We got to the castle in time to see the changing of the guards. We have enjoyed this tradition elsewhere such as in the UK and were excited to see it in the Czech Republic. They were dressed in uniforms that looked quite warm with fur hats, different than the hats Hunter's parents had seen the first time they went. The guard we stood in front of seemed to make many facial twitches and we ended up with some humourous photos of him. There were many people watching and it was all over in about a minute. Watch the video below to see the change!
Stained Glass reflections where we poked our heads in the church
We came across a market behind the big church where we decided to get a snack of cheese nuggets and chips (fries). It was actually quite tasty and only 150 CZK ($ US). After our snack, we met up with Hunter's parents again and headed to the town square. At the town square we went to buy tickets at the tour place, but found out that they had no space as 40 people were booked into it and 44 would be too many. We decided to go have a proper sit-down meal now and then go to the Communism Museum. We first tried to go to a cubism themed cafe Hunters parents had been to once before, but they were full and said it would be over an hour before they could seat us. We then went to look at two other places Hunter and I had on our food list to see if they would be good. We ended up eating at a place called Naše Maso with different meat dishes. Hunter had a Russian meatloaf sandwich, I had paprika seasoned beef neck which Hunter's dad also had, and his mom had a cheeseburger. It was quite tasty! After eating we stopped at the place adjacent, Sisters Bistro v Dlouhé, to have dessert where we had awesome cannoli type desserts and a slice of pie. The cannoli things were about $3.50 US which we thought was a good deal as sometimes in the US they can cost $6 to $8. Hunter got one filled with a salted caramel cream whereas I had one with mascarpone.
A snack to stay warm at the castle.
After becoming full to the brim, Hunter and I separated from his parents and went to the Communism Museum. It was very interesting, but the museum had nowhere to sit. It was all reading paragraphs on the wall and standing, which made me become quite tired. Nonetheless, it was cool and Hunter really enjoyed it being the History lover he is! For me, it was a great reminder of George Orwell's books Animal Farm and 1984 and how terrifying I thought they were, even though that was fiction and this was real life.
A quick stop at a mall to use the bathrooms
Hunter said that because the communism museum was on top of a supermarket it was "crushing the free market" he found this very funny
Lenin Bust
Czech Communist Propaganda Posters
Typical Boy's Room during communism
An incredible story about a doctor using children's toys to invent contact lenses
Special money for high-end stores sold on the black market
State Secret Police Uniform
Spy Cameras
Border Guard Uniform
Example Store from the era
We spent a few hours and then messaged Hunter's parents asking if they wanted to meet for dinner. We wanted to go to a local place called U Glaubiců. They agreed to meet us there with the first to arrive to get a table. We arrived first and went inside, but it was extremely busy, so we waited outside until they had a table for 4, which wasn't too long, but long enough we considered finding a new place.
To drink Hunter had a cider and his dad a beer while his mom and I had lemonades. The lemonades were not as good as the night before, but still tasty. To eat Hunter had potato bacon dumplings and I had the vegetarian dumpling dish which ended up tasting a lot like mac and cheese! His parents had salads.
Ribs not real Zebra
After eating we headed back to the Air BnB as I was very tired and wanted to pack and sleep. Hunter and I also needed to plan what we were doing as his parents were leaving on a 7am flight and we had no idea what we wanted to do. We looked at a variety of options and ended up staying up till 2 am trying to figure everything out. Turkey, Italy, Israel, Portugal, Poland, and more were all considered! In the end we decided to take a later flight out so we could sleep more. The plan was Zurich, however, when we woke up and tried to book a ticket on Swiss, the website wasn't working, so we decided to go to London and figure it out from there. At the airport after checking in with British Airways, Hunter found out the reason it wouldn't let him book the Swiss tickets was because his credit card flagged it, and we found out too late to change our plans again. Life's an adventure and you never know where you'll end up... especially if your non reving! Even though it can be stressful, it's a lot of fun getting to go anywhere and everywhere with Hunter. I never imagined I'd get to go to half of these places before I was finished getting my university degree, and to see how much we have gotten to explore is amazing. Not many people can say they are a straight A student who spends their time flying around the world any chance they can!
The train station on the way back to the AirBnB
I'm so lucky to get to explore this way! What a great visit to Prague we had! Thanks so much for taking the trouble to record so much>. gh
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