JYG'S URBAN ADVENTURES: Central Europe 2015: Prague

As most of you know, I went on a spring trip in Central Europe. After finally unpacking and getting over jetlag, I thought it's time to start blogging about our trip. :)

A bit of background: originally, I had planned this as a rail only trip since this would be my last year to purchase a EuroRail pass, but after doing the math , it turned out that buying the tickets individually was even cheaper and logistically it only made sense to take the train for certain segments of the trip. We ended up going to Prague, Krakow, Budapest, and Istanbul. I know, it's not "really" Central Europe, since we were in Poland and Turkey is barely in Europe but I'm not really sure what to call it so I'll stick with that for now.

You can check out the map below, the blue line indicating a train trip and red line for flying:

The entire trip lasted for 17 days and I went to some of the most picturesque places in Central Europe with my best friend and my boyfriend, it was an absolutely amazing experience!

I start my trip in picturesque Prague, Czech Republic. The old town is amazingly preserved and everywhere you turn, it's a beautiful scene out of a post card.

It seems like Spring has arrived a little earlier in the Czech Republic and everywhere I turned, flowers were in bloom.

Prague is quite the touristy little town. Everywhere you go, there are tourists and tourism activities. We decided to try out a Segway tour as a way to see the town since one side of the Vlata river seemed quite hilly. This turned out to be a great idea since the Prague Castle was situated at the top of a large hill and the Segways were excellent at hill climbing.

All of us in our dorky Segway glory!

To be honest, this was my first time being on a Segway and I have to say I had a lot of fun. They were fast, responsive and able to handle many different terrains. In a way, I'm kind of surprised they are not more widely used given how versatile they can be. However, I would say the biggest drawback is that the user is constantly standing while operating the machine. There are a lot of people who may have difficulty with that, especially over a long period of time. But I'm glad I tried it out and I can't wait till I can do it again :D.

The castle was really fun to explore and you get a spectacular view of old town Prague.

They even have traditional guards who perform a changing of the guards ceremony once a day! Kind of reminds me of London all over again.

The Food

Unfortunately I didn't quite document all of my meals but I will share with you one of the more "Czech" styled meals I had.

Overall the Czechs enjoyed their game, bread and sausages. They seemed to be influenced by the Germans so I saw many places serving sausages as well as the Hungarians since goulash soup was popular as well.

I started my meal with a cup of coffee and it was excellent! Just really really yummy coffee that I can't find at home.

We shared a goulash soup in a bread bowl. It was quite nice but I wish there was more soup.

Annie tried their roast pig meal and it was delicious! This particular restaurant roasts their own pig daily and I was quite fond of how juicy and flavourful the meat was.

Night Time

While in Prague, we saw one opera performance ( Aida) at the National Opera House and one ballet performance (Krabat) . I have to say, I really enjoyed the ballet and I would love to go back. As for the opera, it was my first time watching opera, and I did not enjoy it as much. Thankfully there were subtitles during the performance to let you know what's going on, overall the experience was not as simulating. Each of the places were quite unique and it was the place where locals came to see and be seen, especially the opera house. Annie and I sat in the dress circle at the opera house and most of the people around us were extremely well dressed. All of the men were in suits while women wore expensive evening gowns.

Overall, I would say one can really get a sense of how grand everything used to be when you visit the insides of these historic buildings. It's a nice glimpse into the past.