prague

the Paris of Central Europe... well that's what they say about it and it does kinda give out this feeling as one walks around the city and look at the old buildings. It also reminds me a bit of Rome and Florence too. The architecture are also so old, some of them dating 13th century. But we were not there only to see the place but to get some souvenirs for the wedding.

On the first day, we were already walking around. It was a bit chilly and on the Old Town Square we saw a long line at a small stall selling probably something traditional to eat. And yes, it was called a "Trdelnik". Flour on a metal roll, rolled on a mixture of almonds, sugar and spices then cooked on a burner. Then they serve it with Hot Wine. Uhm, delicious! Most of the people also speak English so you won't be lost if your Anglophone of course.

While enjoying the scenery from the river of Vltava as it runs in between the Staromistske namisti (Old Town) and the Mala Strana (Lesser towns), we were also looking at most of the shops around selling original bohemian crystals and enjoying the hundreds and thousands of garnets (which is by the way my birth stone) and amber jewelries around. It came to a point that at night, when I close my eyes to sleep, I still see crystals blinking all around...

We also took a tour so as to get to know the city a bit. One of the most interesting site is the "Dancing Building" or the "Tancinsky Dum". It is also called "Ginger and Fred" to connote American film icons. The guide told us that it was built at a spot that was formerly destroyed by one of the two bombings Prague had to suffer during WW II. But surprisingly, it was not the Germans nor the Russians who did this but the Americans. They thought that they were bombing Dresden... I wonder where they got their map... hehehe

We also went to the Prague Castle and visited the grounds together with the guide. It has apparently the biggest castle ground in the world. They also have guards that should remain stoic even if loads of people are trying to make fun of them and taking pictures. One of the greatest monarch they had was Charles IV who built most of the buildings now standing and put Prague in the limelight of European history. In the grounds, you can also visit the Golden Lane where one of the houses was formerly the home of Franc Kafka. The guide told me he wrote heavy-reading books.

We were also able to visit the church of the famous Infant Jesus of Prague (Sto. Niño de Praha) and one of the exhibited clothes for the beloved image is from the Philippines. Its wardrobe consist of 70 clothes for the moment.

And yes, at the end of the 4-day, 3 night stay, we were able to buy some souvenirs for the Principal sponsors so that's a relief. At the beginning we found something and ordered it for the next day but on arriving there, they said it was they were not able to find more so we had to frantically look for something else and we found some luckily! That's one item I can tick off my list. For more photos of our trip, click here.