Along our travels and our first year of marriage, we have learned a few things about each other and ourselves. That's a pretty natural occurrence over time, it would be worrisome if we didn't learn anything. But we have.
One of the most important lessons along the way is a little mood elevator we discovered. It doesn't matter where you are or what you're doing, singing "Good King Wenceslas" will always make circumstances easier. Matt has survived on this little tip. Lorena McKennit nails that song, by the way.
So, we're fans of the king.
We were both excited to visit Prague. Matt had heard so many good things about it and deemed it a necessary and romantic stop on an extended honeymoon. I wanted to see Wenceslas Square. Although, I wasn't complaining about the romantic description.
Prague is a beautiful city. There is the Old Town and across the river is the Castle Neighborhood which is perched on a hill.
The streets are old and cobbled and just what you expect from an old European town.
Before we did any major sightseeing, we ate, obviously. Our host had suggested a place called Lokal right by our apartment. The restaurant stretches along one block, tables run the entire length. We are not night owls, so we never saw it overflowing with people, as it apparently does, but we still enjoyed it for a couple lunches. Apparently, the Czechs drink a lot of beer (we usually chose cider- labeling us total outsiders, oh well) and eat a lot of meat. However, they also have a specialty: fried cheese. Yes, fried cheese. Obviously, I needed that for the cultural experience. It came to our table, a huge chunk of cheese, covered in breadcrumbs and gooey from being fried. Does life get any better than that? So, I ate that and a pile of potatoes. When in Prague...
On our first sightseeing venture out we walked through the town square. We were there ten minutes before the hour, so we found a place to stand to watch the clock. On the hour the rooster crowed and two windows open as the bells ring. The Apostles roll past the windows peering down at the crowd below. That's it. Spectacular and kind of boring all at the same time.
From there, we walked through the beautiful streets. One thing I've noticed about medieval cities in Northern Europe is the pastel buildings. I love it. Old cities of pink, blue and yellow. It's so cheery.
Anyways, from the main square, we headed to Wenceslas Square! We walked all the way down and passed about three McDonald's and five Starbucks on the same road (I had never seen so many Starbucks in one city outside of America). There, at the end of the square, was Wenceslas riding on his horse surrounded by other saints.
Wenceslas is an interesting character. He was the Duke of Bohemia. His father was a Christian, his mother was the daughter of a pagan leader (historians don't know if she converted to Christianity or tried to pass on her pagan traditions to her children). Anyways, he was considered a good ruler, although he was never king. There were stories of his goodness and care for his people, thus his song. He was killed quite young by his brother, who wanted to be duke. Wenceslas was posthumously declared king and later given sainthood. There is a legend that there is an army sleeping in the forest. If the Czech people are ever in danger Wenceslas' statue will come to life and he will wake the army to save the nation. Isn't that a lovely legend?
Today, his remains are in the Cathedral by the castle. We walked around that the next day and enjoyed the view of the city. The cathedral was impressive. We think we saw Wenceslas tomb, but aren't sure.
As we walked around the cathedral we were summoned by the sounds of trumpets. As we walked towards it we found the changing of the guards! That was exciting although it seemed they changed, but no guards remained when they were done, so we're not entirely sure how that works.
That was about it for sightseeing. Prague is a bit smaller than we realized. We did find one other lovely thing about Prague: it has delicious desserts. Every sweet we found was amazing. But there is one traditional (so they claim) dessert that I will admit to eating every single day. It's called Trdelnik (I have no idea how to pronounce it). It's a dough rolled in sugar and cinnamon, then wrapped in a spiral around a wooden pole. Then it is rotated over hot coals, slowly baking. The result is sugary doughy bread that literally melts in your mouth. It is amazing. It would be hard to decide between this and fried cheese.
Then we saw this:
A cute mascot? Or a promise of what is to come? We decided it was best we wouldn't be eating those anymore.
And before we knew it, it was time to leave Prague and Wenceslas and deliciously unhealthy food. I would definitely go back to Prague.
