Prague: CZECH ME OUT!

So a few weeks ago I took a trip to Prague, Czech Republic with my friend Morgen. Originally it was supposed to be 4 of us, but unfortunately our friend Josi and another girl had to cancel at the last minute. It was a weekend full of both frustration and fun.

Before I get into the details of Prague, I'm going to give some (hopefully) good advice on travel and lodging.

Travel

Most states ('state' = 'Bundesland') in Germany offer special types of single and group tickets to get around by train within that region. My Bundesland, Bayern (Bavaria), offers several: the Bayern Ticket (up to 5 people, anywhere in Bavaria + Salzburg, Austria, between 22 and 38 Euro depending on the number of people), and the Bayern-Böhmen Ticket (Bavaria-Bohemia), which includes a large area of the Czech Republic. This was only 29.50 for 2 people! While these tickets restrict you to local transportation and Regional trains, it is BY FAR the cheapest way to travel; less than 15 Euro each got us to Pilsen, Czech Republic, and from there it was about 6 Euro to Prague.

We basically did the same thing on the way back; We only spent ~40-45 Euro round trip on travel. That is amazing to me. These regional tickets are available all over Germany and are an excellent way to get around cheaply if you are in a group of people (we actually used one on our trip to Brussels too). If you're within Bavaria you can get to Salzburg, Austria in just a few hours, and with a few friends you could bring the cost down below 10 Euro; I plan to do this soon.

Prague

Day 1
After arriving in Prague, Morgen and I headed straight for our hotel, a 35 minute walk from the train station. It was terrible because my bag is the most uncomfortable thing to carry in the world. And wouldn't you know it, when we arrive I discover that the hotel doesn't have our reservation! Great!! Not only that, but they were not even willing to check a second name. I had booked through an affiliate of Kayak.com, I didn't even realize that Kayak would link to an untrustworthy site. I still have my suspicions about that place, something was fishy...

Anyway, we ended up having to take a tram all the way across to the other side of the city to find a room! But when we did, OH MAN. It was one of the nicest hotel rooms I'd ever been in, and was relatively cheap for the quality.

By the time we got settled into our room and had some dinner, it was time for the first event of the weekend: the Infamous Prague Pub Crawl! For 20 Euro, you get all of the following: 1 hour of UNLIMITED DRINKS at the Pub Crawl's own bar, including shots of Absinthe and some authentic Czech beer; entry to 4 different bars, with a free shot at the entrance to each one, culminating at the end of the night in Central Europe's largest club, Karlovy Lázně; and last but not least, a free T-shirt! I cannot stress enough how awesome the crawl is, especially for Americans. I say this because, as it turns out, all of the guides and organizers were American, and the majority of the 50-60 people who were on the crawl were American, Australian, English, or some other English-speaking nationality. We ended up hanging out with about 6 or 7 other Americans, 2 Swiss guys, and an Australian. 




Day 2
Needless to say, we were a bit..."under the weather" the day after the Pub Crawl. But that wasn't going to stop us! The first and most major objective of the day was a Free Walking Tour of Prague! We just met in old town square and looked for a guy with a yellow umbrella, and we were on our way! There are a lot of free tours, but we would really recommend this one; our tour guide Jirka (picture to the right) is a native Czech guy with a great sense of humor, and an even greater sense of history. The tour lasted a few hours and concluded right back where we started in the old town square. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the tour:

We learned a lot about Prague that day, but unfortunately I forgot most of it in typical fashion. I do remember one good story, however: There was a king living in Prague during the Middle Ages who had a very beautiful wife. One day, he began to become very suspicious that his wife had taken another lover. Knowing that the Queen was a very devout Catholic, the King knew that if she had been adultering, she surely would have told her priest during Confession. So, the King approached the priest and demanded he tell him who the Queen's lover was. The priest, an honorable man of God, refused to say whether she had another lover or not, as Confession was between her, him, and God. But the King did not relent...he tortured the priest for information, but the priest persisted, and would not give up any information. Eventually, fed up, the King ordered that the priest be thrown off of the bridge with stones tied around his ankles. Legend has it that Angels came down and swept the priest up before he hit the water, and carried him up to the sky, where he became a star, as a testament to his faithful service to his God and Queen. The priest is a bit of a historical hero to the people of Prague, and many depictions of the priest with stars around his head are around the city (shown on the right). Now, the best part of this legend, as told by our tour guide, is that historical evidence has shown that the Queen DID have a lover, and he was none other than............... you guessed it, THE PRIEST! Now we know why he was so willing to die to keep it a secret; he surely would have died had he told the truth anyway :)

Later in the day we went on our own to check out the Prague Castle. It is the largest castle grounds by square meter in all of Europe. The castle had many different types of architecture all together; Prague had been home to so many different kings, that each one felt the need to leave his mark on it. Unfortunately the inside of the castle was closed, but we were able to walk around the grounds and snap a few pictures, including a great panorama of the entire city from the high vantage point of the castle.

After the castle, we retired back to our hotel room and hit the hay. The next day we rode back to Munich in much the same was as we arrived, and bid farewell to Prague and the Czech Republic. It was quite a beautiful city and countryside, and I definitely plan on going back before my time in Europe is through.