So we arrived yesterday afternoon in Prague after a cramped but uneventful ride on the slow train from Berlin. We are staying a little outside the Old Town area at Barcelo Praha Five, which is super trendy, affordable, and close to a metro stop (very important). We have only been here for a day but are already in love with Prague as it is a charming, beautiful city with stunning architecture and friendly people. It reminds me of Florence, Italy the way the streets are laid out in the City center. It's a little warmer here than in the other cities, hence the updos and glistening, red face.
Before our trip, Leah and I had arranged to do a food tour with the Prague Food Tour company. If you have never done a food tour, I highly recommend it. It is the perfect way to get acclimated to a new city and try local cuisine. It can be a little pricy but it is definitely worth the money considering you get your food and drinks paid for and a walking tour and cultural crash course all in one. I'm a huge fan and I think I've converted Leah as well. So we had the food tour scheduled for last night and met up with our guides, Leona and Markéta, around 5:00. Luckily, Prague is much easier to navigate as it is smaller and more walkable so we did not have a repeat of trying to find our group like in Berlin. There's still a little PTSD from that navigation nightmare. When we met our guides, we found out it was just us that would be touring, which was fun because we got to ask a lot of questions and learn a lot about the culture. Leona and Markéta took us all around the city center, pointing out cool things and giving advice on what to do. We stopped in various restaurants and bars and had typical Czech dishes and drinks. I really enjoyed it and there were things I probably never would have tried but were delicious.
I forgot the name of this but it is pickled fish. Don't let the skin intimidate you because it is very tasty, if you like pickled things (which I do)
This is at the bar with our guide, Leona, and the bartender mixing a very complicated craft cocktail. I'm also wearing the shoes of death.
The finished cocktail - so delicious.
The proper way to drink Absinthe is by diluting it with sugar water. Here he is letting the water run over the sugar cube. Very good if you like licorice flavor.
Our guide, Markéta
This restaurant serves beer with three different levels of foam
Our beer was actually stout and pilsner mixed
Fried cheese (smažák) and steak tartare (tatarák)
The bread is pan toasted and you rub garlic on it before adding the tartare
Turns out I enjoy stouts - who knew?
A potato, mushroom, cream soup (kulajda)
My favorite - roasted beef with a carrot and cream sauce and bread dumplings (svičkova and knedlik)
Wine cellar
$16,000 bottle of Christal. Turns out rich Russians but these things.
The tour was wonderful and we had a great time with Leona and Markéta. If you are ever in Prague, I highly recommend booking a food tour with them because you will have great food, with interesting a fun people, and learn a lot about the city. (Look for Prague Food Tour on tripadvisor).
For our first full day in Prague, Leah and I decided to take it easy and explore the center on our own without any real agenda or things planned. I loved walking around and seeing the buildings. We ended up doing quite a bit of shopping (shocker) and managed to buy most of the things we wanted to from Prague. Our favorite purchases are the wooden marionettes - which are a big thing here. Can you guess whose is whose?
We had a great lunch in an authentic Italian restaurant, which made me miss Italy even more. The owner was from Bologna and they even imported Italian water - legit! We also wandered around a lot because Prague is great for that.
Here are some gratuitous pictures:
Taking a break to enjoy music in the square
This girl's job is to dress like a fairy and blow bubbles. How awesome is that?
Street performers
Marionettes in a shop
So many dog owners here - this little guy was waiting for his mom to eat dinner and I thought he was the cutest. Can you tell I miss Gio??
While we were wandering, we noticed there would be a performance tonight of the Best of Swan Lake as part of the Prague Ballet Festival. Neither of us had ever been to a ballet but we thought it was a good idea to go. We both thoroughly enjoyed it as the dancers were amazing and we kind of knew the story of Swan Lake so we could follow along. There are still some things we missed like why she changes into a black suit at one point? Needed to have the Cliff Notes for that...
All in all, this was a wonderful day spent in Prague - absolutely no complaints and I'm excited to be here for two more days.
**Feet update - didn't end up buying crocs as I was contemplating doing so after my poor feet had swollen into an abnormal size last night. Leah likened it to when you fill up a latex glove with water.... Anyway, today I wore my Sanuks instead and we did less walking. Being tourists for over a week now has taken a physical toll on us both and we are booking a Thai massage tomorrow morning from our hotel.
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