Day 43: Touring Prague (Part 1) and Dinner by the River Vltava

Our first tour of Prague started in the early afternoon at the Strahov Monastery, founded in 1143. We only passed by before walking to Hradčanské Square, situated right beside the Prague Castle. The castle itself was more of a complex, consisting of many nice buildings that we saw from the outside.

The most impressive building, easily mistaken for the castle itself, was the St. Vitus Cathedral, which we did get to see the interior of.

In addition to the abundance of impressive buildings, there was also an amazing view of the city.

We walked around Castle Hill for an hour, then headed down towards Kampa island, passing by it on a love lock bridge that ran across the artificial waterway.

Next came a highlight of the tour and a favourite sight for many. The Lennon Wall, originally a site for vigils at the time of Lennon's death, later turned into a site of anti-Communist resistance. It is now covered in graffiti and is apparently always changing, despite having been recently painted over.

My personal favourite part of the tour, and my favourite part of the city so far, was the Charles Bridge. The bridge's construction began in the 14th century and offers an amazing view.

The structure in itself is beautiful, lined with statues, and situated right by the Prague castle. Unfortunately, as with every major attraction in Prague, it was crawling with tourists and vendors.

Some of the statues had been rubbed a lot in certain places by tourists for good luck, which results in one part appearing significantly brighter than the rest, such as this dog.

Another amusing example of this was a statue back on Castle Hill, whose origin and story I'm unsure of.

Our tour ended at six at the Prague Astronomical Clock, first installed in 1410. We got to see the Walk of the Apostles when the clock struck six -- an hourly show of moving figures which was slightly overrated. It was about as cool as a longer cuckoo clock show, but with dozens of tourists watching. The design of the clock itself was beautiful though and definitely worth seeing.

We had a late dinner at Cafe Slavia, right across from the National Theatre beside the river, and decided to take a spontaneous walk afterwards along the river and across Charles Bridge to enjoy the beautiful view. The weather was perfect by then since the heat had subsided. The city was lit up, reflecting off the river.

It was hard to get enough of the view. Everything about Prague is so beautiful, especially downtown. Since it wasn't hit during the wars, much of architecture is still original and very well-preserved. I've yet to walk on one street that isn't cobblestone. While it might be overwhelmingly touristy in many aspects, Prague's beauty is undeniable.

Photos by Julie Zhang and Linh Nguyen.