Date: May 18th, 2023
Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Today was another sick day waking up. Again, super unfortunate since I really wanted to enjoy this city to the fullest but I wasn’t going to let it stop me either way. So, I went about my usual morning routine of getting dressed and packing a little day bag before heading down to breakfast. I took some of the medicine I had and I made sure to get some tea with my breakfast before heading out to a pharmacy with one of my teachers to grab a few more things. Luckily, there was one nearby so I was able to run in quickly and grab what I needed. It was a little difficult because I still couldn’t talk and really needed to rest my voice but we got through it just fine
After the quick visit to the pharmacy, my day officially got started! The first thing I did was tag along with a group of people from my program who were going up to Prague Castle! We took the tram there since there was a direct line from the tram station by our hotel and it was a pretty easy ride up. But soon enough, we made it to the castle! And it was amazing.
Like a lot of things on this trip, it’s really hard to describe just how beautiful it was. But looking at the structures and the walls and all the buildings, you can tell just how much attention and care and effort went into building these. And it’s even more special knowing that the builders were much more limited on the technologies available for building at the time compared to what we have today. So it was just absolutely amazing walking through the gates and seeing the high walls and little ornate decorations! Just stunning!
There were a couple of little areas that I got to visit and walk through while at the castle. The first place was St. Vitus Cathedral. It’s probably the first thing you’d notice when looking at pictures of Prague Castle so I’ll include an image here. But it’s this extremely tall and large, gothic cathedral that just seems to go on forever. On the inside, there are so many paintings and stained glass windows, and carvings dedicated to different saints and holy figures. There was so much to see in there that even know I spent a long time looking around, I felt like I barely scratched the surface of what could be seen!
After I finished up at St. Vitus Cathedral, I took a peak inside St. George's Basilica. It was only a couple hundred feet away and it was this significantly smaller church (compared to St. Vitus at least). But there were still little artifacts and paintings and sculptures dedicated to holy figures inside there! Once I was done looking around St. George’s Basilica, I went down to an area in the castle called Golden Lane. I believe it originated as a home for castle hands and castle guards but over the years it expanded to house many different types of people and professions. In the golden lane area, there were just a long row of houses and they were all turned into shops or little display areas. For example, one of the houses showed old tools and armor used in Prague. Another house showed what the house of a seamstress would look like in the past. But some of the other houses on the had little gift and trinket shops. I was able to pick up a few souvenirs here and there. Including a travel book about Prague from the house a famous author by the name of Franz Kafka stayed in!
Once I went through all of Golden Lane, I checked out a couple of other places in Prague Castle. Including an old torture tower/chamber. Kind of morbid once you think about it, but I was in and out before you knew it. After that, I was all castled out (and I saw a bunch of people from my program leaving) so I joined up with them. We walked around for a little bit until we ended up in a Peacock garden! It was this pretty wide, open garden where peacocks were just walking around and enjoying the sun. The peacocks there were super friendly and would walk up to or around people. Some of them let me get close to taking some videos and pictures too. So here’s a really nice picture I got a male peacock!
Later on, we decided to head out of the peacock museum and see more of the city. We had a couple of hours more hours before our whole program wanted to meet up for dinner so we decided to make a few more stops. I and a couple of other people who I was with were getting hungry so we decided to stop by a little bakery while the other half of our group visited the nearby Pedal Car Museum. After that, we went walking for a little while and decided to visit the National Gallery of Prague. It was Museum Day so we were all able to get in for free. Unfortunately, parts of the museum were closed down so we were able to see everything. But we saw a huge exhibit on religious imagery, sculptures, and paintings and that was really cool!
Soon enough it was time to meet with the rest of our program for dinner. We were going to have dinner at this monastery high up on a high so we were tasked with finding our way. It was definitely quite the journey for us. We decided that instead of walking the entire time, we wanted to use public transportation. But that led to us taking the bus to the wrong stop, taking the tram in the wrong direction (multiple times), going to the metro when we weren’t supposed to be there, and just getting pretty lost in general. I still wasn’t able to talk so I really wasn’t much help to the group except for explaining how the metro works through a series of gestures. And making them realize that we weren’t supposed to be at the metro to begin with. And even though we got really, really lost, I was able to pick up some souvenirs from a nearby outdoor marketplace while waiting for trams so that was nice!
Eventually, we did make it up to the monastery! But as we rejoined with the rest of our program, we found out that we were too big of a party to eat there since we didn’t have a reservation. So, we all had to walk down that tall, tall hill to get back to a nearby tram station that could get us back to the hotel. We were told to all break off and find dinner ourselves and that we’ll all meet up around 8:00 pm in the hotel so we could have everyone in the program compete in trivia! I was pretty hungry, so I was excited about just finding someplace nice to grab dinner. But I walked by this really good-looking gelato stand with a few of my friends and I knew I just had to stop there! I and three quickly grabbed some gelato and ate it as a bit of a pre-dinner snack before heading back down the hill and taking the tram to the hotel.
Once we got to the hotel, I dropped off all the stuff I bought and went to grab dinner with my one of my friends. We went to a nearby Vietnamese restaurant and it was really good. It was only a three-minute walk from the hotel so we were able to take our time and eat there until it was time for us to rejoin everyone for trivia!
For trivia our teachers had us get into the same groups we had for the scavenger hunt. It was hosted in a Jeopardy-style with categories. We had a category that asked questions about the places we’ve visited, geographic locations, everyone in our program, and more. There was even a little trivia question about me involving what college I painted on my skirt for skirt painting day at high school before I decided I was going to go to Penn State. In the end, my team won! Everyone in my group had a wealth of knowledge from our travels so we were pulling ahead from the beginning! I was able to help too but I was pretty limited to writing things and trying to spell names correctly so I could have my teammates say the answer. But still, we did great and I won a nice looking magnetic that showed the Prague Astronomical clock!
By this point, it was 11:00 pm so we all went our separate ways. I decided to get packed up and get to bed. Tomorrow we’re traveling back to Vienna and it’ll be our last full night of the trip. It’s kind of a sad thought but I’ve been able to experience so much on this trip. But I miss my home so I am pretty excited to return!
That's all for today. The trip is coming to a close very soon so I hope you'll stick with me! Until next time!
-DD
Picture Sources (in order of appearance):
St. Vitus Cathedral (ex) - My photo!
St. Vitus Cathedral (in) - My photo!
Stained Glass Window - My photo!
Golden Lane - My photo!
Peacock - My photo!
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