To Prague! (Finally!)


It was our last hold out.  Of all the places we’d had on our “must visit” list before we came to Vienna, Prague was the only one we hadn’t been to.  It’s supposed to be lovely, it’s close to Vienna, and everyone who goes just loves it, so of course we were planning to go.

In fact, we’d planned to go 4 different times since we’ve been here.  I no longer remember all the reasons our previous trips have been cancelled.  I know that at least one was because the boys were sick, and I’m fairly certain another was because Dan had something come up at work and we couldn’t go away.  I vaguely remember that one time there was an issue with train tickets being sold out on the dates that we had planned to travel, but that might have been a different trip.  Regardless, it was past time for us to make a trip to Prague.

And so, last June, we finally went.  We found an apartment, booked our train tickets, did a minimal amount of research (I hadn’t realized where, geographically, Prague actually is until about 2 years ago — it’s actually WEST of Vienna).  And we were off, on another travel adventure, to a new country.

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We traveled by train, which was something we hadn’t done over a significant distance in quite a while, and we found it, again, to be fun and easy compared to our more recent air trips.  I love the train, because we don’t have to be there 2 hours early, we don’t have to worry about which luggage gets checked or carried on, we don’t have to wait in line for security checks (though that might not always be a good thing, I suppose).  All we have to do is show up and get on.  We got a spot in the “family friendly” carriage, so we were not the loudest or the crankiest passengers, and our table top at our seats had a board game built into it.  (The conductor dropped off the playing pieces when he checked our tickets.)  The trip from Vienna to Prague was uneventful and pleasant, and no one was interested in checking our travel documents (which is what we’ve gotten used to within the EU . . . though that may be different these days).  Our plan for getting from the train station to our rented apartment involved taking the tram, which was slightly complicated, because we don’t speak Czech, and were completely unfamiliar with the tram system, but we sorted it out once we arrived in Prague, and it was actually incredibly easy and relatively user friendly.  (Though we struggled, throughout the weekend, with figuring out how to use the automated ticket machines for the tram system.)  We managed to pick an unusually hot weekend for June, which was slightly inconvenient, because we had also selected an apartment without air conditioning or ceiling fans.

Once we arrived and were settled in, though, the heat provided extra motivation to get out and explore the city (since it was hotter inside than outside).  Our first destination was the Prague castle, high on the hill overlooking the city, and we got there (again) by tram (though at this point we were mostly catching on and we found it progressively easier and extremely convenient to navigate the city this way).

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We were struck, almost immediately, by how friendly people are in Prague.  People actually smiled to us at they passed (which I found unnerving, initially, until I realized just how much I’ve adapted to living in Vienna).  When we had trouble with the ticket machines for the tram, passersby stopped to help.  And in addition to being generally friendly and outgoing, almost everyone we encountered spoke truly excellent English.  We were worried that since we were traveling to a country where we spoke not a word of the language (apart from what we studied in the Rick Steves guidebook on the train on the way there) that we would have trouble communicating, but we absolutely did not.  It wasn’t an issue at all.

Now what WAS an issue was that, by the time we sorted out where we were going, got off a stop early accidentally, and walked the rest of the way up the hill, we had one very, very cranky and tired 4 year old with us.  He fell asleep on the tram, and by the time he got up, he didn’t want to walk, he didn’t want to see anything, he didn’t want to be there.  We found a quiet place at the top of the hill (behind a monastery) and sat to check out the view and give Liam a chance to rest.

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IMG_0015Prague really IS as beautiful as everyone says.  The bridges over the river are picturesque, the winding, cobbled streets are romantic, the view from the hill down over the city is lovely.  As we abandoned our post overlooking the city, and began to walk down towards the castle, we came upon a procession in celebration of Corpus Christi (which was apparently the day we were there).

By the time we got into the actual castle grounds, many of the buildings were closed for the day (it was late afternoon), but that was actually ok, because the kids wouldn’t have been up for much historical study at that point.  Instead, we explored the grounds in near privacy, the kids got to run around a bit, and we found a spot to enjoy the view from a slightly different perspective.  We took the tram back to the center of town, and went for a quick stroll to the Old Town Square after a lovely Czech dinner, but we were all tired at that point, and a more extensive investigation would have to wait until the next evening.

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Our first day in Prague, though tiring, was just as lovely as we’d come to expect from other travelers’ stories.  So often, when people enjoy a place so much, it doesn’t quite live up to its reputation.  (Plus, we’ve become a bit jaded with our extensive travel history.  We’ve seen a lot, and we’re getting a bit harder to impress these days.)  Prague, if anything, exceeded our expectations.  Journeys are always a bit more tiring than we expect, and the heat certainly took some of our energy out of us, but we got to see an impressive part of the city just in our first afternoon, and we were very much looking forward to our further explorations.




Bratislava

Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia, is just a short trip from Vienna — the closest capital city to where we are.  (I also recently learned that it’s the only capital city in the world that borders two independent countries — Austria and Hungary — so that’s pretty neat.)  It’s an easy trip, and we’ve always meant to go, but somehow, in our years of travels, we’ve never gone.  We’ve planned to go many times, gotten as far as booking hotel rooms and transportation, but never actually made it happen.

This past May, we finally went.  It’s close enough, and small enough, that we made a day trip of it (after some degree of deliberation) and opted to travel by boat, rather than by train or car.  The idea of a boat trip seemed really fun, and we did a bit of research to try to find the best (and most cost-effective) way to get there by boat.  (The MOST cost-effective would have actually been the train, but we were set on the idea of the boat.)  We settled on taking a Slovakian hydrofoil boat (rather than the more expensive, and more centrally located, Austrian boat).  The Slovakian boat would leave from a pier on the Danube, while the Austrian boat went from a spot on the Danube canal (much closer to where we live).  The Austrian boat had several daily departures and returns, while the Slovakian boat had only one.  The Austrian boat definitely would have been more convenient, but we decided to be adventurous (plus save a few Euros) and try the Slovakian boat.  Though we had planned to buy the tickets ahead of time, we didn’t, and so our goal was to arrive a few minutes before departure and (hopefully) buy our tickets there.

1144Of course, we’ve pretty much never been early for anything, so instead of arriving early, we got to the boat just minutes before the scheduled departure, without tickets and without time to stop for cash.  We were hoping we could pay with a card, and when we arrived at the dock, out of breath from our jog from the train station, we tried to enquire about purchasing tickets.  While Dan tried to find out about tickets, I questionably eyed the boat, which looked a bit more worn than the pictures we’d seen online.  Time was short, though, and one of the staff waved us inside.  We thought we were going in to get tickets, but no.  There was no way to buy tickets on the boat, so we were to ride to Bratislava, and then buy tickets at the boat station on that end!  This was all a bit hard to understand, though, because none of the crew spoke German or English (and we don’t speak Slovak), but we eventually got it sorted out, and we were on our way down the Danube!

1146At first, we were slightly disappointed that there was no outdoor seating (which we had seen on advertisements for the Austrian boat), but once we got underway, it was clear why — we got going WAY too fast for it to be safe for anyone to sit outside.  The boat was comfy enough, with a little snack shop (we got some coffee and some Slovakian treats), and there was a protected outside spot to stand and see the scenery.  Our choice of boat (and route) was completely affirmed, though, when we got to ride through one of the gigantic locks on the Danube.  (The Austrian boat, which moors on the canal, comes out downstream of the locks.  Thus, that boat has a 15 minute shorter trip, but the long way was totally worth it.)

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1160Our boat pulled up into a giant holding area, a massive set of gates rolled closed behind us, and, very gradually, the water leaked out of the holding area and we watched as the walls of the lock, at first level with our eyes, gradually rose far above our heads.  Finally at the lower level, the huge doors in front of us opened, and we got underway again.

After that, our 90 minute journey was pretty uneventful, and we were soon in Bratislava, Slovakia.  (A new country for all of us, and, for three of us, our first time behind the former iron curtain.)  Our first task was to purchase our tickets for our trip, but other than that, we just wandered around the city.  We weren’t entirely sure what to expect.  We saw a very old-fashioned looking tram system, some very interesting urban art, and a group of Hare Krishnas parading through the streets.  We loved Bratislava’s winding streets, enjoyed some fantastic hot chocolate, and tried a very Slovakian lunch (well, Dan & I did — the boys had schnitzel).  We indulged the boys in ice cream, as is our travel tradition (even though it was chilly and rainy), walked by the American embassy and played in a park.  I liked the feel of the city — a bit smaller and less opulent than Vienna, but definitely European . . . and not as “Eastern European” feeling as I was expecting.  My favorite thing was the series of birdhouses stationed throughout the green space in the city center.  Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the boat (by way of a Slovakian grocery store to check out the local treats).

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1213We saw a lot of Bratislava, and definitely enjoyed our time, but our day there was not quite long enough.  I think we may have to go back another time, to see the castle and explore some more (and maybe to do some shopping, since I believe there are some British and American shops there that we don’t have here).  Our trip back to Vienna was lovely, and slightly more peaceful (our kids were worn out a bit from our day), and we got to go through the lock again, this time watching our boat lift up to the shoreline from far below.  Though there wasn’t a lot to DO in Bratislava, we certainly spent a lovely day there, and I expect we will return.  It’s a fun and easy day trip, and honestly, I think the journey alone was worth the effort.

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