Prague
Here is my Prague trip, complete with pictures.
On Saturday morning, my roommate, Ursula, and I left this place at around 7:30. There was a 7:50 train that we were going to take to Dresden, where we would switch trains and go on to Prague. We were going to take the city tram to the train station, but it didn’t end up coming until after we’d missed the window to make the early train. But we weren’t going to worry, there was an express train from Leipzig to Dresden that would get us there before the train left for Prague. We’d be in Prague at 12:30. Ursula had a friend that she went to school with in Finland who is Czech, and he agreed to meet us at the station and be our guide.
We get to the station and buy our tickets. We buy a Saxony ticket for the ride back from Dresden to Leipzig, because the intraregional ticket allows for up to 5 passengers and is good all day. The only problem with the Saxony ticket is that you can’t take the express trains, so we were going to have to buy express train tickets to get to Dresden on time to make our connecting train. No big deal, as long as we get to Prague.
The time comes for our express train to leave. But it’s not waiting for us on the platform. In fact-and this is where I am so glad that I brought a German girl with me-there is a small sign that says that the train will not be going to Dresden after all, and that all of the passengers are SOL. We try to talk to the people at the service desk, but by now everybody’s up in arms about this train being cancelled. I learned many German swear words that morning. Luckily (depending on how you see it), there was a non-express train leaving for Dresden 10 minutes later. But since it was making all the stops, we wouldn’t be in Dresden until after our other train left for Prague. But we can use our Saxony ticket to get there, saving us €46.
We get to Dresden and eat at around 11, and the next train to Prague doesn’t leave until 12. We ate and had almost no problem getting the train to Prague. They ended up moving the platforms on us, but we figured it out and made it onto the train. We were off to Prague!
Here is me on the train to Prague:
And here is Ursula:
Dresden is the last stop in Germany before the Czech Republic, so two men-a German and a Czech border agent-walk through the train and the German guy stamps you out of Germany and the Czech guy stamps you into the Czech Republic.
Here is the border stop we had to make. It’s very Eastern European. I also saw the first handgun since I’ve been here on the Czech border patrol agents walking around outside. This sparked a conversation between Ursula and me about how anybody in America can own a gun and shoot people that break into their houses.
I slept for maybe 15 minutes on the trip, because watching things go by out the window makes you feel very sleepy. To the right of the train was the Elbe River, and to the left of the train was either run-down buildings or quaint European homes in the mountains.
We got to Prague and met up with Ursula’s friend, whose name I can’t remember. It’s okay though, because I will never see him again. Good thing, too, because he was kind of a douchebag (more on this later). But he was nice to have as a tour guide of the city.
This is him and Ursula when we got to the city center.
And this is me and Ursula:
We were right on a river that is a tributary of the Elbe, so I took a few pictures of the other side.
This is the Prague Castle, and the building on the right is their Parliament. There are a bunch of government buildings on that side of the river.
Across the street from where these pictures were taken is a clock tower. It’s a random one, and I don’t know anything about it. But here’s a picture:
We walked around for a bit and went to some souvenir shops. We finally made it to the square, where there is a clock tower and a cathedral. Here are pictures of them:
Church of Our Lady of Tyn
Town hall Clock Tower and astronomical clock
The tower is cool, because you can go up to the top and it gives you a pretty good view of the city. We went up and took pictures of the city.
Cathedral again:
Protestant Church- St. Nicholas. The street on the right is Paris St., and that’s where all the upscale shops are in Prague.
Part of the square and people walking around:
St. Jilji Church. I went inside of this one before we got to the city center. It was small, and there was only a small area you could walk around in; the rest was gated off.
Our tour guide said that Prague is called the “City of 100 Towers.” Here are some of them:
We left the tower and went walking around the city some more. I asked our guide why the Czechs don’t like the Slovaks, and told him that I liked the country better when it was called Czechoslovakia. He said that the Slovaks are nationalistic and don’t like the Czech people because his people are peaceful and douchebags. The Slovaks seem like my kind of people.
This is the gate from when the city used to be walled off:
Mozart’s opera, Don Giovanni, premiered in Prague, and there’s a statue outside of the opera house commemorating it. Since it was Mozart’s 250th birthday, I figured I should take a picture:
It started to get dark, and we crossed the Charles Bridge to get over the river. We were going to go to the castle, but our time was running out because we had a 7pm train to catch. We decided to go to dinner, but we had to make one stop first.
The United States Embassy. It was so nice to see Old Glory. I was hoping that there would be a U.S. Marine standing guard outside, but there wasn’t. Too bad, because I had to use the bathroom and was going to ask him if there was a non-pay toilet in there for American citizens.
On a side note, the only SUV I’ve seen in Europe was in Prague. It was a Chevy Suburban, and I saw it coming from the street that our embassy was on. It was nice to see a real car, instead of these tiny no-go-mobiles that they have in the rest of Europe.
We went to dinner at a place called Napoleon’s, and it was themed after, well, Napoleon. We were eating, and the Czech kid decides to tell us that the city of Prague was not leveled by the Nazis because their country had surrendered instead of waging war against them. He then said something along the lines of, “And our people were treated very nicely by them. You didn’t have any problems with the Nazis unless you were trying to plot against them. But other than that, we were all unharmed.”
Now, I wanted to say something to him. Something like, “Oh yeah, all those Czech Jews were thrilled with the Nazi occupation.” But, Ursula is my quasi-friend, and I needed her fine German language skills to get me back to Leipzig. So I didn’t want to stir her emotions by bringing up the holocaust. But if she happened to not be at the table at the time, I damn sure would have said something. And on top of that, his people are cowards. The Poles fought German tanks with their horse-mounted cavalry. Now those Poles are real men.
We finished dinner without international incident and went to the train station where our train had dropped us off. That’s what anybody would assume is the place to go. But Prague has two different train stations, and our train from Prague was not the same as the on to Prague. We had 15 minutes to get from the one train station to the next, and our guide said that the quickest way was by the metro. We waited for a train for 6 minutes, and while we were waiting, I took a picture to document our last train debacle in Prague:
We got to the station and ran through it. As we were heading up the steps to the platform, the P.A. announced that the train was ready to depart. We made it to the train and jumped on board. Then, the train sat there for five more minutes. Oh well, at least we were on it.
The best part about the train is that it was my romanticized European train. It had compartments! I was so excited and I felt like Indiana Jones (even though I don’t think he was ever on a train).
Me in the compartment!
We made it back to Leipzig at around 12:15 and got back to our place at around 12:30. I was waking up at 7 the next morning to go to Weimar with my other traveling friend, Hyuna. But I stayed up until 2am being online and delaying when I went to sleep. I could always sleep on the train tomorrow.
That is Prague. It is a beautiful city, and if you’ve ever wanted to go, you should.
On Saturday morning, my roommate, Ursula, and I left this place at around 7:30. There was a 7:50 train that we were going to take to Dresden, where we would switch trains and go on to Prague. We were going to take the city tram to the train station, but it didn’t end up coming until after we’d missed the window to make the early train. But we weren’t going to worry, there was an express train from Leipzig to Dresden that would get us there before the train left for Prague. We’d be in Prague at 12:30. Ursula had a friend that she went to school with in Finland who is Czech, and he agreed to meet us at the station and be our guide.
We get to the station and buy our tickets. We buy a Saxony ticket for the ride back from Dresden to Leipzig, because the intraregional ticket allows for up to 5 passengers and is good all day. The only problem with the Saxony ticket is that you can’t take the express trains, so we were going to have to buy express train tickets to get to Dresden on time to make our connecting train. No big deal, as long as we get to Prague.
The time comes for our express train to leave. But it’s not waiting for us on the platform. In fact-and this is where I am so glad that I brought a German girl with me-there is a small sign that says that the train will not be going to Dresden after all, and that all of the passengers are SOL. We try to talk to the people at the service desk, but by now everybody’s up in arms about this train being cancelled. I learned many German swear words that morning. Luckily (depending on how you see it), there was a non-express train leaving for Dresden 10 minutes later. But since it was making all the stops, we wouldn’t be in Dresden until after our other train left for Prague. But we can use our Saxony ticket to get there, saving us €46.
We get to Dresden and eat at around 11, and the next train to Prague doesn’t leave until 12. We ate and had almost no problem getting the train to Prague. They ended up moving the platforms on us, but we figured it out and made it onto the train. We were off to Prague!
Here is me on the train to Prague:
And here is Ursula:
Dresden is the last stop in Germany before the Czech Republic, so two men-a German and a Czech border agent-walk through the train and the German guy stamps you out of Germany and the Czech guy stamps you into the Czech Republic.
Here is the border stop we had to make. It’s very Eastern European. I also saw the first handgun since I’ve been here on the Czech border patrol agents walking around outside. This sparked a conversation between Ursula and me about how anybody in America can own a gun and shoot people that break into their houses.
I slept for maybe 15 minutes on the trip, because watching things go by out the window makes you feel very sleepy. To the right of the train was the Elbe River, and to the left of the train was either run-down buildings or quaint European homes in the mountains.
We got to Prague and met up with Ursula’s friend, whose name I can’t remember. It’s okay though, because I will never see him again. Good thing, too, because he was kind of a douchebag (more on this later). But he was nice to have as a tour guide of the city.
This is him and Ursula when we got to the city center.
And this is me and Ursula:
We were right on a river that is a tributary of the Elbe, so I took a few pictures of the other side.
This is the Prague Castle, and the building on the right is their Parliament. There are a bunch of government buildings on that side of the river.
Across the street from where these pictures were taken is a clock tower. It’s a random one, and I don’t know anything about it. But here’s a picture:
We walked around for a bit and went to some souvenir shops. We finally made it to the square, where there is a clock tower and a cathedral. Here are pictures of them:
Church of Our Lady of Tyn
Town hall Clock Tower and astronomical clock
The tower is cool, because you can go up to the top and it gives you a pretty good view of the city. We went up and took pictures of the city.
Cathedral again:
Protestant Church- St. Nicholas. The street on the right is Paris St., and that’s where all the upscale shops are in Prague.
Part of the square and people walking around:
St. Jilji Church. I went inside of this one before we got to the city center. It was small, and there was only a small area you could walk around in; the rest was gated off.
Our tour guide said that Prague is called the “City of 100 Towers.” Here are some of them:
We left the tower and went walking around the city some more. I asked our guide why the Czechs don’t like the Slovaks, and told him that I liked the country better when it was called Czechoslovakia. He said that the Slovaks are nationalistic and don’t like the Czech people because his people are peaceful and douchebags. The Slovaks seem like my kind of people.
This is the gate from when the city used to be walled off:
Mozart’s opera, Don Giovanni, premiered in Prague, and there’s a statue outside of the opera house commemorating it. Since it was Mozart’s 250th birthday, I figured I should take a picture:
It started to get dark, and we crossed the Charles Bridge to get over the river. We were going to go to the castle, but our time was running out because we had a 7pm train to catch. We decided to go to dinner, but we had to make one stop first.
The United States Embassy. It was so nice to see Old Glory. I was hoping that there would be a U.S. Marine standing guard outside, but there wasn’t. Too bad, because I had to use the bathroom and was going to ask him if there was a non-pay toilet in there for American citizens.
On a side note, the only SUV I’ve seen in Europe was in Prague. It was a Chevy Suburban, and I saw it coming from the street that our embassy was on. It was nice to see a real car, instead of these tiny no-go-mobiles that they have in the rest of Europe.
We went to dinner at a place called Napoleon’s, and it was themed after, well, Napoleon. We were eating, and the Czech kid decides to tell us that the city of Prague was not leveled by the Nazis because their country had surrendered instead of waging war against them. He then said something along the lines of, “And our people were treated very nicely by them. You didn’t have any problems with the Nazis unless you were trying to plot against them. But other than that, we were all unharmed.”
Now, I wanted to say something to him. Something like, “Oh yeah, all those Czech Jews were thrilled with the Nazi occupation.” But, Ursula is my quasi-friend, and I needed her fine German language skills to get me back to Leipzig. So I didn’t want to stir her emotions by bringing up the holocaust. But if she happened to not be at the table at the time, I damn sure would have said something. And on top of that, his people are cowards. The Poles fought German tanks with their horse-mounted cavalry. Now those Poles are real men.
We finished dinner without international incident and went to the train station where our train had dropped us off. That’s what anybody would assume is the place to go. But Prague has two different train stations, and our train from Prague was not the same as the on to Prague. We had 15 minutes to get from the one train station to the next, and our guide said that the quickest way was by the metro. We waited for a train for 6 minutes, and while we were waiting, I took a picture to document our last train debacle in Prague:
We got to the station and ran through it. As we were heading up the steps to the platform, the P.A. announced that the train was ready to depart. We made it to the train and jumped on board. Then, the train sat there for five more minutes. Oh well, at least we were on it.
The best part about the train is that it was my romanticized European train. It had compartments! I was so excited and I felt like Indiana Jones (even though I don’t think he was ever on a train).
Me in the compartment!
We made it back to Leipzig at around 12:15 and got back to our place at around 12:30. I was waking up at 7 the next morning to go to Weimar with my other traveling friend, Hyuna. But I stayed up until 2am being online and delaying when I went to sleep. I could always sleep on the train tomorrow.
That is Prague. It is a beautiful city, and if you’ve ever wanted to go, you should.