Trip 1, Day 1: Prague and a Little Germany, too

We traveled to Prague for our first trip at the end of October. Having heard many great things about the city and the Czech Republic in general, we were really excited. We had actually planned on going to Buenos Aires for the first trip, but the flights were looking full about two weeks before we were set to leave. Prague was a great back-up plan.

We landed in Prague at noon.The apartment was about a mile from the office where we picked up the key. (We rented it using airbnb.com, which is an awesome resource.) We were told it was easily walkable but with luggage, we should take the tram. Since we like to walk, had been sitting for 13 hours or so, and are used to dragging our bags, we decided we would walk. This turned out to be a dumb decision. Prague has very beautiful cobblestone sidewalks and streets…that are terrible to roll a suitcase over, but we made it without a wheel falling off (a legitimate victory). It was a nice apartment, very basic, but clean (other than cobwebs hanging from the high ceilings). It was in a good neighborhood with grocery stores, bars and restaurants nearby and close to the city center as well. And the best part, it was about $40/night (800 Kč).

The apartment we rented is at the very end of this street in Praha 3. We forgot to take a picture of the building, so this is actually an afterthought picture from our last day.

We were very tired but always do the stay up all day on the first day in Europe to get on the right time schedule thing, so we showered and then drug ourselves out the door in search of a grocery store and dinner. We walked around the neighborhood for a few minutes looking for a place to eat. We are terrible at choosing restaurants, especially when we’re hungry and tired. We might be the worst in the world at this. We FINALLY decided on a place, went in, sat down and then realized that not only was smoking allowed in there, there were at least six people within six feet of us actively smoking. It was very strong, even for a smoking restaurant, so we left. We started to panic a little thinking it would be a long week if every place was going to be that thick and smoky. We then wandered into a pizza place near the apartment (Pizzeria Einstein) that had a non-smoking section. We did have to sit in the back by ourselves, but considering how exhausted we were, it was actually nice. The smoke smell was minimal, and the pizza was really good. I think we had 2 beers and a pizza each and the total was the equivalent of $13. It was a great end to our first day.