Prague, Czech Republic III: The Lesser and The New

The Lesser Town is located at the foot of Prague Castle. You see that white building with the jade top in the last photo? That's yet another St. Nicholas Church, the other being in Old Town Square. And they look so similar! Got me confused when I was sorting photos for the post. The pictures of the church interior look beautiful which made me realise I didn't enter any of the buildings in Prague.







If you walk down the side of Charles Bridge before entering through the Lesser Town tower, you'll find yourself in a small square. Keep walking and you'll reach the Lennon Wall. When I first saw the wall, I thought I saw 'LAKSA!' and I had to do a double take (Laksa is a dish in Singapore/Malaysia). Láska means Love by the way. There's also a love lock bridge in Prague, though a small one, in front of th Prague water goblin.









Instead of taking a tram back to the hostel, I decided to walk and that led me to Wenceslas Square in New Town. Well "new" town because it was actually founded by Charles IV in 1348, following his coronation as king under the Holy Roman Empire. The pink building in the first picture is the Palladum Shopping Centre and it's really modern inside, check out the pictures. I didn't go in because I had no clue what building it was when I passed by, I just thought it looked nice and grand. #consofnotplanningbeforehand?

Prague, Czech Republic II: Where fairy tales are born

I think the Prague Old Town Square is the most beautiful city centre I've seen on this trip. If you delete away the tourists in the first picture, doesn't it look like a fairytale setting? Although the structure is not the same, legend has it that Tyn Church gave Walt Disney the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty Castle (via pragueexperience.com). Aha! Great minds think alike. But wait.. isn't the Sleeping Beauty castle based on Neuschwanstein Castle in Munich? Hmmm..

Anywayyy, the old town square was so full of sound, smell, sight and life! There were performers entertaining the crowd, food stalls selling Old Prague Ham, potato & sour cabbage, Trdelník (a sweet bread roll which tasted exactly the bread roll I tried in Taichung) and many other delicious food to tantalize your taste buds and trigger your salivary glands. You can see Tyn Church (in the first photo) and St. Nicholas Church (the white building with the green roof) as two prominent sights in the old town square.The first is a Gothic church while the second is a Baroque one. I've learned a lot more about architecture on this trip than all my years in school. Ok what am I talking about, I don't learn anything about architecture in school. Oh and the two spires on the Tyn Church are not symmetrical - one represents the masculine side of the world, the other the feminine side.





The Astronomical Clock is another famous feature in the old town square and it's absolutely gorgeous. I really want to have a smaller version of this at home, I just need to travel back in time and find the clock maker who built this, who was blinded by the government because they were afraid that he would build a better one somewhere else (the clock attracted many tourists to Prague which meant money) and who jumped into the clock and died as revenge because the clock stopped and nobody but him knew how to fix it. Or I could have bought a table top mini clock at the many souvenir shops but I didn't want to carry it around for the rest of my trip so err time travelling it is!

The wooden figures of apostles with their attributes appear in the windows every hour, while at the same time some of the sculptures begin to move: the Death holds its hourglass and beckons to the Turkish man sculpture, which shakes its head in response. There is Vanity portrayed as a man with a mirror and Miserliness as a man with a moneybag, shaking a stick. The other statues, that don´t move, are an Astronomer, a Chronicler, a Philosopher and an Angel. When the apostles finish their journey, the golden cockerel at the top crows and quivers its wings, the bell rings and the clock chimes the hour. (via prague.cz)

REALLY?? Why didn't I see this!



Powder Tower is one of the original 13 city gates in Old Town. It is so named because the gate was used to store gunpowder.

















There are 30 statues (plus one at the side) on Charles Bridge and many street artists if you want to get your portraits done. Our guide told us the story behind a statue of St. John of Nepomuk - he was thrown off the bridge because he refused to tell the King what the Queen confided to him. Five stars allegedly appeared above the river symbolizing the five letters of Latin word “tacet” which means “silent”. Somehow the statue became a symbol of luck and you can make a wish if you place your hand on the cross. Crossing the bridge with the sun slowly setting was such a beautiful experience. And not to mention extremely romantic, heck, the whole Prague Old Town is! The two towers guarding the bridge are Old Town Bridge Tower (the one with one spire) and Lesser Town Bridge Tower (the one with two spires).



Ending the post with a night view of Prague castle. Isn't it just dreamy? Too bad my camera wasn't able to capture the stars.

Prague, Czech Republic I: Castle, monastery, dumplings

After reaching the hostel, I rushed off to find the walking tour meeting point but I was too late.. Then I saw this huge group of people walking towards me, I figured they must be on some walking tour so I joined in. But 10 minutes later, the tour ended.. I decided to walk to Charles Bridge to join another walking tour (yes I'm addicted haha besides what's there not to like about it? You get to see the sights and listen to interesting stories). Then these two Singaporeans from the "10 minutes" tour came up to me and asked if I'm from Singapore because I was holding a NTUC plastic bag HAHA. (P.S. NTUC is a local supermarket.) So we explored Prague together for the rest of the day.

Prague castle didn't look as amazing up close because it was all burnt and black. :( We walked around the castle grounds and admired the the view from behind the castle, you'll get to see how beautiful Prague is from here.


There were guards outside the entrance to the castle! They weren't supposed to show any expressions, just like the royal guards in London but this baby made such cute faces at the guards that one of them had to struggle to fight back a smile! Haha.









We took a stroll around the hill behind Prague Castle and reached the Loreta monastery that plays a beautiful song every hour. It was so enchanting that we sat down and listened to the melodious chimes. And behind is another great view of Prague and this time the castle and the Petřín Lookout Tower "Prague Eiffel Tower") can be seen too.








Then it was time for dinner. After a little Googling, we decided on Vidlicky A Noze. We got a little lost so we reached the place with our stomachs growling loudly. Unfortunately there was a huge crowd and we waited at least an hour for our food to arrive. This is the first time during the trip I'm having dinner when the sky is actually dark (the sun sets at about 9/10pm during Summer). But the wait was so worth it. Our main courses included slowly boiled Pork Belly (K was so fixated on slowly boiled and kept harping on how delicious it sounded haha) which sat on top the most delicious mash potatoes ever, Duck Confit with small dumplings and what appeared to be beetroot and Beef with dumplings in goulash. Beef in goulash was heavenly, the beef was so tender it literally melted in my mouth and the goulash was really great.The duck was pretty good too.! The dumplings were not what I expected, they were quite firm and tasted like bread but I love trying new cuisines and the more it deviates from my expectation - the better!





The star of the night: Strawberry dumplings. A strawberry was hidden inside the dumpling which was sprinkled with castor sugar and drizzled with strawberry sauce. I couldn't shut up about how amazing this was! One bite was all I needed. Our guide told us her mother makes the best dumplings and she always ends up eating at least five at one go and I can totally see why. You must try this when you're in Prague!