So yesterday was our last day in Prague and also a travel day to Paris. Travel days tend to be filled mostly with travel (obviously) so there is not much to write about but I still wanted to give an update on things. We only had three things on our list to check off for Prague - the Market, the Jewish Cemetary, and the National Museum (not to be confused with the National Gallery). So we started off on our way by taking the metro. Our three day metro passes had expired and we needed to buy a single day pass. That small task turned into a 30 minute ordeal that, retrospectively, could have easily been avoided. First, neither of us had any more cash so we withdrew a little more from the ATM to get us through the day. The ATM only gave us one large bill. Then we needed to buy the Metro Pass but because it was Sunday, the ticket office was closed and we attempted to use the ticket machine. We thought we needed to have a smaller denomination for the tickets using the machine so we headed to a booth in the metro station to get change by buying water. As soon as Leah asks for water and pulls out the bill, she is rudely waved off by the woman behind the counter. Ok...on to the coffee guy. He waves us off to the Lotto salesperson. She waves us off to somewhere outside. At this point we are furious that no one could give us change to get on the metro. We were trying to do right by actually buying a ticket - give us a break! So we head across the street to a casino and Leah asks the man in front if we can have change. He directs us to a moody bartender who then directs us to the cash out person who FINALLY gives us smaller bills. Ok that mission is accomplished and it's back to the ticket machines. Except it turns out that the machine only takes coins and we both had these freaking bills that we spent 20 minutes hunting down. #%^&$! In an act of pure frustration and desperation, I asked the metro police where we could get some coins to buy these tickets. He informed us that we could buy the tickets from the tabak shop in the station instead of using the machines. O. M. G. I couldn't decide whether to be thankful there was a solution or to be angry that the entire thing could have been avoided. Needless to say, we bought our tickets and headed to the market.
The market was a little underwhelming and not as enticing as I had put myself on a strict cash budget for the day. They had a lot of touristy things like toys, magnets, bracelets, and witch dolls (kind of weird). They also had some very nice leather goods that were affordable but would wipe out of my daily budget. I was a little creeped out by the fur pelt that still had the toenails of the animal on it....
After our brief visit to the market, we headed to the Jewish Cemetary. The Jewish Cemetary is listed as one of the top sites to visit while in Prague. Before WWII, there were over 200,000 Jews living in Prague and after the war, there were around 10,000 who returned as most of them died in the concentration camps. So the Jewish Quarter is more of a memorial to the Jews who were killed during the Holocaust. The Jewish Cemetary is interesting because it is actually 12 layers of graves since they only had a small portion of land where they could bury their dead. So the graves are all on top of each other, literally.
The pass for the Jewish Cemetary includes access to synagogues and a memorial to those who died. It was interesting to tour the Cemetary and really sad to see all of the names of the deceased who died during the Holocaust. They also had different artifacts of Jewish life, including a poem from an 11 year old boy while he was in the concentration camp.
After the Jewish Quarter, we went to the National Museum, which is supposed to be a natural history museum. Unfortunately, the real museum is under renovation and there is a small building beside it which houses a hodge podge of human artifacts. I was not impressed and I do not recommend going to see this until the renovations are complete. It was like they took a ton of random things and threw it together to create the exhibits...very odd.
After the sightseeing, we were pretty exhausted from all of the traveling and tourism so we decided to head back to the hotel and wait there for a couple of hours for our transport to the airport. Also it has been really hot in Prague so I've been kind of miserable walking around as I am constantly sweating. The only moments of relief are in the metro stations which are exceptionally cool from the trains. I could have stayed down there all day.
This is how I feel about heat:
Upon returning to the airport, we ate lunch and I ordered a cheeseburger as I have been craving American food so much I was almost desperate enough to pop into a Burger King. But this was much better than that, I'm sure.
The rest of the afternoon and evening was pretty uneventful. We made it to our flight in plenty of time and had a smooth flight to Paris. However, there were some very foul odors coming from people on the plane. Leah literally covered up her nose during most of the flight due to the man next to her. I caught a waft or two and I don't blame her. Glad I was in the window seat! When we were descending, we could see the Eifel Tower and it was lit up for night. This was very exciting for me even though it was far away.
First spotted:
We flew into Paris-orly airport, which I can only describe as a complete and utter cluster$&@#. We landed at 11:00 pm and you would have thought it was noon rush hour or something. There were SWARMS of people everywhere - at baggage claim, in the arrivals gates, at the taxi line. It honestly seemed like everyone's plane for the entire day landed at the same time and that was between 11:00 and 12:00. We did not get into a taxi until 12:20 a.m. I don't know if this was an anomaly but I'd avoid Paris-Orly in the future. However, it's probably nothing a little Xanax wouldn't fix (and did).
Our cab ride to our hotel took about 25 minutes and we were able to see a lot of Paris on the way. It's such a beautiful city. I've been pretty excited to finally be in a city where I can use some of my French 1 & 2 phrases I learned in high school. Feeling pretty confident, I asked the cab driver how he was and he responded then he asked me how I was. I responded with "bien" then realized my mistake, quickly thought of something in French to say and told him that I didn't speak French (Je ne parle pas francaise...or something like that. Very handy I'm sure). So with the confidence shattered, he switched to English.
Our hotel here is quaint and not nearly as fancy as any of the other places we have stayed on this trip. But it's in a good neighborhood and close to two metro stops, which is very important. It is also in the high 60s at noon right now, which makes me incredibly happy. Time to enjoy Paris! While I'm here, I'm pretending that I'm Ina Garten, the barefoot contessa and my culinary inspiration. I have a ton of things on my "to-eat" list, some of which include:
Macarons
Tarte tatin
Escargot
Baguette and Brie
Nutella crepe
Croque Madame
Chocolate mousse
Croissants
I should probably measure my success by pounds gained. C'est la vie and Bon appetite!
The view from our hotel room:
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