Way before Christmass, when I was still in Edinburgh, doin' several overtime hours, I exchanged few messages with friends from Polish Lolita Community about going 'somewhere. We were talking about different places (rather closer than further from Poland) at the begining but seeing great deals for neighbouring Czech Republic, we decided on Prague and as bonus; Kutna Hora. Good or bad idea? Let's see!
In the evening of 14th of December we met on Krakow's main bus station. When our bus appeared, we jumped to upper deck and after less than more comfortable, 7+ hours long ride, we arrived in Prague. We were very tired, so the first thing we did was rushing to our hostel- Prague Plus (recommended by the way!), leaving there our luggage and refreshing ourselves. Check-in was in few hours and we didn't want to just sit and waste time so we went to grab some breakfast and sightsee a little bit.
We quickly learnt that finding a coffie shop/ bar/ restaurant that's open and serves breakfast around 8/9 AM is NOT as easy as it sounds...eventually we ate at some fancy/hipster- looking eco point and got coffee from Costa. Not the best option, I assume, but better than nothing.
Full(?- not starving I'd say) and slightly warmed up, we checked David Černy's TV tower, which was, well, strange. But his sculptures are one of a kind and either you like them or just hate them.
After that we moved on Hradcany's direction. Ofcourse we had to fool around a little bit on our way! And look at the second plan hero...
Between the castle and Cathedral, there was a small Christmass Market.
It was cold, so we skipped shopping and ran to buy tickets. There were few options and prices but we decided on the one that cost us 250 korons (about 10$) which allowed us to enter Cathedral, castle, St.Jiri's church and so called Golden Alley.
Cathedral looked as impressive as I remembered it from my previous Prague trip.
And those amazing stained glass windows!
Altar
Bellow it's....already castle's rooms. I was kinda shocked these were just empty areas. I mean, I know it's not a baroque palace, full of kitchy decorations but still...
St.Jiri's church
Golden Alley
Unfortunately, after making following two pictures, my camera's battery died and I couldn't make any more photos that day. And I really regret that, cuz Golden Alley is amazing. You can actually enter each small house and see how people lived not so long ago.
First day of our trip, without proper sleep night before, came to an end after we came back to hostel and decided to just not move anywhere anymore.
On day two we were supposed to go to Kutna Hora- small city located one hour from Prague but we changed plans and just walked around Prague a bit more, exploring not only touristic must-see's but also less obvious things. Like 'Nosferatu'. What was it, you'll ask? The darkest, most (kinder-)gothic shop in whole city! Look at the entrance, so gothic that I almost fainted (from laugh, lol).
But at least, to warm up atmosphere, they've made a Christmass tree! So nice...and...ugh. Something's wrong here.
The shop itself was like any other Metal Music shop, just slightly biger.
Next stop- Lucerna Palace. It was quite close to previous place, so we walked there. We also made some group pics there.
From Left: Keczup, Elluin, Menoa and Mysza.
Mine & Elluin's clothing made such a nice contrast. I really like these pics (taken by Menoa)
Later we went to Charles Bridge, because weather was quite good and sun gave everything amazing, golden look.
View on Hradcany.
Slavian accent, hahaha. Menoa and Elluin just COULD NOT resist.
Me and Mysza
It was getting dark and we had still so much to see. Ofcourse, being in Prague in Winter time meant that we HAD TO see the Christmass Market on main marketplace! It looked beautiful! Some of us also bought mulled wine or cider, which helped to warm up.
I was tempted to buy Trdelnik but decided to save money for something else (cheapskate in me is strong, hahahaha :D)
Day two came to an end.
Day 3- Kutna Hora! I will write about it in next note, because I think this place deserves more attention than being just addition to note about Prague.
Day 4 was the day we had to go back home. Alto our bus was in the evening and we had lot of time to still sightsee, we came to conclusion that we'll take it easy. Aura was horrible, it was raining and we were sort of out of it, so we grabbed some good, Czech food at bar called Havelska Koruna (very good dishies and reasonable prices, tho it's always packed with people!). We also made last shopping (czech sweets are soooo good!) and rushed to main bus station to go back to Cracow.
That's all folks, What can I tell you to sum it up? First of all- good company is great thing. Girls that I've been traveling with are great and I really enjoyed exploring Prague once again with them. Second thing- traveling in Winter time is totally different than in Summer. It's colder, days are shorter, so ya have to be more organized and also remember to take proper clothing and shoes (that last one was my mistake...my feet hurt so much from cold). Third- just enjoy! Like I did! Going somewhere just before Christmass may be much needed escape from holiday madness.
Okay, enough writing for today! Are there any survivors? :P
