During a weekend in February, a few of us decided to hop on a one and a half hour plane flight - I repeat: a measly one and a half hour plane flight - to Prague, the Czech Republic. I'll have you note that Czechoslovakia is not a country anymore, and though the Czech Republic was a Soviet satellite state, it is not considered part of Eastern Europe. Two assumptions that many Americans (including myself on the Eastern European bit) falsely make.
If you're traveling as we did, I would recommend the Old Prague Hostel, right near the central square. It meant we didn't pay for transportation once whilst we were there. They give out free sandwiches every morning too, what angels. It would also help to bring along someone who can read a map (me) because the streets don't lend themselves to easy navigation and 3G was not a thing.
The streets are mostly cobblestoned, and on our first day there we explored the city through a free walking tour. I came into Prague knowing next to nothing about the city (other than what I had read in the Bartimaeus Trilogy... a fantasy series). But in that three hour tour we learned over 500 years of history. The tour guide, and a surprisingly high percentage of the population, are expatriates from England and around the world. He said he came for a weekend and ended up staying a few years. Did you know that Prague used to rival Paris as the cultural epicenter of Europe? Or that it is the dead center of Europe, about as far as you can get from the sea. Practically everything of importance is named after King Charles from back in the day. The clock below has a "show" every hour on the hour. It's know as the second most overrated attraction in Europe (behind the Eiffel tower) and I can corroborate that statement.
The next day we toured Prague Castle. The castle took over 700 years to build and it looks more like a modge podge of buildings than a proper castle. In fact, most of the castle is unused at the moment, as they're trying to build it into a tourist destination. I'd say it's working given these views.
The president of the Czech Republic, Milos Zeman, just casually commutes to the castle every day for work. Funnily enough, he's not exactly popular with the public, and he quite likes his alcohol. I.e. he apparently gets drunk at public functions and occasionally falls over.
On the third day we spent the morning touring the old Jewish quarter. The museum commemorates the lives of the hundreds of thousands of Czech Jews who died during the Holocaust. It was a really powerful exhibit, and the old graveyard that dated back to the 1200s literally had bodies on top of bodies. The treatment of the Jews in Prague was worse than I ever imagined both centuries before and during WWII.
That afternoon we walked by the John Lennon wall. No idea why it's called that (perhaps because Lennon was painted on the wall?), but it was a vibrant piece of art down a little lane in the heart of the city. I convinced the girls to walk all the way up to Czech's miniature version of the Eiffel tower. The views were on point and totally worth our out of breath-ness. St. Charles Bridge (where hundreds of Protestant priests were executed back in the day), provided us with a mini locks of love and a view of the river.
Prague was a fairytale kind of city. With its picturesque architecture and incredibly strange history. I would go back in a heart beat if only for the trdlink (the best kind of pastry) anyhow.
