Citytrip: Prague

Last week I went on my first holiday without parents. Eline and I spent 5 days (Monday 9 July - Friday 13 July) in Prague! It was an amazing week, mostly filled with sightseeing as we both wanted to see as much as possible of the city.

Our bed!

We arrived at our hotel at around 13:00 on Monday, and luckily our room was ready so we left our suitcases there. The hotel was amazing, we stayed in the Red and Blue Design Hotel, all rooms there have either a blue or a red theme. From the hotel it took about 15 minutes to walk to the Charles Bridge, so we spent Monday afternoon exploring the city.

Trdelnik.. omnomnom (:

On Tuesday the real sightseeing started, this was also the day our 4 day Prague Card started. In the morning we took a 2 hour bus tour through the city, which we got for free with our Prague Card! The bus took us through the most important parts of the city and we were given half an hour to walk around Prague Castle. As half an hour is by far not enough to see the highlights of Prague Castle we decided to just stroll around a bit and come back on Wednesday. After the city tour we went to the Old Town Square where we ate Trdelnik, a sweet bread which is baked on a rod. We then climbed the tower of the Old Town Hall, from which we had a gorgeous view over the city. This is also the tower at which the Astronomical Clock is located, so at 14:00 we went down to watch the Apostles coming by (this happens every hour). After this we walked through the Old Town to Josefov, the Jewish Quarter. We decided to not visit the Jewish museum and cemetery as this is quite expensive and we were on a budget trip after all! I do really want to see the museum sometime so I have a reason to come back to Prague. Instead we went to the St. Agnes Convent, to which we got free entry with our Prague Card. The building was impressive and there is an exhibition of Medieval art which I found quite interesting although I am not a huge fan of art.

The view from the tower of the Old Town Hall

Wednesday was another busy day. We woke up and left the hotel early as we wanted to walk up to Prague Castle before it got too hot and busy (it was a very warm week!). At 10:00 we watched the changing of the guards, and it was already quite busy. We then went into Prague Castle where we got free admission to the St. Vitus Cathedral, St. George's Basilica, the Golden Lane and the Old Royal Palace. I especially found the St. Vitus Cathedral very impressive - it is so big and elaborately decorated, especially the windows. Around noon we walked back down for lunch and a bit of a rest. Wednesday afternoon we took the funicular up Petrin Hill, which was very close to our hotel. I had heard of Petrin Hill in 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' by Kundera but it was very different from how I imagined it to be. It is a lot larger than I thought it would be. We walked around at the top (we didn't go up the small Eiffel Tower as you had to pay for this and it was very busy), and after enjoying a gorgeous view of the city we slowly walked back down.

In the St. Vitus Cathedral, look at the windows, they are so elaborately decorated!

On Thursday we walked to Vysehrad (we only used public transport to get from the airport to the hotel and back!) where we saw the oldest round building of Prague, the rotunda of St. Martin. We also went into the casemates, in which there is a big vault in which some of the original statues from the Charles Bridge are kept. These statues date from around 1700 so they had to be then of the bridge to prevent them from breaking/wearing. As we walked back down to the city I felt sick - which really disappointed me! For this reason I enjoyed this day a lot less than the previous ones. We then went to a metro station (of which I forgot the name) which, according to Eline's guide book, has one of the longest escalators in Europe - of course we had to go see this with our own eyes! We looked down the escalator and it definitely was very, very deep. After this we went to the Dvorak Museum, about Czech composer Antonin Dvorak, which unfortunately I couldn't enjoy very much because I was still feeling sick. But the museum building was really, really nice! We then slowly strolled back to the hotel.

St. Martin's Rotunda in Vysehrad

On our last day (Friday the 13th.... I tripped on the street and cut open my knees - ouch, nice souvenir!) we went to the Wallenstein Palace, which houses the Czech Senate and art exhibitions. We had a look at the exhibition of works by Schikaneder (who I had never heard of before but that doesn't matter) and then walked around the gardens. We spent the afternoon doing the most cliche thing you can do while on holidays: souvenir shopping! I love shopping for souvenirs haha. I always get my parents a bottle opener so of course I got them one from Prague as well, this time with a corkscrew and a small knife. For my dad I got a small bottle of Absinth, a typical Czech alcoholic drink with 70(!!!)% alcohol. I got my brother a beer glass (this was originally Eline's idea actually), as he has just turned 16 and really likes beer - it says 'Czech me out'. For my my mom I got a box of chocolates with pictures of Prague on the wrappers. And of course I couldn't forget myself - I bought myself a little notebook with a picture of the Old Town Square.

At the Wallenstein Palace

All in all we had a great trip, I really enjoyed it and I really want to go on a city trip with Eline again - she's a great companion if you want to see a lot (and of course she's generally a great companion)! (: And actually we didn't spend that much money, during the trip I spent less than 100 euros and that includes dinner, lunch, souvenirs, transport to and from the hotel and the odd entrance fee we had to pay. This was also thanks to Eline's discovery of a mall very close to our hotel, which has both a Tesco hypermarket (yes there is Tesco in Czech Republic! Why not in The Netherlands?) and a food court! We ate at the food court 3 times, where you could get a main course, drink and dessert for less than 10 euros (and it was generally good food!). For the trip itself (4 nights, including breakfast, return flight and a 4 day Prague card) we payed around 250 euro per person so I think we were very lucky!

Have you ever been to Prague?

P.S. All photographs were taken by me, please do not use them without my permission!

Prague

The Charles Bridge

In July, I will be visiting Prague together with one of my best friends: Eline. We will be spending 5 days (4 nights there) which we will mostly fill by sightseeing. I already bought a city guide, which has lots of information and there are some places I really want to visit, but I also want to ask you for some advice. Have you ever been to Prague, and are there any things you think we should not miss out on? Can be sightseeing, shopping, food, whatever really - we want to do and see a lot!

A few things I definitely want to do/visit:

Go up the Petrin hill. I've heard that from this hill you can get a great view of the city. Our hotel is close to the station of the funicular railway that goes up the hill, so this is something we will definitely be doing!

Go to the Jewish Quarter (Josefov) and visit the famous Jewish cemetery, with thousand of graves crammed into a small space. I would also like to visit a synagogue if I get the opportunity.

Prague Castle and St Vitus's Cathedral. 

The Charles Bridge. Our hotel is, I believe, a 10 or 15 minute walk away from the famous Charles Bridge, and I think this is definitely one landmark every tourist visits. It has statues on it, which makes it different from ordinary bridges. 

The Astronomical Clock in the Old Town. I find things like this quite interesting, and therefore I will definitely have a look at this clock!

Eat Trdelnik. I first saw this on 24kitchen (a Dutch food channel) about half a year ago, and ever since then I've wanted to try it! It's a cylindrical shaped pastry, mostly with nuts on it. It just looks really good to me haha! Does anyone know where in Prague I am most likely to find a street vendor selling these?

I am really looking forward to this trip. We will be exploring a city which is new to both of us (let's hope we don't get lost!) and spending a lot of time together, which will be good for our friendship because Eline and I didn't see each other very much in the last year - mainly due to me being busy with school. But now that we are both finished with exams we can spend some more time together.

So if you have any tips as to what we should do in Prague, or any food we definitely need to try, please let me know :)

I will be keeping a travel journal while I am there and will show it to you afterwards. Of course I will also create a post here about the whole trip, including photographs!

x Loes

Holidays!

Hi everyone!

I didn't post anything for a very, very long time. The main reason: exams! But I had my last exam on Friday and I now have a 3 1/2 month holiday until I start university half way through September (If I get the grades, that is). I have quite a few plans for this summer, starting with Speech Day tomorrow (a 'closing off' event with the whole class, with speeches from teachers and students) and prom on Friday. I will also be going on some trips: in July I will spend 5 days in Prague with Eline, and in August I will spend 7 days in Agios Nikolaos on Crete (Greece) with Kim. For the rest I will be doing to usual things: meeting up with friends, shopping, reading, and going on a few day trips to the zoo and attraction parks. And of course I will mainly RELAX, because that's something I haven't done a lot in the last 2 years!

Today I handed in my books at school and then went for lunch at Bagels and Beans with Sara and Abena. Do you know Bagels and Beans? They have amazing bagels - I had one with salmon and cream cheese, absolutely delicous :)
After that I went shopping with Abena, and just on time I found a dress for Speech Day! I will show you the dress and a couple other things I bought.

 The dress I bought for Speech Day. First I was thinking of wearing a black dress, simply because I have nothing else. But that dress is really wintery so I am glad I found this! Will wear it with simple black pumps I think, don't have anything else and couldn't find anything else today either.
The theme for Speech Day is Harry Potter, but as you can see I am not dressing for the theme. I think a lot of people aren't, because it is a really hard theme to dress for unless you want to look like a school girl with a skirt and tie.

I bought this dress at H&M for 19,95 euros (so cheap!).

Our Senior Prom this Friday is a masquerade so the main goal of our shopping spree was buying a mask. This is the mask I bought. Probably won't wear it very long though, because I have glasses and without them I can't recognise people very easily. I bought it at a 'party shop' for about 4 euros.
I already bought my prom dress last summer in Hamburg, maybe I'll post pictures of it after prom.

And last but not least some products from The Body Shop!
Left: Body Butter Duo - Floral Acai. I already wanted this for a long time, it smells lovely! I never bought it because I found it too expensive (17 euros) but I thought I deserved it now because I survived my exams.
Middle - Coconut Body Butter (small). My big coconut body butter is almost finished, but I didn't want to buy another big one, because I was already buying the duo one, so decided to buy a small one which we also be useful to take on holidays. I think it was 5 euros, but I am not exactly sure.
Right - Peppermint Cooling Foot Spray (small). Saw this in the rack with mini products and decided to buy it, it is a spray which refreshes and revives tired feet. Very useful after prom, and for taking on holidays because it is so small. This also costed about 5 euros.

Are you also doing exams this year? If you are in the Dutch system and you are in the middle of your exams: good luck!

Loes