Day 8 - Bus to Prague — Wayfaring Abroad

Today was the move to Prague, this meant an early morning so that we could get to the international bus terminal to catch our Flixbus to Prague. We progressively woke up earlier each day while in Vienna and today was no different, wake up was at 7. Vienna has seen us use the metro more than any of the cities we previously visited over the last couple years and with their metro system we got to the bus terminal much faster than we needed to. We got there so fast that Tyler and I ran over to a supermarket to grab a couple snacks while we waited the 40 minutes until the bus left.

Our bus for the ride from Vienna to Prague.

By the time we'd gotten our fruit ups and sandwiches the bus was already in stall 4 and had begun loading people onto the bus. The bus was a double-decker, white and without any advertising wrappings, which was quite the surprise. We were a little late getting onto the bus due to the run to the supermarket so we got "stuck" with seats on the first deck near to the back.

Devin informed me that a couple guys ran to get onto the bus first so that they could get the seats that perched directly at the front of the bus on the second deck. They did like they would be good seats but maybe not worth the effort.

Our bus ride was scheduled to take 3 hours and take us into Prague at the Hlavní nádraží station. For someone my height, I was a little concerned prior to the trip as to how I would fit on the bus and if I would be comfortable sitting there for 3 hours. I did not need to be concerned, it was at least as much room as on a flight, with more at the shoulders, so the 3 hours went by relatively quick. I napped to begin the journey and after waking occasionally decided it was time to go over the photos I took while in Bratislava.

I had taken way more than I thought so it was a lengthy process that took about 2 hours and finished up right as we began pulling up to the Prague city limits.

The bus got into the station right at 12:55, the scheduled time, which meant we had an hour until we were to meet our Airbnb host and get into our new apartment. This was just enough time for us to walk through town to the apartment and then find a small park to sit and relax for a couple minutes. On the walk to the apartment we noticed that there was no building marked with the house number for the apartment so we were a little concerned about where to stand in order to meet Marco, the host.

Our view while we waited until it was time to meet our Airbnb host.

This was further exacerbated by the clock passing 2:05 without Marco coming out. This lead us to regroup, we had two people at one possible spot and two at the other possible spot. We attempted to ask an eatery nearby, they did not know, and then to find wifi in order to message Marco and ask what was up. By the time this was all happening it was around 2:15 and finally we were greeted by Riad, Marco's assistant, and he showed us up to the apartment.

In order to get to the apartment you had to go to a different house number and enter into a courtyard which lead to a grouping of different apartment buildings. After getting everything sorted we took a couple minutes to gather ourselves and figure what exactly we could do before the storm arrived.

The astronomical clock on the side of Old Town Hall.

The thunderstorms were supposed to hit at 5 so we only had a couple hours to get as much in as possible. We decided it was best to hit as many outdoor places as possible because with the rain that's on the forecast for the rest of our days in Prague we can hit indoor place without a huge inconvenience.

First up was the walk through Old Town and Old Town Square. The square was a mass of tourists and people taking photos. In one corner there was a group of people drawing St. Nicholas' Church and the Jan Hus Memorial. We walked slowly around the square looking at all the beautiful buildings and monuments. Eventually, we went into Old Town Hall so that we could go up the Tower to look down over all of Prague.

Old Town square and The Church of Mother of God before Týn as seen from the tower of Old Town Hall.

The view from the tower was remarkable. There were panoramic views of the entire city and because of the impending rains the clouds looked absolutely painted into the sky. The detail provided by the clouds make the entire scene look fake. We slowly made our way the entire way around the tower and back down the street level.

The next move was to get a trdelník along the way to Charles Bridge. The trdelník is a long piece of dough wrapped around a wide stick and rotated over heat until cooked, then it is rolled in sugar and walnut bits. We got our rolled dough filled with soft serve ice cream. It was delicious and perfect for the low 70s heat. After devouring our trdelníks we made our way slowly across Charles Bridge.

Charles Bridge with Prague Castle in the distance.

Charles Bridge was plastered with people walking, stopping and gawking at the views. There were stands selling jewelry, photographs, paintings and drawings. A group of two women and 3 men were playing contemporary pop songs on string instruments to a large crowd of tourists who were eating it up. They were good until they played final countdown, that's when they lost me.

Looking back towards Old Town from the middle of Charles Bridge.

At the western end of the Charles Bridge we took the step wooden stairs up to the top of the tower and were once again gifted spectacular views of Prague from above. The perspective was very different from the tower in Old Town Hall. We were able to see back to Old Town, along the Vltava River and across each of the many bridges crossing the river. We were much closer to Prague Castle and Petrin Tower. The constant was the gorgeous clouds above the city.

Old Town from the top of the tower at Charles Bridge.

It was getting later into the day and with a few menacing looking clouds in the distance we figured we only had an hour more until the thunderstorm started. That meant we abandoned our plan to hike up to the peak of Petrin Hill, leaving that for another day. Instead we doubled back very slightly in order to walk down to Kampa Island, a small park that is encased by a small vein from the Vltava River.

People were lounging on Kampa Island and meandering slowly along the water and through the paths. On Kampa Island there was a art exhibit called "Crawling Babies" which are very large crawling babies with a design stamped into their blank faces. That was very weird to simply walk by without any notice. Although, the weirder part may have been the people playing and taking pictures on and around the babies.

Looking back at Charles Bridge and Old town from Kampa Island.

After being moved off a flight of stairs by a large group of runners we made our way across most legii (a bridge) and to the island park right in the middle of the Vltava River. The island has paths through it and places to sit and look back at the buildings and bridges along the waterfront.

Most Legií bridge and the National Theater of Prague.

At this point, even with it getting later and later, we weren't too far from the famous Dancing House, so we detoured down to the Dancing House and across part of the Jiráskův most (a bridge). The clouds at this point looked remarkable with the sun going down. The sun was stuck in the clouds right above Petrin Hill and it light them up and across all of Prague.

From the Dancing House we headed back to our apartment. Along with the way we walked through Charles Square and Wenceslas Square. Charles Square was a little funky, the fountain in the center was not on, but there we 4 patches of roses in Charles Square that were impeccable and looked to be in very good health.

Sun setting over Prague from Jiráskův most.

Wenceslas Square was among the shopping area and had all kinds of American branded stores along with all sorts of different ritzy shopping. We made one quick stop at a supermarket before finally getting back to our apartment. With the clouds continuing to look as though a storm was coming we checked the forecast to only find that the storm had been pushed back to the middle of the night.

It appears that our dancing game with the weather will continue on until tomorrow where a thunderstorm is expect throughout the entirety of the day. We got a good start to Prague but there is certainly a lot to get to over the next three days.

Distance walked: 9 miles