So due to a change in personal circumstances I found myself at loose end for my 30th birthday. As Brno tends to quiet down after Friday evening I had the choice of spending the weekend alone and hungover, or getting off my ass and going somewhere. A quick look at the weather and accomodation availability led me to decide on a weekend trip to Prague - in the last 12 months I've lived in CZ I'd only spent one night in the capital city, so it was about time I re-visited the place.
10am found me on the Student Agency coach for 2.5 hours, finally arriving in the Praha Florenc terminal in glorious spring sunshine. As this was supposed to be my birthday I decided no expense would be spared (within reason) and jumped into a taxi to the hostel I'd booked. The room, up four flights of unlit stairs, was hardly luxurious, but the location could not have been better - literally within 2 minutes walk of the Staromestske namesti (Old Town Square) and the heart of the city.
The rest of the day was spent exploring in more detail than time had allowed on my first visit, with the weather being so good I decided to leave the museums for the next day and spent the afternoon and evening on foot around the stare mesto, nove mesto, mala strana and castle districts, a highlight being the walk up the hill of Petrin, giving a fantastic view of the old town and castle in the late afternoon sunlight.
One disadvantage to Prague is the amount of rowdy, mainly British and Irish, tourists, especially the group who crashed in the hostel at 5am waking me from the best night's sleep I'd had for about 3 weeks. However, this meant I was at least awake in time to get onto the streets before the majority of the hangover victims had even thought of surfacing, which meant a very peacefull stroll through practically deserted streets - a huge difference to what things are like during the day, when you can hardly move through the crowds under the astronomical clock in the town hall.
As the weather was not as great as the day before it was time to spend some time indoors, meaning a proper look around the Prazsky Hrad (Prague Castle) and a couple of the museums in the center. Unfortunatly the main sight I wanted to see in the castle - St Vitus Catherdral - was off-limits due to Sunday services, however this did leave to the discovery of the Basillica and Convent of sv Jiří just round the corner, the interior of which was one of the prettiest sites in the castle complex.
Apart from a quick look around the Decorative Arts Museum that was about all I had time for, mid-afternoon I caught the bus back to a rainy and ever-so slightly more depressing Brno, and real life, once again. However, the weekend did remind me of the pleasures of seeing new places, and with the long Easter weekend in 5 days time and the thought of 3 days scrabbling around to find something to do, the first thing I did once I arrived at work was book 2 nights in a hostel in Bratislava (Slovakia). Will update story and photos next week...
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