My Last Day in Prague - The Castle! (Day 21 - GToE)

Well, I am finishing up my last few hours here in Prague. It's been a great time seeing my good friend, Raina, and seeing this jewel of a city. I highly recommend visiting Prague. My only complaint (and this complaint goes with every place I've visited and will visit) I effing HATE TOURISTS! Now, I know that I'm a tourist, but I never act like a tourist. I don't put my needs before everyone else's. I am polite and considerate and I wait my turn when at crowded attractions. But I cannot say that same for every other tourist. They are rude, mean douchebags and I hate them. 

Okay, now that I've gotten that off my chest: my last day in Prague has been mostly spent hanging out in the Castle Quarter. But before heading off to the Castle, I made a quick run across the river back to the Old Town Square in order to record the Astronomical Clock at the top of the hour (9:00am to be exact). You can watch the video below to see the clock's animations. You may have to watch it a couple of times to really see everything that's going on. Notice the skeleton (Death) ring the bell and flip over his hourglass, while the other three statues shake their heads. The Apostles make an appearance above and finally the gold rooster crows. Yep, it's amusing.

Then I wended my way up to the Castle. Now, in most European cities, the castle is the heart of the city and a place of fortification in the centuries past. Prague is no different. What is different about the castle, is that it's more of a fortified city within Prague. There's a multitude of different palaces and royal residences, a fortified wall, and a huge Gothic church. The royals could live quite happily in this castle quarter and never have to mingle with the riffraff (aka: the peasants). It is an amazing way to spend a few hours.

I arrived at the castle around 10am and proceeded straight to the cathedral - St. Vitus Cathedral. This site is the most prominent when looking up at the castle from down below. It's a strikingly beautiful building which began construction in 1344, but technically wasn't finished until 1929 - thanks to numerous factors (war, plagues, religious reform, and such). There is a beautiful Art Nouveau stained glass window (the Mucha Stained-Glass Window - see photo above), which is one of the major draws to this cathedral. Additionally, this cathedral is the burial sites of the first Habsburgs to rule Bohemia, St. Vitus, and St. Wenceslas.

Kafka's House

After touring the cathedral, I popped in and out of a few other sites (the Old Royal Palace, the History of Prague museum, St. George Basilica and such). But by far one of my favorite places to visit was Golden Lane - a picturesque street of tiny old buildings which used to house castle servants and others. Up until World War II, these little houses were occupied - including one which Franz Kafka lived in for a short time (#22). These teeny tiny houses made my tiny NYC shit-box of a studio apartment look like a mansion. But they're incredibly quaint and just lovely.

Upon leaving the Castle, I made my way up the hill to the Strahov Monastery where I had lunch (new food of the day: boar (tastes like beef) and viewed the monastery's library. I didn't do much after that, except meet Raina for a final pot of tea before leaving Prague. Sadly, Raina had stuff to do today and couldn't spend the day sightseeing with me. But it was good to spend some final moments with her. The other good news is that my bank finally came through with my debit card. I'm back in business. Yipee!

My final thoughts on Prague: as so many people have said before me, Prague is quite beautiful and it's an amazing place to visit. For every ex-pat that I've spoken to, it's an amazing place to live too. I would definitely put this city on the short list of places that I would move to if I had the opportunity.

Tonight, I'm on the midnight train to Vienna, where I will hopefully get to see all the major and not so major Mozart sights. I have a slight obsession with Mozart. Check out my Day 21 photos on my GToE photo site. (Warning: LOTS of photos today!!)