Terezín and Prague - Day 2

Location: Outside our room in Hostel U Melounu

Hii! We had a long but lovely day today. So we were supposed to leave our hostel at 7.10am but we got a bit carried away by the really good (free) breakfast - incredibly soft bread with creamy cheese. We packed up as much as we could for brunch and left only around 7.20. So once we reached Florenc Bus Station to take the 8am bus to Terezín, we had to rush to get tickets as it was already 7.55! And the guy at the office refused to give us the 8am tickets, insisting that we would miss the bus anyway. So we had to wait at that awful place for an hour. Awful coz there was nothing much to do around there and very few benches and LOTS of smokers. So we just found one corner and dozed off/had breakfast. Boarded the bus at 8.45 and reached Terezín around 10.

Terezín is basically a former fortress and concentration camp. It was named after Maria Theresa of the Habsburgs. There were a coupla museums there and the concentration camp which we got a free tour of. Pretty depressing place so I took hardly any photos there.

The gallows, and the fortress walls

We finished around 2 and took the bus back to Prague to go up Petrin Hill. This place is across the river from the main city centre so the bridge we took to go there gave us a beautiful view of the Charles Bridge and the Prague Castle. And the water here's a deeep blue.

Petrin Hill and the bridge we took to go there

Lovely architecture of the National Theatre in the city centre

Prague castle! The photos don't do it justice

Us three with the castle and bridge in the background

Petrin Hill has an observation tower which is built like the Eiffel Tower. But it wasn't too spectacular or high so we decided to give it a miss. Btw, the toilets here in Prague cost about 10 crowns (roughly 90c)! And they're not even that clean. Anyway, we went to the Mirror Maze/Hall of Mirrors after that. It was ok.. More for kids. But we being nuts, took mad photos too. This one's my favourite :D

Alien fingers hehehehe. Cheap thrill :P

We were done with Petrin Hill pretty quickly. On the way down, due to lovely clear skies, we were granted with a beautiful view of Prague. But the photos didn't come out too clearly as they were mostly blocked by trees. We'd taken the funicular up so the walk down was really nice. Once we reached the city centre again, we just walked around and saw plenty of souvenir shops and Bohemian crystal shops. Bought some stuff for Navarathri golu and a magnet.

Random Prague alley

We saw SO many food stalls and got so hungry that even the non-food stalls somehow reminded us of food! Guess we were really starving. And we'd decided to treat ourselves to a slightly more expensive restaurant in the Old Town, and we were really looking forward to good food. So we quickly walked along the Charles Bridge, which was extremely crowded but was scenic.

At the start of the Charles Bridge

Took a nice group photo along the bridge

We reached Staré Město (Old Town) around 7ish, starving, and went directly to the restaurant, with promises that we would return to check out the old town thoroughly tomorrow. It's really pretty and so far it's been my favourite part of Prague. Dinner was great. While waiting, we took ridiculous photos which I refuse to put up here, but well, it was fun :D Had FILLING pasta after a long time! I was stuffed. Really needed a nice walk but it was pretty late so we had to go back quickly. While walking to the tram stop, I was awestruck by the night view of the Prague Castle. It beat the daytime view hands-down!

Prague Castle at night

I couldn't tear my eyes off it and took millions of photos which unfortunately didn't come out so clearly. I loved it so much that I didn't even feel the fear I felt yesterday while walking back to our hostel!

Ok, gotta sleep now. Showering was a bad experience again. Anyway, goodnight!