Stranger in a Strange Land: Easter Weekend In Prague...

I'd like to start out by saying congratulations to my very dear friends, Kory and Will, on the arrival of Griffin Alexander! He's absolutely precious, and I can't wait to meet him! :)

Well, the pictures are finally finished and I finally have time to type up a blog on our Easter weekend in Prague... Yay! :) So, without further ado...

Our weekend in Prague was wonderful! We had such a great time exploring the city! It's a city rich in both history and culture... There is so much to see and do! The history of Prague spans over 1100 years (at one point it was the capital of the Holy Roman Empire), and it is now one of the most popular tourist destinations' in Europe. My favorite part of the city was the abundance of old, historic buildings... The architecture of some of the buildings was absolutely amazing! :) And they could be found virtually everywhere throughout the city! I also loved walking along all of their cobblestone streets... Thankfully, I packed some very good walking shoes for the trip! :) We also found it to be an interesting city to explore, in that it still has some remnants of when they were under communist rule... It was interesting to see the contrast between the historical parts of the city and the newer communist-style buildings that had been built in more recent years (and by recent years, I mean in the mid-1900's! :)). And, another thing that made me truly appreciate Prague even more, was the fact that they had great shopping!! :) After spending some time there, I realized just how deprived from shopping I've been since living in Germany! :)

Being that the city is such a popular tourist destination, we didn't have a problem with communication... Most places spoke English, and if they didn't, they spoke German, so we could get by using either language. The only time we were truly concerned about the difference in the language was when we first arrived in the city... Our car's navigation system got us into the middle of the city (we were trying to find our hotel) and then it proceeded to just stop working... It literally had us driving in a circle throughout the middle of the city for about 40 minutes... Lovely!! And, reading the street signs was rather difficult as all of them are in Czech (which is a derivative of the Russian language... Can we say crazy symbols?! :)) After driving around aimlessly for 2 hours, we finally managed to find our hotel (on our own, I might add, as the navigation system was of no help to us at that point)... And, then it took about another hour to figure out parking... Nice! However, once we got settled in, we managed to acquaint ourselves with the city rather quickly and the trip went flawlessly after that! :)

Overall, our trip to Prague was such a fun time!! It's a very memorable city and I would definitely go back to Prague in a heartbeat. Anyone interested in joining me for the next trip? :) And, with that said, it's time for some pictures... Enjoy!!

The Powder Tower... Our hotel was actually located just around the corner from here...

Notice all of the American Brands on this street? Since the fall of Communism, the city has grown by leaps and bounds and now has many American companies located in it...

A side street leading up to the Prague Castle... Notice the street lamps? They were actually authentic gas lamps...

St. Vitus's Cathedral... This cathedral is located within the Prague Castle complex... It took about 600 years to build this cathedral!! The building of the cathedral began in the 1300's and was finally completed in 1929...

A side view of the cathedral... Absolutely stunning!! :)

A view from the back...

Brian and I thought the door was rather cute... We found it on the side of the cathedral, so of course, we had to stop for a photo op. :)

This was also our first night in Prague... The night we decided to take a "short" stroll around the city to see some of the sights... So, I didn't dress very warmly... Well, Brian got rather carried away with taking night pictures, and our "short" stroll took us about 4 hours!! At which point, the wind had picked up and the temperatures had dropped, and I was absolutely freezing! So, from that point on, I was always well dressed when going on a "short" stroll throughout the city! :)

On our way back down from the Prague castle we came across this street performance... It was quite entertaining... Especially watching the fire handlers! :)

Charles Bridge at night...

A view of the city... Prague Castle (where the St. Vitus Cathedral is located) sits on top of the hill...

Prague Castle (which is considered the largest castle in the world) and St. Vitus Cathedral... Gorgeous!!

The Astronomical Clock...

The Powder Tower at night...

Alice in Wonderland... In Czech. :)

A view of the New Town from the area near Wenceslas Square... Many historical events have occurred in Wenceslas Square and it is traditionally the stage for demonstrations... Namely demonstrations that occurred during the Communist Era.

A view of the city from the Astronomical Clock...

Another view of the city... With the Easter Market below in the Old Town Square and the Tyn Cathedral in the background...

The Tyn Cathedral...

St. Vitus Cathedral during the day...

Inside St. Vitus Cathedral...

The stained glass was beautiful! As we were leaving the Cathedral in the late afternoon, the sun was shining through the stained glass, and in doing so, the light was cast onto the pillars of the cathedral... You can see the result of this in the picture below... Gorgeous, isn't it? :)

One of the crazy looking statues on the cathedral...

At Prague Castle, with a view of the city behind us...

The country is known for this specialty... Hand painted eggs... Very cool!! :)

The Easter Market in Old Town...

We came across another hand-painted egg at the Easter Market in the Old Town Square... :) It made for a perfect Easter picture! :)

The Astronomical Clock... This was a very popular clock. Every hour, it has a special showing of "The Walk of the Apostles", where figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures appear through the small doors near the top... Hundreds of tourists can be found gathered around this clock about 10 minutes before every hour, so that they can witness the show... After the show, the clock strikes the hour... And, then for additional flair, a trumpeter stands at the top of the tower and plays music! :)

One of the figures shown during the show...

The trumpeter (in red) stands at the top and plays a short tune... :)

Easter morning on Charles Bridge... Brian wanted to get some pictures without all of the additional tourists walking around... Plus, he wanted to get some of the sunrise over the castle... So, we woke up at 5 a.m. on Easter morning to go walking through the streets of Prague... Needless to say, we weren't the only ones on the streets that early in the morning... We also shared the streets with all of the drunk people who had been at the bars all night! Lovely! :) Apparently, some of the bars in Prague stay open for 24 hours... It definitely made for an interesting scene first thing in the morning... It provided me with some entertainment as I waited for Brian to take pictures. :)

The Charles Bridge at sunrise on Easter morning... I liked how quiet and peaceful it was at that time... :)

Charles Bridge with Prague Castle in the background...

And, after getting up at 5 a.m., I was in desperate need of some coffee!! :) So, as soon as Starbucks opened at 8 a.m., we were one of the first customers! :)

Brian's now addicted as well... Hee, hee! :)

Our Easter morning breakfast... :)

When in Starbucks, they ask your name to write on the cup... Apparently, this is my name in Czech! :)

The tower of the Astronomical Clock... With some new spring buds in the foreground... :)

The Easter tree at the Easter Market in the Old Town Square...

This is a Czech specialty... Dough that is baked on a thick wooden pole (looks like a broom handle) and then rolled in a cinnamon/sugar topping...

We decided to have a taste to see what all the fuss was about... Quite tasty! :)

Lovin' all of the Easter eggs that you could find in the city... :)

One of the hand-painted egg stands at the Easter Market...

The Jubilee Synagogue...

The National Museum... We decided to spend Easter Sunday learning more about Prague's culture... So, we headed to the National Museum, located in Wenceslas Square...

It was stunning inside...

Those things were huge!! :)

The ceiling in one of the galleries...

Inside the National Museum...

After we went to the National Museum, we checked out the Museum of Communism... That was very interesting and extremely eye-opening!! It made me even more thankful to be an American and to have so many freedoms!

A replica of a classroom during the Communist era...

An example of a workshop in the 1950's...

The propaganda showed how people had so much under Communist leadership...

In reality, this is what the stores looked like... There was barely anything in them... Apparently, during this time, people who were store owners, doctors, and other higher end professions, started a bartering system... A butcher would trade his meat for clothing, or a store owner would trade milk for medicine from a doctor... Which resulted in very little product being in the stores for purchase by the average citizen... Very sad.

An interrogation room... Very creepy! Notice the drains in the floors? Those were there so that they could wash the blood down them after they beat the people being interrogated... Ugh!!

Towards the end of the museum, they had a replica of the Berlin Wall (definitely not quite as impressive as the real one! :))... I really liked this saying... It says, "Let me live my life, Enjoy Freedom, Touch the Limit, Reach the Stars, Understand World... That's What I Want"... Just reading it gave me goosebumps! It made me realize how much we take it for granted that we have so many freedoms in the U.S.... We are so very fortunate!