Exploring Prague

This morning we decided that, while we are in Prague and some people may think that they need to see everything and be out exploring, we wanted to take it easy until mid-afternoon when maybe it wouldn’t be too terribly cold outside. We walked over to the market and picked up breakfast food and then cuddled into our warm beds and read a few chapters from our books. I took a little nap and then around noon we got up, layered as much clothes as possible, and headed out to catch the “free” tour of the left side of town. Once we got to the end our street we realized that someone, God perhaps, was playing a little trick on us and it was actually more like summer dress and flip-flops with a light sweater weather. We were sweating. Anyways, this tour also started in the Old Town Square, which for some reason Katie and I can never seem to find too easily. We walked through Old Town, through Kafka (which is just a small area where the great Czech author lived) and over to the Charles Bridge, crosses the Charles River, and headed into Mala Strana. Once we were in Mala Starna we saw an awesome statue/fountain…2 guys peeing on the Czech Republic (see the picture below) and then over to the John Lennon Wall.

The John Lennon Wall was something that I wasn’t too excited to see but thought that since it was on the tour, why not? It was actually quite cool to see. More so than I thought it would be. For those of you who do not know what it is heres a short history lesson: back when Czech was under communist rule the young hippies of Czech decided to display their desire for peace and love on this wall in Mala Strana, where it is said John Lennon played his guitar. Well everyday the government officials would repaint this wall and during the night the hippies would go back and repaint it with lyrics and pictures of John Lennon. Now this wall is owned by some organization, which allows people to still write on it and it is still a wall about peace and love. It was actually quite beautiful and interesting.

Well, somewhere during this part of the tour Katie and I lost our tour group and ended up exploring Mala Strana together, which we were okay with since we like to just look around and stare blankly at random buildings. Plus, Katie doesn’t really do so well with groups because she has trouble walking in Europe/ on cobblestone. I am starting to think a wheelchair is going to be our only option soon. Mala Strana, so far, is our favorite neighborhood. We loved loved loved it!! It is cute and quaint and lovely and darling and all those foo-foo girly words. It is simply AMAZING. All I could say today is AMAZING. For those of you Newlywed watchers, I sounded like the episode where Jessica and her mom are shopping in New York and all they say is cute. Prague is AMAZING! Katie and I wandered around and found 2 beautiful parks. In one of then we sat on the steps and watched the cars drive down the road as I ate my turkey sando. The other park, we thought, was the best thing we would see in Prague. It was huge on the edge of the Charles River with lush green plants, trees and grass everywhere. There were dogs frolicking and people practicing all sorts of things, from sports to magic to making out. It was such a sight. After walking around for about an hour we saw another girl with Starbucks and this time we made it our mission to find it. Italy doesn’t have Starbucks so we are definitely grande sugar-free vanilla extra hot no whip skim latte deprived.

Well our search for Starbucks started at one end of Mala Strana in one of those parks I just mentioned and about an hour and twenty minutes later on the other side of town and about a million “show yourself to us Starbucks” later we randomly stumbled upon a BLACK not green Starbucks. Yeah, what the h-e-double hockey sticks!!! Oh yeah and F.Y.I Starbucks costs way too much here. It was insane but oh so heavenly delicious. After savoring every sip of our Carmel (for me) and Mocha (for Katie) frappucini lights, we decided that we were content with Mala Strana for the day and would cross back over the Charles River and make our way to our hostel. Well, that didn’t happen too fast.

We came upon undoubtedly our favorite place in Prague. The Charles River has a few islands that are connected to the mainland with small bridges and as we were walking along the river to our hostel Katie spotted this cute little park/garden. So we decided to walk over to it. It was the Slovansky ostrov. As soon as we got our feet on it we were in love. We spent the next hour just sitting/laying on the wall on the edge of the river taking it all in. It was AMAZING! Everything about it was pure. It was an experience so indescribable that all you can say is it was out of a movie. I wanted so badly to not move or to wrap it up and take it with me.

This entire trip was planned out to be and has been me trying to live as much in the moment as possible. Which is why in Rome I saw what I wanted and I took afternoon naps when maybe I could have been wandering a museums and why I spent a gorgeous afternoon in Vernazza just reading the Kite Runner in the apartment when I could have been outside in the piazza or why our first afternoon in Prague was spend just hanging out in the hostel. This trip has been about taking 2 months off from a scheduled mapped out life. And it has been wonderful. This island was what I wanted to the fullest. And I was happy.

After spending about 10 minutes just sitting watching the sunset upon the Charles River with couples cuddling in paddle boats, making out and feeding swans (straight from The Notebook) I layed down and looked around. Then shut my eyes and tried to take it all in. I cannot tell you how much I was in love with where I was and what was around me. It was as if the whole world stopped. Unreal. Quite simply unreal. I could feel the hardness of the cement wall on my back and the wind blowing my hair around, hear the group of “hippies” playing their guitars in the center of the island on the untrimmed grass and the teenage boys playing hackie-sack and smell such a sweet familiar scent which reminded me of childhood, but I have yet to put my hand on what exactly it was. There was an old couple next to us just sitting on the wall together in silence just watching the view. It was beautiful. I wish just one second everyone could experience the true beauty of this island or what I (and Katie) were able to see in it. This one place/ experience was all that I wanted out of this trip. I wanted to actually let go and just be in the present, and I was.

After taking about a million pictures and sitting for over an hour Katie and I went back to our hostel to eat some dinner and relax. Katie just passed out after forcing her eyes to stay open until she could finish her chapter. I am going to finish uploading pictures from yesterday and in the morning I will load pictures from today. Sorry you will have to wait. I am tired and tomorrow we have a long day. We never made it to the Prague Castle today, so that is on the agenda for tomottow and then we fly into Bergamo, Italy at 8:30 p.m. for one night and then...we are headed to Venice on Friday morning ☺

Miss you and love you all.

Sorry this one was kinda long.

Katie took this picture because I slept so hard on my hands during my nap that my fingers were imprinted on my face.

We started our tour near the Charles River


Katie with the Charles Bridge behind her

View of the left side of the river

View of the right side of the river


View of Mala Strana and the river

Mala Strana

we couldnt help but say "Stop looking at me swan"

Katie wanted to grab that mans butt

The fountain with the 2 peeing men

John Lennon Wall

Once we finally found Stabucks

Charles Bridge behind me

Mala Strana and Prague Castle


The street we were walking down with the Charles River to our right when we found the AMAZING island


The rest of these pictures are from out FAVORITE place in Prague...

The pictures below are when Katie whipped out her camera in our favorite park/island and got all hardcore.