Here an Egg, There an Egg

Before we knew it Easter break had descended upon us and our next big adventure was suddenly right in front of us.  This time we decided to change course and instead of heading west we went east, straight to Prague, Czech Republic.

Prague wasn't a place a 'new' overseas traveller such as myself had on my bucket list, but I'm sure glad that I was persuaded to go.  Beautiful country, lovely scenery, and many things to see and do in this historical city made for a wonderful trip.

New currency for us.  The exchange rate was quite interesting.

Happy to finally be there.

The first thing we noticed about Prague was how quiet it was.  Whether you were in the airport, on the bus, or walking down the street there was an air of tranquillity and peace - no loud talking on cellphones, no screeching at one another on the street, no scooters zipping in and out of traffic.  It felt like we'd walked into another world, a Narnia-like version of our reality.  We spent our first night wandering around Wenceslas Square looking at the Easter markets there and perusing all the wares the various booths had for sale.  It was here when we realized that the world of painted eggs was open full force in front of us.  Eggs were everywhere!  And the art work on them was amazing.  We were never short of seeing the creative artistic abilities of the Czech people.

National Museum

Wenceslas monument

Mmmmm......hot wine. ;)

Wenceslas square

Our evening also was an eye opener to me in many other ways.  One there are still smoking and non-smoking sections in restaurants in Prague.  This one was hard to swallow, almost literally as choking on smoke in a restaurant is not something one has endured in years having come from Canada.  It made me very appreciative of the non-smoking laws back home.  And two, that there are Thai massage places where you stick your feet into an aquarium and little fish eat the dead skin off your feet. Eeewwwww!!  This was not something I ventured forth to try (although the temptation just to say I'd done it was there and quite high at one point during the trip lol).

After these revelations and trying some hot white wine, another Easter tradition in the markets and one I fully support, we headed to our hotel to prepare for our first full day in Prague.

 

Easter market eggs

We racked up quite the supper bill.

 Our first full sightseeing day had us undertaking an excursion to the castle quarter of Prague.  Thankfully the city has a great tram system so it was easy to maneuver our way around.  The walk to the castle had us encountering a myriad of the city and its inhabitants, local and tourist alike.  First we walked to St Charles Bridge along the Vltava River.  One has to stop and marvel at the power of water and how it's shaped the earth after all the years.  Crossing the bridge brought us into a world of vendors selling everything from handmade jewellery to magnets, to photographs and more, and buskers, from accordion to guitar players to one-man bands.  The atmosphere was alive and the energy bouncing off the walls of the bridge and the people crossing.

View of the castle quarter and Vltava River.

Streets of Prague. Very colourful buildings everywhere.

Fun fact: I love how the Czech language has many consonants and very few vowels in each word.  Makes for a very distinct sound upon hearing it spoken.

St. Charles Bridge

On the other side of the bridge our uphill climb began through a trendy little neighbourhood with shops of all sorts adorning it.  The traffic was extremely light and even though the windy cobblestone streets were prone to loud footsteps, the quietness and dull chatter emanated romantically from all corners.  

Overlooking Prague

When we got to the castle, the official residence of office of the President of the Czech Republic, our afternoon was filled with viewing it in almost it's entirety, seeing Golden Lane, St Vitus Cathedral and the palace (all within the castle gates).  We also partook in watching the changing of the guards, seeing an Easter dance event, taking a leisurely walk through the gardens to look out upon the city, and enjoy some traditional market food.  The smells emanating from all corners of the markets had us salivating any time we were near them.  Oh, and we had many the opportunity to ogle the lovely gentleman that were afoot (there were groups of them everywhere!  It was kind of strange to see, but pleasant nonetheless).

Posing with quiet, solemn friend.

Hello Mr. President

St Vitus Cathedral

Almost fell over the wall :o

Beautiful city

Grass was pretty green already.

Our crew :D

Making cinnamon chimney treats

Yum!

After meandering back down across the St Charles Bridge we stopped for a quick snack and bevy at a smoky Irish pub.  Again, this smoking in restaurants thing had us quite baffled.  I attribute my sinus infection that followed upon returning home to this cause.

For the evening we planned on attending a black light show.  This style of theatre is well known in Prague and we were excited to partake in it.  The show we were attending was "Aspects of Alice", based loosely (very loosely we found out) on Alice and Wonderland and what happens after the story.  Let's just say.....it was quite the experience and one I'm sure we won't forget.  At one point, we looked over at each other, mouths agape, and were like "What?!?!".  Yes.  The screen writer of that play definitely was channelling Lewis Carol.

One man band over the Castle bridge.

Reminded me of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"

Getting ready for "Aspects of Alice"

B loves her desserts ;)

Castle at night

Upon returning to the hotel room, one of our travel mates had a surprise for us: an Easter egg hunt!! So exciting!!  So there we were, 3 of us, 28 yrs old +, running around a hotel room for 10-20 second intervals trying to find hidden mini chocolate eggs.  Well, they were Cadbury and totally worth it.  Thanks again C for bringing the spirit of Easter hunts to our travels.

The next morning we headed to the Jewish quarter where we had booked a group tour of this section of the city.  Much to our delight, especially one of the Aussies, it began to snow during the beginning of our tour.  Not just little sleet, annoying snow.  Nope, big fat flakes dropped effortlessly as we proceeded through the streets of the Jewish quarter and laid upon our shoulders as we entered the Old-New Synagogue, Europe's oldest synagogue.

SNOW!

Guess which one of us has had more practice at snow flake catching?

Markers on the streets documenting where Jewish families

once resided in the city.

Sneaky little steps.

A little chilly here, even in April

Synagogue seats.  Men only; women weren't allowed in this area (traditionally).

I'd been in a few churches of varying denominations in my life but I'd never been to a synagogue before.  It was very interesting to see the structure of both the Old-New and Spanish synagogues in Prague and to hear of their devastating history, especially through WWII.  Many things we learned on this tour were interesting in both sad and "hmmm" ways.  Information tid-bits like the Jewish people were only given so much land so when one of their cemeteries became full, they weren't given more land for another.  So instead they put another layer of dirt upon the previous graves and continued burying up.  In some places of the cemetery, there are 8-15 layers of bodies.  Hence why the gravestones are placed as so - because when a new layer was added the stones were pulled up and placed down again.  Also, the checkmark (aka Czech mark) apparently originated in the Czech Republic within the Hebrew language, or so said our guide.  Also, many of the buildings in this quarter, now known for its affluence which wasn't always the case, had the beautiful façades you see today added to them after the fact.  They originated as old brown apartment buildings with no adornments.

Reading and explaining Hebrew.  Fun fact: it's read right to left.

Pinkas synagogue

Memorial to victims of WWII on the wall in Pinkas synagogue.

Old Jewish Cemetery

This headstone extends all the way to the bottom layer

of the cemetery.  It represents that of an important community

member and upon their death, and the knowing of the 'building up', this headstone

was constructed at a height where it would still be seen, many layers later.

Spanish synagogue

After the tour we headed out to find a place to eat, a little sceptical of what would be open on Easter Monday.  However we found a quaint little Mexican place and it was here over tacos, nachos and burritos that I found out I became an aunt.  Little Lux Lily Bos was born whilst I was gallivanting around Prague.

Welcome Lux! :) Love you

For the afternoon we headed to the Old Town Market where we got to see a child's performance with stuffed creatures running around the stage (catchy songs though and I sadly found myself bopping along; the voices could have used some bass though), watched the anatomical clock sound/perform at the top of the hour, and of course perused the Easter markets.  You were never more than a stone's throw away from them no matter where we went it seemed.

 

Easter egg tree

Astronomical clock

 

Easter market stalls

Just a 'man', hanging around (?? no clue why)

Interesting fact: we'd read in a few different books that the Czech people can be pretty reserved.  However, the older lady who boarded the tram while we were on our way home and proceeded to talk to me in Czech and thus pull me up out of my seat to take it didn't fit that mold.  Now normally I'd give up my seat except: a) I was nursing a wrapped ankle and sore knees, and b) I was so taken by surprise at the exchange that I didn't know what to do lol.  Oh boy!

The next day we headed to the Strahov Monastery where we had the opportunity to see one of the most amazing libraries. I swear it was right out of Beauty & the Beast.  Totally fell in love.  The monastery itself was like a little walled village encompassing various buildings.  Talking it leisurely that day we walked casually down the hill to the castle district and then down to vy the St Charles Bridge again.  This time however we decided to find the Lennon Wall.  This was pretty cool to see - a symbol of peace with quite a history.  It was neat to even see a musician reflectively playing there.

Library

Books so old moss is growing on them.

Monastery

Checking to see if the grim reaper was real lol

We then strolled along a mini island, Kampa island, where I actually ran into a hockey team from Canada who was over here playing a few games around eastern/central Europe.  Whilst on the island we stopped for lunch at this placed called Certovka.  Why did I chose to list the name of this restaurant and not others?  Well perhaps I should have for the good ones but this one.....DON'T EVER GO THERE!!  We had one of the ickiest lunches with the rudest waiter.  It was a mess!    This was shortly followed up by a very unhelpful man serving hot wine when we went back to the Old Town Square Easter markets.  Unfortunately for him, and us, he didn't listen to what we were asking, assumed we'd take whatever he served us and when we declined he got angry.  We were two for two so far that day.

Lock bridge crossing to the 'island'

Easter is everywhere!

Cruising around the island

With this being our final night in Prague we decided to try another black light theatre style performance, this time going with a show from Image Theatre.  We were not disappointed.  The show was fantastic - both with acrobatics, black light style and a couple of 'clowns' who kept us entertained through mime during the scene changes.  It's amazing what can be done behind the scenes that comes off as magical to an audience.

After the performance we headed to a beer hall where we had one of our best meals in Prague.   Orange duck and Czech beer; one couldn't go wrong with that order.  Then we decided to spice up the night and try a shot of absinthe.  What is that you ask?  Well definitely find out before you are coerced into trying it.  It is a VERY strong alcoholic shot that has sat with a bug in the bottle and is lit on fire prior to serving.  Let's just say that some of us needed a water chaser after each SIP just to make it through.  Whew!  Definitely did it up memorably for our last night.

 

The next day we completed our time in Prague by hitting up a mall in the few short hours we had before our flight.  This is becoming typical for us in our last hours before heading out of a city.  Interestingly enough we continue to marvel at how nice other malls throughout Europe are.

This brings me to our halfway point of the Easter break.

Now onto the next leg of our adventures: keeping in the mode of going east we now head to....
Krakow, Poland.