Traveling to Prague!
The word that kept getting repeated over and over again this trip was “wow”. Prague has been voted the world’s most beautiful city and it truly is so stunning. I’m gonna let the photos speak for themselves.
Things to see
Prague Castle was stunning, honestly a place that pictures just do not do justice. There was a line to get in but it went quick, highly recommend buying tickets to tour the inside.
Something that is famous in Prague is the Astronomical Clock Tower. A really cool thing to see, especially at the top of the hour when the clock chimes. When we were there everyone started chanting in Czech and it was something great to see as you walk through Old Town.
The Old Jewish Quarter is a really beautiful part of the city. Many synagogues to be seen and the Old Jewish Cemetary. A lot of the things we did in the Jewish Quarter were very sobering. Definitely worth spending an afternoon in this area.
The Bone Church is in a town called Kutna Hora outside of Prague but is something that I think is worth the trip out of the city if it interests you. We weren’t allowed to take photos but I suggest doing some research on it to see if it would be worth it to you to add to your itinerary! And yes, when I say Bone Church they are real bones, give it a quick google search.
Restaurants and Food
Pasta Fresca was honestly the best meal we had in Prague and it was Italian food. Best Italian food I’ve ever had, but I also haven’t been to Italy. Bri and Ashley Kate have been to Italy and they said it was amazing so it was good either way.
Our trip was over Thanksgiving, which is obviously an American holiday but we wanted to have a fancy Thanksgiving dinner to celebrate the holiday ourselves. We decided on making a reservation at the Triton Restaurant which ended up being a very interesting experience. The restaurant menu is set up where you can choose from a few different 5-6 course meals. You can also order a la carte and pick each course yourself. We ended up going with this option and did about 3-4 courses each. We received 2 courses that were “compliments of the chef” so we ended up with a 5-6 course dinner anyway. We had things such as ravioli ratatouille, steak, chicken hearts, and an amazing hazelnut dessert. The staff was very nice and explained the meaning behind the restaurant, you dine in a cave and it has a very dark history. Honestly, a lot of the Czech Republic has a dark history to it so it was fitting for our trip.
If you want some of the best ice cream you’ll ever have head to Creme de La Creme, end of story.
The Alchemist Bar was such a cool bar that we went to on our last night in Prague. The drinks were beautiful and delicious. 10/10
Traditional Czech food wasn’t our favorite. I recommend trying goulash and dumplings at least once to give it a try but there was so much good food in the Czech Republic you will find something you love.
Other food items you need, fresh orange juice (you can get amazing orange juice anywhere in Europe but the orange juice in the US just does not compare), any baked good from a cafe, and chocolate-covered strawberries (trust me on this one).
Must do
Charles Bridge was really cool, definitely a must-see. We really tried to get up to go to the bridge at sunrise but jet lag really got the best of us and we slept through our alarms. We still had a great time but it was very busy as we walked across. The city across the bridge coming from Old Town is absolutely beautiful. Honestly, my favorite part of Prague, everywhere you look is just absolutely incredible.
The Illusion Art Museum was probably one of the coolest museums I’ve ever been to. Pretty much every single thing was interactive and there were stickers on the floor for the best, most realistic-looking photo with that particular piece of art. The chair one blew our minds and we even saw how it worked.
Things that went wrong
Inevitably when traveling, things go wrong. I wanted to add this in, to have a place to be transparent and show that no matter how great a trip looks in pictures or on Instagram, there will always be things that don’t work out. Unfortunately, a good amount went wrong logistically on this trip.
We had delays on the way there and on the way back but for very different reasons. On the way there, we were supposed to have a 10-hour layover in Zurich, Switzerland and we were very excited to eat some fondue and get to explore a bit but due to delays we missed that flight and had to be rerouted. On the way home was a whole other story. At the time we were leaving, central Europe was starting to close up again due to Covid. Our connecting flight was through Zurich and Switzerland closed its borders an hour before we checked in for our flight. We had vaccine cards, negative PCR tests, passports, pretty much every document we could possibly need and we still could not board our flight for our 2-hour connection in Zurich. We were told we would need to rebook ourselves which would have been $2,500+ for each of us to get home that day but thankfully the very nice woman at the ticketing desk took pity on us and rebooked us. We ended up flying through Lisbon instead to make it home. We eventually made it after 25 hours of travel.
The building that the famous elevators in Prague are, (and one of the only things poor Bri wanted to see) was closed to the public while we were there.
The famous European Christmas markets were set to go on as normal. We saw them setting up and we got to see the Christmas tree up and lit in Old Town Prague which was so beautiful. I am so thankful we were able to see that. However, the actual Christmas markets were closed the day they were supposed to start and even leadership in the city of Prague were fighting it. They had their booths set up, vendors were prepared, the tree was up, Old Town was ready, and they decided to cancel the day of, so we didn’t get to attend the traditional Christmas market.
I am so thankful we were able to go on this trip, especially with the state of the world right now but there were some things that definitely impacted our trip that I want to be transparent about for anyone thinking about traveling to Prague soon!
Overall, highly recommend going to Prague. The Czech Republic has never been somewhere that’s on the top of my travel list but after being there I highly recommend it gets added to yours. An absolutely beautiful city that is easy to navigate (you can walk pretty much everywhere) and we had a great time.