Fiona and I arrived at our hostel at 3pm, to find that there was a New Year's Day concert given by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra at 4pm, so we walked over to the Rudolfinum and managed to get relatively inexpensive last-minute tickets. Definitely well worth the effort. We were sitting up behind the orchestra, under the organ, which was an experience in itself as well. Mixture of Smetana, Dvorak, arias from Mozart and Puccini, and of course, Strauss.
Fiona and Althea, sitting under the organ.
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The view of the orchestra from behind.
One of my favourites, Anotonín Dvořák.
Markets in the Old Town Square
There are markets in the town square and we generally walk through this to get to other places in town. The Czech people have a doughnut-like pastry item that tastes like a doughnut with cinnamon sugar, but has the texture of bread. Very nice when still hot.
Christmas tree and one of the churches in the Old Town Square.
Althea eating...as usual.
Navigating the streets
Prague is confusing, because the streets curve in such a way that the maps we have make it a little difficult to go places. Still, we're managing. The streets are cobbled, which makes it interesting to walk on. All the street lights are yellow, which gives the whole city a warm glow to it at night. During the day, it can seem a little gloomy, but that's the way it is.
Prague in the morning, Prague in the night.
The city centre of Prague is extremely touristy, so there are plenty of shops selling hats, bags, bohemian crystal, glass art, jewelery and so on. Not bad, but, it can get a bit tedious. If not, then there are department stores, with most big name international labels here in the city. I love going supermarket shopping, because of the sheer variety available under one roof, so we ended up at Billa. Supermarkets here sell plenty of alcohol, but no stationery. We needed sticky tape and ended up needing a department store for such a mundane item. Absinthe seems to be big here as well, with whole shops devoted to selling the stuff.
Directory in the department store. You need to know that the ground floor is really floor 0 and that below 0, is -1.
Nice way of saying "please don't smoke" in a coffee shop.
More to come later!
6 comments:
I don't spend a heck of a lot of time mulling regrets - but one I have is not seeing Prague when I was in Europe. It's always struck me as a moody, mysterious and beautiful place.
Glad you're able to be there for me. Enjoy and stay well. :)
Yay! Photos :)
-Johnny
I love it all althie.,. you take good photos!
what camera do you have?
Wow!!
Dr A
xo
omg I have been to some of those places!!
(in a lame 90s video game)
(I was also killing lots of vampires and worrying about my bloodpool, which made it a bit difficult to enjoy the scenery, so you look like you're having more fun)
<3 to you two!
I'm loving reading about your travels! It's bringing back some great memories! Absolutely loved Prague and Krakow and totally understand the difficulty navigating those streets! Must say I am shocked to hear you use the word gloomy in connection to Prague but I guess I would be a very different place in winter.
So glad to hear you're having a great time!
Wish i was there!
Michelle xox
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