Day 174 - Prague to Rome

The days in Prague got progressively colder each day we were in the city, and today was the coldest it got, reaching below zero in the morning, probably due to the stronger winds in the area. It was a good thing though, since I had way too much clothes to pack, so I wore 5 layers of clothing to save some space. We were taking Wizzair from Prague to Rome, and with discount airlines, you didn't want to mispack and risk having to pay some ridiculous charge for excess baggage.

The Prague airline was clean and organized compared to Rome's Da Vinci airport, which was danky and old, similar to LAX back at home. Check in and security checks were quick and painless. The flight was a little less than 2 hours, with clear skies and a smooth ride.

We arrived in Rome around 5pm and it was already dark. We took a shuttle bus to the city center at the Termini Station. It took over an hour since it was Friday and there was a ton of traffic, or maybe it's always like that in Rome? I read in my Lonely Planet that much of the pollution in the country is caused by the excess number of vehicles on the road. The traffic was chaotic too, since there weren't any lane divisions and cars just sort of tried to fit through any opening to get closer to their destination. Cars also just parked adjacent to a parked car with their emergency lights on, causing further gridlock on the streets at night.

We checked into our hotel, but I didn't anticipate that everything would be so expensive here. I knew it was going to be a lot more expensive than Prague or Asia, but I wasn't thinking it would be this extreme. The reception at the hotel told us we had to pay 50 extra Euro per night to switch from a single to a double room. That's like 3-4 days of my backpacker budget for food, attractions, and a place to stay! We ended up paying for one night, but I am going to look for a hostel tomorrow to save some cash.

We had our first meal here, which we decided would be pasta. Linh had a salmon pasta while I had one with bacon – mediocre. Hopefully I find some more decent places to eat and get some advice from couchsurfers! More and more food for the next couples weeks! Tomorrow, we will purchase Roma Passes and sightsee in the city.

First meal in Italy - Spaghetti with Bacon in Tomato Sauce

Day 173 - Vysehrad

We had one more full day in Prague, without any idea where to go. There were a couple castles that were on the outskirts of the city, accessibly by a 30 minute train ride, but we decided against it because tourist opinions on the internet said there really wasn't much to see there. So we decided to go to Vysehrad, which was in the city of Prague, just a couple metro stops away from our hotel. It was a huge park on the map, so I figured we could at least enjoy the green space one last time before heading to Italy.

There was a church called the Church of St. Peter, which we visited along with a very extravagant cemetery adjacent to the church. Here, there were large tombstones for the graves of the deceased, some in uber-huge plots of land, with statues of the dead proudly shown to the public. I'm used to seeing small tombstones, all uniform and placed neatly on a plot of land, but here, there was such a large variety of tombstones and designs. I'm not sure if these people were just wealthy or if they were important people in life, but they were proudly celebrated by their loved ones. 

We headed back to Old Town for one last shopping trip before leaving Prague. I managed to snag some postcards to send home, and also try some of Prague's hot dogs at the carts in Wenceslas Street. I didn't really like mine too much because it was overcooked on the outside, and the skin of the sausage was overly crisp and hard to bite into. That's OK though, since I think I've had a good dose of the Czech cuisine these past few days, and I'll be excited to fatten up even more with the Italian food to come...

Dinner - A Plate with Pork, Beef, AND Chicken

Day 172 - Old Town and the Astronomical Clock

This would be our 4^th full day in Prague and we were running out of thing to do! There was only one more thing that I really wanted to check out, which was the giant astronomical clock tower, so we set off to find it, somewhere in Old Town. I used to think I was good at using maps, or that maybe I improved through my travels, but it still is so confusing to follow the small roads mapped out for me! We ended up ditching the map, and trying to follow the street signs that pointed to the clock. We ended up going a roundabout way to reach our destination, only to note that it was in the Old Town Square that we visited a couple days ago, except we missed it when we were previously there.

Since we were already in the Old Town Square, I decided to get some more street food. I picked the grilled cheese sandwich, which turned out to be a hunk of grilled cheese placed on a piece of fresh bread. Fattening, but delicious!

Linh wanted to check out some of the luxury stores to see if the prices were any lower than what you could find in the US. We headed to Old Town where some of the more high-end stores were located. The prices were slightly lower, and tax free, but nothing too deeply discounted. It was a lazy day for us, as we didn't have too many things on our to-do list...

Day 171 - Petrin Tower

We headed up the hills of Prague to reach it's version of the Eiffel Tower. On the way, we took a funicular to the top of the hill, where there was so much green and park space. You could actually see autumn here, unlike southern California, where the leaves from the sparse trees don't really turn from green to red and yellow and then fall off. The weather added to the effect of an authentic autumn, where people bundled up from the fog and slight windchill.

The Petrin tower itself was not very impressive, and really was just a mini replica of the real thing in Paris. What was impressive though was that it was at the top of a hill, so you had a wonderful panoramic of the entire city, although the weather made the city look sleepy, bright colors subdued and filtered through the fog. You could see everything from the top since it was pretty much the highest point in the city, nothing being hidden by mountains, trees, or tall structures.

We walked around the grounds surrounding the tower, continuing to admire the beauty of Prague's parks and greenspace where everything is clean and well-maintained. We stopped by the Mirror Maze, which is, as the name of the place suggests, a labyrinth of mirrors to walk through. Parts of the Maze were being renovated, so we were only able to get a small dose of what is usually offered. There was only one path from start to finish in the maze, and at the end of it, was a hall full of those distorted long mirrors that you usually find at carnivals or circuses. No need for a Mac or Photobook here!

For dinner, we ended up at another traditional Czech restaurant near our hotel, where I ordered a Pork Tenderloin grilled in garlic with greenbeans, english bacon, and sour cream, accompanied by a Kozel beer. Delish!

Day 170 - Prague Castle and the Charles Bridge

The Prague Castle is probably one of the biggest tourist draws in all Prague. I must admit, I didn't have a clue what there really was to see in this city when I decided I would visit the city, but I got many suggestions from CSers to take a visit here. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, it is the biggest ancient castle in the world.

We took the metro to the area and climbed some steps to the side of the castle since it is located on a hill overlooking the rest of the city. The entire castle grounds included St. Vitus Cathedral along with some museums and administrative buildings. We walked around, opting out of buying any entrance tickets since they had so many options for different parts of the castle, and the wikitravel guide noted that most of what is beautiful are the surrounding castle grounds and the cathedral, which was free to enter! 

Afterwards, we headed down to the Lesser Area (area surrounding the castle) and stopped by John Lennon Wall, which is a constantly changing wall of graffiti that symbolized the defiance and protest against the communistic government. Afterwards, we walked across the Charles Bridge, where the street is lined with musicians, street vendors, and beggars, along with various classic religious statues.

We stopped by a bunch of other famous sights including the National Theatre, the Philharmonic, and the Jewish Cemetery where Franz Kafka is buried, but didn't stay to explore inside. At night, we headed to another Czech restaurant where we had a sampler of 8 different types of beer, along with Roast Pork with Bohemian dumplings (which are practically included in every meal!)

St. Vitus Cathedral

View from the Prague Castle

John Lennon Wall

Charles Bridge

Beer Sampler

Roast Pork with Bohemian Dumplings

Day 169 - Old Town Prague and Wenceslas Square

My cousin Linh came from the States to meet me in Prague on a 2 week vacation from work, which is quite impressive for an American to get that much consecutive time off at once. I would travel with her from Prague to Rome to Venice before she bids farewell back to reality and back to work.

We both carried with us a Frommer's guidebook, which really didn't have much information, so we used one of the maps that I obtained from the hostel I stayed at yesterday (Usually, hostels have the BEST tourist maps). With the map, we walked around some of the closer sites today to get a small dose of Prague, but without too much detailed information on what we were looking at...

The first two stops were the Church of St. Ludmila and the National Museum, which was due to be closed for renovation. The church was not too impressive in my opinion, considering it was one of the main sights to see in Prague. The structure on the outside was beautiful, but there wasn't anything too intricate or interesting inside compared to some of the other churches that I have seen. We weren't able to go into the National Museum because it was under construction, but I noticed that much of Prague was under contruction perpetually...reminds me of UCLA, which is always under construction...

Afterwards, we headed to Wenceslas Square, an open area with wide traffic lanes in both directions. This was the site of many of the protests that occurred prior to Czechoslovakia's fall of communism. Now, it's mostly lined with hotels, pubs, and clothing stores.

Next up were parts of Old Town, which included stops at an open bazaar selling random tourist souvenirs including candies and chocolate, photographs and paintings, nutcrackers, and intricately painted Easter Eggs. It's always interesting to see what each country offers with its souvenirs. Here, easter eggs were offered everywhere. We also stopped by the Powder Gate and Municipal House.

Our last stop was the Old Town Square, which had a plethora of food stalls to incite your inner-foodie. Stalls offered food ranging from donuts to grilled cheese sandwiches to Prague ham to traditional Czech food. Linh and I decided to try the Prague Ham, continuously cooked over an open fire, to get our first taste of Czech food. We complimented our meal with 400ml of Gambrinus beers each. The ham ended up being pretty expensive because of its weight. Note: Food is usually priced per 100mg. Our hunk of ham ended up being about 300mg, which meant it was 3 times as much as we expected the price to be.

I didn't really know what was traditional Czech food except for the Czech dumplings that I tried when I was in Kathmandu. For dinner, we headed one of the many local pubs that was just around the corner from our hotel. Linh ordered the Roast duck with saurkraut and potato and bread dumplings, while I ordered the garlic soup and roast beef goulash. Linh ended up getting half of a duck, which was way too much food. Usually, the duck I eat in the states is either Chinese duck that is roasted chopped to pieces, or duck breast at an American or French restaurant. It was an entirely different experience to see half a duck on a dinner plate. We couldn't finish it, but it was tasty nonetheless!

Church of St. Ludmila

Wenceslas Square

Old Town Square

Prague Ham

Garlic Soup

Roasted Duck with Saurkraut and Potato and Bread Dumplings

Beef Goulash