PRAGUE
A city where miracles happen
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There are two things for which we, as travelers, thank fate: for aviation, which allows you to quickly move around the world, and for the fact that we live in a time of rapid development of the tourism business, when it is very easy to find a place to sleep in an unfamiliar city and in the same place. easy to deal with the logistics of movement. These two factors give travelers the opportunity to hit the road on the weekend, to some other country. In today's case, it will be a weekend in Prague. Boryspil airport, terminal F, the journey begins!
On this day, for the first time, we saw firsthand an airplane in the livery of the Shakhtar football club, standing nearby on the runway. Previously, we encountered it only on advertising media ;-)
Skyup Airlines flies to the Czech Republic from three Ukrainian cities: Kiev, Kharkov and Lvov. But the amazing thing is that tourists from Kharkov and Lviv are taken directly to Prague, and those who fly from Kiev are sent to the airport of Pardubice, which is 110 kilometers from the Czech capital. In fact, this is a military airfield, and when we landed, we saw hangars for fighters along the runway, which are well camouflaged and almost invisible from above. Pardubice Airport now takes 1-2 passenger flights a day, so the arrival of each plane becomes an event for the locals who live nearby, and they come to see the planes through the fencing nets. It reminded us of the movie "The Nameless Star ", where the townspeople came to watch the train passing by. 😂😂😂
The hospitable representatives of the airport made an exhibition of photographs of national Ukrainian clothes from different regions of the country for Ukrainians. One of the posters featured Ada Rogovtseva .
You can get to Prague from Pardubice airport in the following way: walk to the railway station Pardubice (+ -5 km) or take buses 8, 24, 88. And from there take the train "Pardubice - Prague". Trains leave every 30-40 minutes and cost € 6-10 per person. This is how we planned our route to the capital of the Czech Republic. But Prague is a place where miracles happen, and the first thing happened for us right at the airport. We left the building and saw a bus standing nearby. It was almost full, but we still asked the driver where he was going and where to get a ticket? He replied that to Prague, and the ticket office was inside. We quickly found her - she is opposite the shop with drinks and snacks. A group of five people stood in front of us, to whom the girl-seller told that they did not have enough tickets - they sadly wandered to the railway station. We also wanted to follow them, but first we decided to find out if it was possible to buy at least a return ticket to get here on such a convenient bus? It turned out that you can go to Prague and right now. It turned out that the guys that were in front of us needed 5 tickets, and there were only 2 of them left, as if specially for us. We bought two round-trip tickets for 200 CZK each, and happily headed to the bus. I think that independent tourists should not really expect to leave on this bus, since its seats are bought in bulk by companies selling tours to Prague, but it is worth trying this opportunity upon arrival. We were lucky with this transfer. And the ticket office where they sell tickets for this bus is indicated by an arrow in the photo.
And here we are, satisfied, sitting in the front row and examining the beauty of Czech nature. And yet, on the way, we really liked the special crossings above the highway for wild animals, so that they could cross the highway safely.
The bus arrived at the Chorny Most metro station. The ticket machines offer multiple languages to choose from and accept coins as well as credit cards. The minimum ticket for 30 minutes is 24 kroons. We didn't know how long to go, but we risked taking the cheapest one. It turned out perfectly well - from the Black Bridge to the Karlovo namesty station - exactly 30 minutes. If you need to travel further or change lines, then a half-hour ticket is not enough, take an hour and a half for 32 kroons. Before entering the station, be sure to shove the ticket into the yellow validator and it will print the start time of your trip.
We chose BOTEL for our stay in Prague. It is called "Matylda" and is moored next to the Jiraskuv bridge. We like to live on the border of land and water, so we often choose boats. This was the case in Stockholm , Bratislava and now in Prague. The owners of "Matilda" hospitably confirmed our request for "River view", and we were in a joyful anticipation of life on the ship.
Our cabin room looked like this. In it, you can absolutely reliably shoot scenes from "Treasure Island", where Captain Smollett fills out the logbook, sitting at a long table, or Dr. Livesey prescribes a potion for the next sick pirate 😉
Why were we in joyful anticipation? Because they knew from the reviews that under the windows of our "Matilda" there are flocks of swans and seagulls who are just waiting for you to buy a roll, open the window and feed them with bread. How this procedure takes place can be seen in the video following the link on our Instagram .
The famous "Dancing House" is located literally fifty meters from our ship, and on the threshold of this house you can meet some kind of King Kong's relative looking at the sky.
The second miracle that happened to us in Prague happened in the first twenty minutes, after we threw our things in the boat and went for a walk along the Vltava embankment. An old convertible limousine drove past us on the road. The passengers traveling in it asked the driver to stop and called us to ride with them (!!!) It was unexpected, but if you want interesting adventures, then go to meet them. A couple of minutes later, covered with a warm sheep's skin, we were driving through Prague in a rare car
Our new friends, Valera and Lena, celebrated Valera's birthday and bought themselves a tour of Prague in an old car, and when they saw us on the embankment, for some reason they decided that we must definitely share with them the joy of contemplating Prague. Thanks to them, two hours after arriving in the Czech capital, we have already familiarized ourselves with almost all the key sights of the city. The driver, Richard, told in detail about all the places he took us past. For some reason I especially remember the "Powder" tower.
When it got dark, we said goodbye to the guys and went to the famous "Charles Bridge".
After that we decided to continue exploring the banks of the Vltava and found a place where seagulls sleep at night, a kind of hostel for seagulls, overlooking the Charles Bridge and Prague Castle 😊😊😊
Since we were planning to sample the famous Czech cuisine, we went to the restaurant, which is included in the top five Tripadvisor reviews in this category. Apparently the places in such ratings relax the staff, they explained to us that there are no places yet and if we want to wait, then we are the third in line after the people who are at the bar. To clarify where you can sit and wait, we were told that there were no more chairs at the bar. We did not appreciate such service and went to a nearby pub, where we tasted a duck and a rabbit with great pleasure in a caring atmosphere. The name of the restaurant where we happened to be "Pod Vysehradem". We will be happy to recommend it to you. And the name of that "indifferent", I don't want to write, you can find it yourself, fifty meters to the left of this sign of a beautiful and tasty restaurant.
After dinner we had time to stroll through the stalls of Prague, found ourselves in a candy mine and stumbled upon the Apple Museum.
On the wall of one of the buildings, we met a memorial dedicated to the beginning of the "Velvet" revolution. Looking at the calendar, we realized that in a few days, the country will celebrate the 30th anniversary of this event.
The first sculptures that greeted us the next morning were a man and a woman flying on umbrellas.
Then there was a giant fly, a house covered in bacteria, and the rotating head of the writer Franz Kafka .
We met two more museums along the way.
And we ended up on a bridge across the river "Čertovka". The famous musical landmark of Prague is located next to this river.
The famous John Lennon wall is hidden in the courtyard near the intersection of the Charles Bridge and the Devil's River. We do not fully understand why this wall is in Prague, but they took a photo for memory.
And now let's talk about the third miracle, which absolutely accidentally fell on us. Walking around Prague, in one of the squares, we stumbled upon the shooting of some Hollywood film and watched several takes with pleasure.
It was evident how scrupulously the group was working. The essence of the fragment was that a white jeep drives up to the rear of the Mercedes. In between takes, the director handed out tasks to all the participants, the group employees threw fallen leaves from the bags under the wheels of the car, and the administrators drove the onlookers into the alleys so that they would not be in the frame. We watched the work of the film crew for more than an hour and had great pleasure in getting in touch with the film industry. A video from the set can be viewed here .
After the set we went up to the Prague Castle. The panorama of Prague opened up to us from an almost bird's eye view 😉
Photographed the royal palace and the guard of honor near it. Interestingly, apparently the soldiers of the guard of honor do not protect the palace very much, since a real ranger is assigned to them at the entrance.
Descending from the hills of the Prague Castle, we walked through the oldest market in the city, contemplated the main clock and met the house where Mozart himself stayed.
But we have our greatest travel passion for strange sculptures, art objects and museums of modern art. We love to "fumble" taking pictures with such characters.
Sometimes they carry some meaning: "Attention, be careful with yourself", and sometimes, they just bow their heads 😉
Evening came imperceptibly, and in our plans there was also a Prague funicular. We did not change our plans and went to the lower station to conquer the Petrin Hill. Tickets for it are exactly the same as for public transport. We recommend taking an hour and a half. We managed to climb, walk in the park near the observatory, walk to the glowing tower, and then go back down. The air on the hill was fresher and the temperature much cooler than below. By the way, you can climb to the observation deck of the tower, but it was enough for us that we were already at the highest point of the city.
"Slowly descending the mountain", we dined with a boar's knee in a pleasant place called "Smíchovský radniční sklípek". We will be happy to recommend it to you, especially since the knee is served there, both on the bone and without. Take boneless - the portion of meat is just as huge, and the price is cheaper. After dinner we went to our ship. Early departure allowed us to enjoy the foggy sunrise near the Jiraskuwa Bridge. We fed our long-necked friends with leftover bread and took the metro to the bus that would take us to the airport in Pardubice.
We were in Prague for only a day and a half, but the miracles that happened to us in this beautiful city, we will remember all our lives.
We hope you enjoyed our adventures in Prague. And we, promoting our motto:
"Be sure to travel!"
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