I just finished a 9 days trip of constant walking! Though my feet felt like it wanted to be chopped off, the trip was definitely tons of Fun. A friend of mine came to visit me from Indonesia for almost 2 weeks, and therefore we did the European trip. One of the city we visited is Prague, Czech Republic.
The weather in Europe for this autumn is definitely weird, (climate change is for real!) weeks before the trip, I kept monitoring the temperature. It actually once said that the lowest temperature on the day we're in Prague was going to be as low as 2 degree Celcius! In reality, it didn't get that low, the highest temperature was actually quite hot that if you're standing under the sun, no need jacket as it was warm enough.
The stories I heard about Prague was that it is a very beautiful city, you'll need a week at least to enjoy it all. Since we're under time limit, a week therefore was not possible. We stayed for 3 nights only. In the end we walked through the city in A DAY! As we arrived in Prague quite late, we took Uber from the airport to the city, (Uber in Prague is super cheap!! - for European standard). We stayed at Airbnb in Prague, located nearby the dancing house, the location is nearby tons of cute cafes! (I checked the google maps beforehand). And after trying to figure out entering our Airbnb apartment (the locks and gates, etc. was realllyyyy tricky), we spend the night resting immediately, charging for energy. It felt like an episode in The Amazing Race with the pitstop at the end of the day. Hahhaa
The next day, we woke up and walked around to find breakfast. After taking a very short small breakfast at a touristy cafe, we decided to walk a little bit more and found a very cute cafe with very good looking cakes. The cakes there was sooo nice that we went back there on our last day before going to the airport. After breakfast, we bought transport ticket for 48 hours therefore we can commute whenever we like. We took the tram to the new old city, where the astronomical clock is located. The old town square was sooo crowded! Me no likey... we quickly just walk around a bit and then moved away from it hahha.. (I don't like touristy area T___T). Then we walk to the river direction where we can see the Prague castle, Charles bridge from a distance. It is a beautiful sight! The view across the river was really pretty, with range of pastel colors buildings in soft yellow, minty green, soft pink, baby blue, soft tangerine, light grey and etc. Twas pleasing to me eyes. :P
We walked besides the river to the direction of the 'Dancing House' (thanks to my friend being a former Architecture student, I had a free tour guide!), then walked across the bridge to the other side of the river. Upon walking, we found another cafe and eat some pastries there before continuing our walk to the old town where the Prague castle is. We walk passed the John Lennon wall i.e. the Peace wall (full of profanity and some 'drawings' though LOL). I totally forgot that European castle is usually up high on the hill (yeahh...) which means... steep climbing! (those stairssssssss....) Upon reaching the top (make sure to drench yourself in the beautiful view), we tried to stay there as long as possible (I ain't gonna waste all those energy climbing). We walked around the church (it is beautiful!), saw a Chinesse couple taking a pre-wedding shot (I can't take the attention), walk more in the inside of the castle but avoiding the areas where we need to pay (#cheapskate), and then walked outside until we found a park where we just sit and enjoy a grocery bought sandwhiches. :P At this point our feet is already screaming, so we took an Uber to get to the nearby tower (costed 3 euro only), and then after only a short walk around, we took the funicular (it's included in our transportation ticket!), and went down the hill.
At this point, we walk to the Charles bridge, crossing it and get to the Jewish quarter. This area reminds me a lot of Kudamm in Berlin. Beautiful buildings (expensive apartments I'm assuming), and just like Berlin, it's the place where the expensive brands are located. We went straight for dinner (since we need proper meal this time) to Lokál (the resto is by far the longest resto I've ever been in Europe + the people there are really friendly!) and had some delicious Czech food. We had the goulash with potato dumplings, fried cheese with sauce, and drank Beers with it. I personally loveeee the potato 'dumpling' (If you're Chinese like me, the dumpling is somewhat different than your definition of dumpling), even more loving it coz I can ask for more dumplings and the sauce for FREE! Also, the beer is really good!
In the evening, we walk around the old town again for Prague in the evening just give different feeling. The night beauty attracted us so much that we walked our tired feet through the natural-foot-reflection-massage-cobble-stone-street. We walked pass tons of classical musician whom were playing on the street, they're really good! Free classical music concert :P. And since we want to see the river in the evening, we walked until the bridge upon which my friend forgot where she put our Airbnb's house key. *insert panic laugh* Hahha. She eventually found it in the maze of her bag. We went home with the tram and slept directly knowing that the next day we would need to wake up reallyyyy early.
So, we kinda finished Prague in a day or at least the city center. I thought the city would be as big as Budapest, but pretty small actually for a big European capital. What amazes me as well is how this city is still pretty cheap while having similar quality to any western European countries. A meal in Prague can cost only 4-5 euro!!! and you'll left with full stomach (not to forget that it's also very tasty!). The public transportation was punctual and although quite vintage/retro looking, it had its own charm + it's cheap! The meal we had in a cute fancy cafe cost us similar to a cute cafe in Jakarta. We had delicious Vietnamese Pho on the next evening, and according to my friend, it's cheaper than the Pho in Indonesia.
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