The Castle
Today I woke up to the quite unexpected (but very exciting) news that Doug Jones had won the special Senate election in Alabama, which was a great start to the day! We packed up our things and stored them in the Miss Sophie’s luggage lockers before heading to the restaurant for a very nice brunch. I had fruit, an omelette, and sausage, and it was all so tasty! We then made our way to the tram stop which we took towards Prague Castle. It took about twenty minutes to get to the base of the castle area, and we then had to climb the large hill to the top.
Our first stop (after figuring out how to buy tickets - I’ve never seen a museum not take credit cards) was to head inside of St. Vitus Cathedral. St. Vitus is incredible both inside and out, and we were sure to take tons of pictures. The gothic architecture is stunning and the stained glass was striking, quite literally as the sun was shining right through it. After St. Vitus we walked through the Prague Castle area that is open to visitors. It is really amazing how old the building is, with parts of it dating back to the 1500s. No pictures were allowed inside, unfortunately! We made our way to St. George's Basilica next, which is much smaller and very different from St. Vitus, but is beautiful in its own right. It is very understated but has some really unique architecture.
The last stop on our ticket was the Golden Lane area which is basically just a street filled with cute buildings and shops. We picked up a few souvenirs and gifts before heading to our last stop on Prague Castle, a classical concert performance in Lobkowicz Palace. My mom really wanted to see live classical music while we were in Prague, and this ended up being a great one-hour performance by a flute, piano, and viola. The performance was really good and it was set in a fantastic room as well!
After finishing our visit to Prague Castle we worked our way back down. We stopped by St. Nicholas Church but didn’t go in as we didn’t particularly want to pay, were running out of time, and I had been in on my previous visit to Prague. We then walked up Malá Strana (a popular street) where we each bought a small piece of glass. Before crossing the Charles Bridge we made sure to stop by the always colorful and inspiring Lennon Wall. We then crossed over the beautiful Charles Bridge, which offers arguably the best 360-degree view of Prague, before taking the tram back to Sophie’s Hotel.
We grabbed our bags, caught an Uber to the airport, and after a thirty-minute drive and moderate wait at security we bought some great Czech Republic chocolate as well as a snack to hold us over until Budapest. It was quite an annoying ordeal boarding the plane because Taylor Swift tickets went on sale literally the second we were climbing the stairs onto the plane. Luckily my dad was able to try and buy some from home, and we eventually succeeded (thanks again to my dad for the help), it was very stressful especially since I missed the presale while I was on the ferry to Russia. Anyways, it all worked out, and the flight was very short to Budapest, Hungary.
When we landed we took a taxi to our hotel, Fraser Residence Budapest. We were given a one-room suite with an incredibly huge balcony, full kitchen (even with a washing machine), and tons of space! It’s a great room and I cannot thank Fraser Residence Budapest enough for sponsoring this night of my trip! We decided to stay in, rest, and enjoy the room before we have a whirlwind last day of our trip spent exploring Budapest tomorrow!
76 countries down, 120 to go.
Read about my first day in the Czech Republic here.
To learn more about Miss Sophie’s click here.
To learn more about Fraser Residence Budapest click here.
