Hello, yes, the Czech puns don’t stop once you’ve started them as you can imagine you just get more creative. In the second half of our Prague stay, Zoe and I slept in a little and got breakfast and coffee at Bond Cafe (I got a matcha latte because that’s the latest thing I’ve discovered and usually I drink coffee too fast so then I drink this slower). We were kind of lazy butts for a few hours after and then decided to adventure out at about noon, we found ourselves walking over to Prague II.
Basically, I’d never seen it before, but some cities call different areas or neighborhoods just by numbers,( ie Prague I, Prague II, etc.) and Prague II and home to St Wenceslas Square is kind of like the second recommended tourist site after Prague I. Yes, if you recognize the name, it is indeed Good King Wenceslas (I kept humming the song haha). Of all things to do in a fairytale city, we decided to make a stop at McDonalds, but with good reason. In ways, McDonalds is like a comfortable place and a piece of home, but since I’ve had hundreds of Mickey D’s meals over my life I find it really fun to see how the menu varies internationally. I got a Toblerone McFlurry and they also had cheesecake here!
Also, the reason why there is less walking and more indoors in general is that this is winter in Europe aka it is very cold and your face really feels it and takes a while to thaw out once you’re indoors again. We had no real agenda by this point so we wandered and got into the Narodni Museum, aka the new National Museum, for free. This is not typical, however, the presence of cops and shiny black cars across the street at the beautiful old National Museum meant that they were closed for a special event and so granted free entry to the other place. I’m glad it was free because I would not have paid for what I saw.
There were a few small exhibits and about half the museum had English translations but much of it we just enjoyed and interpreted for ourselves. We spent most the time in here being children and coloring and drawing at different kiddie stations, honestly anything to milk the time with free bathrooms and warmth. Eventually, we left and headed to another cathedral at the heart of Prague II with some more lovely stained glass.
It was about 3 pm by this time and so we walked to a beautiful huge park and again acted like children on the playground there. Then we were far from our part of town so we did a residential tour of Prague and saw different neighborhoods and places where tourists probably never explore. We finally enjoyed the sunset over the river and then, starving and cold, headed to Indian Jewel which was perfect— make sure you order spicy because they tend to not give you a lot of spice to begin with!
Peep the waste bins! 4 were lined up in a row, I believe glass, plastics, trash and TETRAPAKS! I took a peek inside and it was perfectly sorted. My zero waste self almost cried.
To round out Prague we headed to Penguin Bar after I expertly researched a bar with a singular $ symbol on Google Maps indicating the price range. This was the move. Cheapest drinks I’ve ever had, with $2.00-2.50 cocktails and basically only locals. The best part was the cheap jukebox where I queued up Africa by Toto and all the locals were whistling along, what can I say!
The next morning we had to kill some time between czeching out of our AirBnb and catching our train to Frankfurt, so we did just that at the awesome Home Kitchen restaurant with most importantly, very clean facilities and homemade bread. Still not over the fact that I can get a proper meal and drink for like $8! Wow. And just like that, we were at the Prague station to take the first of three trains to Frankfurt.
The first train was the longest and had the prettiest views through the German countryside, and very spacious. We missed our second transfer so we bought train station wine and pretzels since we were bored. On the last transfer at Nuremberg, we were bored and freezing so we started dancing and singing the Hustle on the platform much to the other passengers’ amusement. We finally got in at 10:30 after 9 hours of traveling, but trust me that night had just begun. Stay tuned for Frankfurt and Friends.™
