome.

Klementinum Library Tour: This is a tough one because the views at the end were truly spectacular, but I don’t think it was worth $14 each. This guided tour (you can’t go in by yourself) is about 40 minutes and includes the Klementinum Library and an astronomical tower. You can’t go into the library or take pictures: you just stand at the entrance for a few minutes. It looked very, very cool, with all types of globes and old musty books (plus the old musty book smell, be still my heart), but the time spent at the library was too brief and limited. Then, you climb up to a tower (very steep staircase). At first, we were all just standing in this dark room, and I was thinking “we paid $27 dollars for this…?” but then the guide opened the doors and windows and HELLO PRAGUE. Gorgeous, 360 degree views all around from a narrow balcony. Photos galore. But I would skip it next time, go to a concert at the Klementinum instead (which we did!), and find another viewpoint that doesn’t cost so much 

Loco Burrito: This is a chain. We got a burrito here. I found it underwhelming. It was NOT Czech Chipotle. That probably doesn’t exist. That’s really all.

Taking the Flixbus from Berlin: I truly wish we had taken a train from Berlin to Prague because I think it would have been far more pleasant/European, but the budget called, and we couldn’t say no to this much cheaper option. However, you get what you pay for: a cramped, smelly bus with more than a few characters. It was also very hard to find where the bus left from, resulting in some panicked, sweaty running a Berlin bus station that I could have avoided.  

WHAT I WISH WE HAD TIME FOR

Letna Park Beer Garden: We kept meaning to go back to this park to hang out at the delightful beer garden we saw walking around, that our friend Kevin recommended. Alas, we lost time for it.

Mucha Museum and Slav Epic: Alfonso Mucha is a famous Czech artist, and is all over Prague. His work is displayed at two locations: the Mucha Museum and the Municipal House (which is a fabulous building, and not like some random community center at all). I couldn’t decide which one to go to, and decided to buy postcards at the Mucha Museum and then go to the Slav Epic. Welp, I accidentally spent way too much on postcard stamps which would have been the money I spent on going to the Slav Epic….so I didn’t go. WE ARE STICKING TO OUR BUDGET if it kills us. Plus I want to go to South America, and if we blow all our money in Europe that ain’t happenin’. Hopefully the postcards I frantically mailed last minute at the Prague Train Station make it to my friends and family, but nevertheless this looked really cool and I’m bummed we didn’t make it. Next time:)

Coffee shops: Because our Air BnB was so nice/budget/laziness, I didn’t spend as much time in all of the cute coffee shops we saw and were recommended to us. However, they looked VERY NICE and I wish I had consumed more caffeine in these adorable spaces.