Our day started with a 7 hour train from Budapest direct to Prague. Having a direct train was so nice and we enjoyed having a train car all to ourselves. It went by pretty quick and the views were nothing special. Once we arrived we headed straight to our hotel. Since it was our last stop in Europe and would end our third section of our trip, we decided to use some points to book a boutique hotel instead of a hostel. I can say that I appreciate hotels to a whole new level after this trip. The hotel had a few floors, the old wooden stairs were lined with thick red carpet, and each room had a balcony. It felt romantic.

We arrived in the late afternoon, and after freshening up we got together with an old friend of mine and her husband. Adéla and I met when we both studied in Östersund, Sweden. After some quick mental math we figured we hadn’t seen each other in about a decade, crazy! Life really does fly by. She was kind enough to order a large spread of the best classic czech foods for us to try. There was a cucumber salad, sausage, pork neck shnitzel, beef tartar, fried cheese, and a traditional biscuit with cream. While the rest of the table enjoyed the biscuits for dessert I opted for another order of tartar since it was so unbelievably good. Adéla and I also had beer that was mixed with some sort of raspberry lemonade. It was my kind of beer. Nick and I finished the night with some refreshing fruit ice creams to celebrate a successful travel day.

Our first full day started with a walk to Venue for brunch, apparently a popular thing to do in Prague. I got the crispy hash with lax, avocado, and lemon cream. Nick tried the baked buns with a sweet cream sauce that Adéla had recommended we try at some point. After brunch we continued walking through old town, got some candy, and made our way down the river walk, Náplavka, to get to Vyšehrad. The river walk was nice, showcasing the colorful buildings, the difference between the two sides of the river, plenty of bars on boats, and the dancing house (a building with a slight twist, it looked cooler on photos then it did in real life in our opinion).

Once we arrived to Vyšehrad fortress, it was time to loosey goosey wander the area. A perfect example of a travel activity Nick loves and one that causes me stress; if its not to a plan how do I know when I’ll be able to get food next? Mostly kidding, but the fort was neat. There were signs all along the area giving historical information. One of the churches there still had a canon ball stuck in it’s wall, a highlight for me. We saw parts of the wall, churches, a cemetery, and gorgeous views of the city. Our exploration ended with burgers from the Burger Station and finally after lots of steps, a sunset from our balcony.

In an unusual turn of events, Nick was the one to suggest a day starting at sunrise. I’m used to being the one pushing for the early mornings. We did this to be able to walk across Charles Bridge with fewer people on it; it gets hectic later in the morning. It still had some people on it but wasn’t too bad. The bridge had many statues and nice views of both sides of the river. We walked across to start our adventure in a new area of the city. Sunrise was also great for the lighting, it really warmed up all the buildings.

Once we made it across the bridge, we headed for Letna Park. The park was so nice and full of locals walking their dogs, kids and toddlers with their teachers, and people out for their morning runs. It had great views down the river of all the bridges, but my favorite part about it was that it was the last thing I had to do before getting fika. Nick found La Forme Cafe and Bakery, which was the only one open in the area before 10:00am. We found that to be a little amusing, how are no cafes open before then? It worked out wonderfully, though, because if other places were open we wouldn’t have walked so far to get a snack. La Forme was insanely good. The pastry chef in the kitchen could barely keep up, trays would come out and things would disappear quickly. I loved my raspberry and white chocolate pastry so much I got a second, and Nick enjoyed his stuffed to the maximum Danish. I still dream about that place.

After our dream fika, the Prague Castle was finally open for us to enter and explore. There are many areas our tickets had access to but the highlight was definitely St. Vitus Cathedral. It had a long line, but was worth the wait. Inside had beautiful stain glass windows, impressive details, and the whole church was stunning. It was super crowded, but that didn’t bother us too much. We also took a look at the Golden Lane and St. George’s Basilica while we were at Prague Castle. We enjoyed some more views of the city from a nearby viewpoint. I loved seeing all the rooftops from there.

After wrapping up at the castle area we made our way to a basement tavern for lunch. We ate at Restaurace U Kristiána, and I am running out of adjectives to describe how good all the food we ate in Prague was. We split the wild board shnitzel, venison stew, and apple strudel. Nick got 99% of the strudel as we found out in Slovenia I am not a fan of the traditional version. After another incredible meal Nick and I went to the beautiful and historic National Theatre to see an opera, Carmen. We managed to get last minute tickets in the literal farthest row back. I could not see the subtitles screen, but it was still enjoyable anyways. Nick with his laser eyes could read the subtitles so he got more out of it. Our walk home had amazing views of the bridge lit up at night.

The next day was the day to explore the Břevnov Monastery. The walk over was nice, Prague is such a beautiful city. Unfortunately for me, Nick found a route up a giant hill, or at least it felt like a giant hill before I had eaten lunch. Once at the Monastery there was a restaurant, Klášterní šenk, where we had another amazing meal. We split the homemade gnocchi (Nick liked this more than me), and the best duck leg ever. It was so crispy and the tartar we shared was also pretty good. The inside of the building was closed, but we enjoyed a stroll around the gardens where there were many apple trees, paths lined with trees, and a fountain. On our way back home we enjoyed views from Petrin Hill and walked along the Hunger Wall.

I loved Prague so much that I convinced Nick to do another early morning with me so we could take some nice photos around Old Town before it got too busy. We tend to do better with landscape and nature photography, but it is nice to try and get better at our urban ones, too. Some of our favorite areas were the Charles bridge, this market area pictured to the right, the area right outside of our hotel, the Astronomical Clock (which we saw everyday), and random alleyways. For breakfast we went to Kolacherie Celetná for some kolaches. We got olive and tomato for the savory ones and strawberry and rhubarb for the sweet ones. Nick liked the sweet ones more and I liked the savory best; if I had known earlier I think I would’ve gotten him to trade. I also got a hot chocolate, but it was one of the ones for people more sophisticated then me who like dark chocolate. No sugar, no fun.

The National Museum was our last activity in Prague. We weren’t originally planning on going, but the night before Nick saw a hilarious article on his phone: the Jade Cabbage would be on display while we were in town. Why is this hilarious? Well, the #1 reason we went to the National Museum in Taipei was to see this Jade Cabbage, but when we went to the section where it was displayed it was rotated out for a different jade sculpture. I was devastated. It is usually in Taipei, but we were lucky enough to be able to see it in Prague! It was extra lucky because the museum was absolutely incredible, the building was stunning (there were so many couples doing their wedding photos in there), the sections were fantastic, and the Jade Cabbage was even better than I imagined it to be. We had wanted to go to a famous library, apparently one of the most beautiful in the world, but it was fully booked. I feel pretty satisfied with our back up option, though. It was a great way to end the European section of our trip.

A bonus photo to end on: this was our favorite display at the museum. It had no signage, no context, and was hilarious. Why is a dinosaur being eaten by sharks? Was that something that happened? We did not learn anything about it, but the children of the museum went absolutely crazy for it. I wondered if that was it’s only purpose. Every kid that walked into that room ran straight for it laughing excitedly.