Disastrous departure... but a lovely evening exploring Prague!

Street in the Old Town at night

The astromonomical clock, which shows the position of the moon and sun in the starsigns and every saint's day, as well as the time.
On the hour the figures move.

A war memorial; Hitler annexed the Czech lands in 1939 but the Allies did not stop him according to their policy of appeasement.

The Main Square at night

My departure on Sunday evening was somewhat fraught as at check-in I was told that my bags were 10 kilos overweight and that I had 20 minutes until my boarding gate closed. I hurriedly threw anything I could into a plastic bag and managed to persuade left luggage to keep it til the next day, then paid an extortionate amount for the excess 5 kilos still in my case and ran to security. Of course, the queue was enormous and I knew that if I wanted to catch the plane I had to push right through. So I apologised my way down, taking off my shoes, my laptop and so on out of my bag as I went, through security, raced through the departure lounge and onto the plane just as boarding was closing. Thank god East Midlands is only a small airport!

Happily, I was whisked off by taxi to a little Czech inn on the outskirts of Prague where I slept soundly arriving exhausted by my baggage trials at about 11pm. Monday morning I rose early to find that said baggage trials were not over... pulling my case (which Jonjo had taped together just the day before for me) just 100 yards down the road to a tram stop, it quickly became apparent that this travesty masquerading as a suitcase was barely going to make it into the city, let alone Dresden. The pull out handle snapped out fairly quickly and the wheels, well they did not wheel but instead just rocked from corner to corner. So I dragged this disgrace through Prague, puffing and panting on every street corner while the Czech stared in wonder at this crazy english girl with her enormous, disastrous case. I finally made it to the hostel and felt so free!

So I spent the afternoon wandering around the city, getting used to the place and finding my way around fairly sucessfully if I do say so myself. Prague seems just like any other European city but the difference is most noticeable in the language. I have a basic grasp of Spanish, German, French and so and and can generally pick words out from their latin roots abroad, but here that's impossible! Czech is some kind of Slavic language I would guess and it is so alien to me, but I am doing my best and did say "thank-you" in Czech today (Dekuji), although I have also bought an ice-cream and said various things in German (most Czechs speak German), but I am having to suppress the Spanish which keeps on threatening to slip out!

In the evening, I decided to go on a little walk to tire myself out to sleep and it was so breathtakingly beautiful that I think I must do it again tonight. I came across the old town, which I hadn't quite managed to find earlier in the day. I saw the fabulous astronomical clock in the main square, and went inside an amazing chapel within. The lengthily named gothic cathedral, Church of Our Lady Before Tyn, and beautiful St Nicholas' Church are all situated within and around this square and it was buzzing with life at night as people still milled about the streets even at 10pm and the whole place was wonderfully lit by the moonlight. I wandered down to the river and there were crowds spilling out from the majestic Philharmonic Orchestra building and it almost seemed the houses were all towering architectural wonders. The city surely must be home to some of the best preserved and most diverse buildings from the past; from romanesque to neo-classical to baroque, from fabulous art-noveau to art-deco buildings, Prague has it all and they look so grand that you can almost hear the rustle of crinoline as wealthy families throughout the centuries danced to Vivaldi and Mozart in these fabulous houses. I've never been to Vienna but this part of Prague is how I would imagine it to be.

I crossed the river Vltava and as you look down it you can hear the river roaring in the darkness and see the many bridges that traverse it, while Prague castle towers on a hill to the right amidst twinkling lights and these elaborate buildings are underlit spectacularly on the left. It truly was an amazing sight and I came back across the Charles Bridge, another amazing construction that must be one of the most romantic spots in Prague to judge by the amount of kissing couples!

So that was it for my first night in Prague... I went back to my hostel happy having been on this amazing moonlight walk and ready for another day in this historic city. More on that soon....