PRAGUE CITY GUIDE- PART 1

One of the most romantic and picturesque cities I have visited thus far, and a major bonus that I got to explore the city with someone I had become particularly close to. I've never written a city guide to the places I've been to before,  so I suppose now is as good a time as any.

The easiest way to get from the airport to the centre of Prague is by cab. The AAA taxis wont rip you off and only charged us about 500 Czech Koruna's. There are plenty of buses and trams leading into the city centre, but after a long flight and the days events, its nice to spoil yourself with a relaxing chauffeured ride home. We stayed in the Belvedere suite of Residence Thunovska, a family owned building with really affordable rooms and views overlooking the red bricked roofs that Prague is so well renowned for. The apartments are located in the Mala Strana area which is out of the hustle and bustle of the touristic city centre, but less than 5 minutes walk to some of the main attractions. The area has a great old world charm to it and we found ourselves taking evening strolls across Charles bridge and the steps leading up to Prague castle on more than one occasion.

We lazily woke up on our first morning in Prague, greeted by the blinding sunshine beaming through the bedroom windows (a nice change from all the grey skies and rain in Holland). On each of the mornings of our stay in Prague we only really managed to get our day started by 10:30 and found ourselves with more than enough time to explore, so don't wear yourselves out getting up early. We walked though the streets of the old town, passing countless souvenir and marionette stores, and gradually making our way to the old town square. The ever popular Prague Astronomical Clock is amongst one of the old buildings surrounding the square, as are the hundreds of tourists and commercial restaurants.  Absinthe is also a huge attraction in Prague and  the traditional Czech way of preparing and serving the drink is by burning a sugar cube into the liquid, diluted with water and served hot with a pitcher of water on the side. Al says it tastes like shampoo, I cant help but to agree...

 

Because of the 70 % alcohol of the absinthe we had stupidly tasted before lunch, we quickly found retreat at Jo's Bar  for their speciality Czech dish of goulash in bread to sober us up. A tasty dish that somewhat resembles a stew, eaten from the inside out. We managed to sneak in a late afternoon nap from all the days walking followed by a light dinner at Luca Lu, an ever so colourful and eclectic café without the swarm of tourists...



PARIS: DAY 2

After witnessing the beauty of Sacré-Cœur and the Montmartre the previous night, I decided to view it a second time amongst the chaos that is the tourist hustle and bustle.  Taking the Metro to my destination, I sat on the steps  leading up to this magical building and stared blankly into the distance, admiring the vastness of the city that holds 12 million people. Feeling slightly overwhelmed by this thought, I moved along to view the well known square in Montmartre that houses artists drawing passer-by's faces at a somewhat small fee. As another downpour of rain fell upon the Montmartre, I entered a cosy café and indulged in a 6 Euro cappuccino whilst scribbling notes in my travel journal

The Notre Dame was next on my sporadic itinerary and happened to befriended Willy, a Bolivian fellow,  along the way. We spoke about our homeland, our current doings and our plans for Paris whilst admiring our surroundings. I told him about Lovers bridge, located at Pont de l'Archevêché, and tickled his curiosity so much that we ended up going together. Whilst twilight was setting in on Paris, a street musician played his guitar beside the canal whilst we sat and listened...

 

 

PARIS: DAY 1

Having been my first official day in Paris, one would have thought I'd have jumped out of bed by the crack of dawn ready with my city map, camera and a plan of action. Needless to say I didn't. I indulged in the fact that I could sleep in, somehow knowing the city would wait for me. After much deliberation with myself, I eventually ventured off on my solo adventure to the Champs-Élysées . I must admit, I don't think I looked much like a tourist. I didn't have one of those tacky rain coats and wasn't running around like a headless chicken taking photos of absolutely everything that stood or moved. I liked it.

Because my plan of action involved er..no solid  plan whatsoever, I was quite taken aback when I happened to stumble upon the Arc de Triomph in all it's glorious beauty amongst thousands of tourists, swerving cars and scooters. I stood, I stared, I snapped away and then proceeded to move along. After some serious detouring to get to the Eiffel tower I fell upon my first up close and personal view of this monumental structure. It all felt quite surreal, and it still does. It's definitely not a feeling you can describe until you've experienced it. None the less, I took a couple of hundred (thousand) photos and snacked on a Nutella filled crepe to ease the hunger pains. As I started to head towards the Louvre, a sudden downpour of rain left me stranded on the side walk, giving me a good excuse to enter the nearest cosy café for a meal entailing anything other than a crepe. I slurped down my French onion soup and struck up a conversation with Daniel, the gentleman sitting next time me who happened to have just returned from a three week vacation to South Africa. We were quite gobsmacked at the coincidence of it all and sat for several hours conversing about travel, relationships, love, Germany, and South Africa. To our delight, the rain had stopped, giving us the opportunity to finally get a glimpse of the Lourve. Seeing it at night is quite spectacular and not nearly as littered with tourists.  Daniel and I strategized where we would take a photo of us together, with just the right amount of light and perfect positioning. We hugged each other goodbye on the metro and bid our farewells as we got off at our respective stops.

For a day was went completely unplanned, it couldn't have turned out any better...

 



DUTCH STUFF 1.0...

Just something I put together on my last day of work. Not much work got done today as I couldn't stop daydreaming about going to The Netherlands. much of the day was spent thinking about Vondelpark, cheese, riding bicycles, the canals. If I don't physically slap myself I just go on and on, so best some slappage be taken out on me. 

On a last note, go Dutch or go home friends...