US Army in Prague 3/2015:

Map of their travel in Prague...

We planned on going to this Tim Burton exhibit by the Old Town Square, but it wasn't open yet, so we walked around Josefov, the former Jewish quarters of Prague (because my family and I are big fans of Jews for some reason.) Here, we (sorta) saw the Old Jewish Cemetery after peeking over the wall that completely enclosed it. There were also many synagogues in the area, and we passed a couple "Jewish" shops.

The Tim Burton exhibit was pretty amazing. He's such a creative guy, and I love his style (reminiscent of Matthew Gray Gubler). There were a lot of sketches from his films, which was cool because I've seen quite a few of his films. He also directed a couple of The Killers' music videos.

Berries! Around the Town Square, there was a little market where random trinkets were sold. It was kinda like a flea market, but there was also sometimes food, mostly in the form of fruit. There were also these creepy dolls that made evil cackling noises and moved back and forth. I'm not quite sure what they were, but they're quite off-putting. I ended up buying a little box of mixed berries, which were expensive, but THE BEST berries I've ever ever eaten!! There were strawberries, cherries, raspberries, johannisberries, blueberries. Oh. my. god.

I took the opportunity to also spend the rest of my Czech money since I won't be using it anymore. I ended up buying a marzipan bar, and a bar of chocolate with a weed leaf on it. Not quite sure what it is, but I guess I'll find out soon enough :P

Since we only had a couple more hours left, we decided to head near the bus station and try to find the park right near it. It took a couple tries to find the entrance because it was on a giant hill, and therefore not accessible from some sides. The weather wasn't all that nice, but the view was still amazing. This view of the city showed the less touristy parts of town. We ended up at a monument - the National Monument of Vitkow. To be honest, I know next to nothing about Prague history, so all these monuments and names and buildings and cathedrals don't really mean anything to me. But the city was beautiful and I enjoyed going there. And it's still fun to go see things you know nothing about :)

we left for Prague by bus early Saturday morning, planning to stay at a hostel for Saturday night and come back to Berlin Sunday night.

The bus ride was really nice and lasted 4-5 hours. The bus company was a Czech company, so the attendant (who was super sweet!) was Czech, and there were a lot of Czech films/TV shows we could watch during the ride.

On the way to Prague, we passed through Dresden, and even drove on Königsbrückerstraße, passing my old apartment, as well as the Goethe-Institut where I studied. It was a nostalgia trip. We then crossed the Elbe in Dresden, and I got to see my favorite view of Dresden again (From the Neustadt side of Dresden, you can see the Frauenkirche und all the other buildings across the river, and it's gorgeous, especially during sunset.)

Prague streets are hard to navigate. The city center is pretty old, and the streets are rarely grid-like. I don't know an inkling of Czech (not that I didn't tried learning a bit), so the street names were hard to remember. Thankfully, we never really got lost, and even if we did, the streets were all beautiful. Cobblestone and old, fancy buildings. Strangely enough, we didn't see all that many tourists, considering that Prague is a pretty common tourist destination....

After checking out our hostel room (4th or 5th floor with a wonderful open window with no screen) and getting ourselves a proper map of Prague, we went to see Prague Castle and the Charles Bridge, stopping to eat at a lonely Vietnamese restaurant along the way.

We went to the Charles Bridge, and lo and behold! All the tourists suddenly appeared. The Bridge was packed. There were artists and musicians making $$ or should I say KčKč because they use Czech crowns instead of Euros, which was completely boggling since the Czech Republic is in the European Union. 1 Kč was approximately 4 Euro cents; 1 Euro was 27.5 Kč.

A note on scams: Always always always withdraw from machines or proper banks and NOT from people on the streets. This may seem like common sense, but apparently tourists still fall for the scams. One common scam is to supposedly exchange euros for Kč, but what you actually get are Russian rubles, which are worth considerably less. Tourists don't usually know the difference, and by the time they notice it, the scammer is gone.

The Bridge itself was nice. We stopped in souvenir shops, navigated around more tourists, climbed many many many steps before reaching the Castle and the gardens around it. The view was phenomenal. The whole city stretched out before us, and there were many spots where you could go see the view, so there was never like an overpacked outlook area where all the tourists went. 

St. Vitus Cathedral was on the castle grounds, and it was gorgeous inside and kinda packed. The architecture is gothic, and there are stainglass windows. We didn't want to pay to see the other part of it, but I'm sure it would've been just as beautiful. 

The beggars here are different from any others I've seen. They don't make eye contact with you. They are on their knees, with their faces in the ground and their hands out. And they don't move from their position. ):

We went to Old Prague Square, where the Astronomical Clock, the gothic Týn Church and the baroque Church of St. Nicholas are. We stopped for some food, passing roasted pig on a stick, which smelled good, but eventually settling for Trdelník, a circular Czech pastry smothered in cinnamon, sugar, almond bits, and deliciousness. Courtney had her mind blown by its sheer yummyness, and the pigeons that picked up after our crumbs were extremely aggressive.

After walking some more, we ate dinner at a sit-down restaurant to watch the Chile-Brazil game and to avoid the rain. I feel bad because even though Czech is the official language and it's always more polite to talk to people in their native language, we ended up talking to everyone in English, including our waiters. The restaurant was pretty great. Waiters would walk back and forth carrying yummy-looking food like roasted meat with what looked like a firesparkler on top. I had Goulash soup, Chayce had trout, Courtney had rice, and Chile lost.

No night in Prague is complete without a little night life. Since we are not all that wild, we went to Karaoke night at a bookstore slash bar called the Globe, and it was a lot of fun. Everything was in English, and some people chose some good songs, while other people's choices were a bit more questionable.... We weren't quite sure how to register to sing on-stage, so we just sang along to the songs from our balcony seat. Some highlights: Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus, Eye of the Tiger by Survivor, Smooth by Santana and Rob Thomas, Love the Way You Lie by Eminem and Rihanna. 

The night ended with a nighttime visit to the Charles Bridge since the Globe is near the river. There were still tourists out and about, and we passed a couple clubs. Man, the nightlife in Prague is fantastic! Everyone is so alive, and there are lines out the door to get into the clubs and stuff.