Three and a half days in Prague equals over 2,5k photos. It took me weeks to edit them all and decide how to make a blog post that would not be just another travel photo diary. So I decided to share with you all the places I’ve been with my friends and why I fell in love with every single one of them. At the end you can find a few photos of the souvenirs I got from my trip and in the post and some funny stories about them.
Two of my friends, Ines and Marija, went to Prague as a part of Erasmus student exchange at the beginning of summer semester. Until now I’ve never visited Prague. It’s kind of a funny story. When my high school class went to Prague – I didn’t wanna go (don’t know why the hell not), and when my other friend Anja was also in exchange there during last winter, I was supposed to go with Ines and Giulia, but I got in the Fotosofia photography seminar for Advent days in Zagreb and couldn’t go. So I guess third time’s the charm. This time Giulia and I decided we’re gonna visit them and we didn’t plan anything, all we knew is that we will visit for a few days when the spring comes. A week before the trip, Giulia was visiting me for a coffee. We talked about the trip while I was scrolling through Facebook and an advertisement from a travel company Opušteno dopušteno putovanja came up and it said: ”Prague 28th of April until 1st of May- 107 €” and that was that. We booked it tomorrow morning.
Day before our departure I had to go to Zagreb for work. I took photos at the opening of RBauto car salon from 4 until 9 pm, then headed back to my friend’s place to edit photos because I had to leave for week and a half and wanted to finish editing before the trip. I fell asleep around half past three. Next morning, my friends dog woke me up at 9 am and three of us went for a long walk, then more editing. I took the tram to town around 3 pm and strolled through Zagreb because I had hours to kill until our departure at midnight. So I was pretty tired, but I had wonderful time. Ate shit food from the stands and McDonald’s, visited my friend Martina and her little baby girl Saša and took a few of her photos, went to the ”Museum of broken relationships” for the first time and spent two hours there reading break-up stories from people around the world. I really had a blast. Sometimes I think I would find my way to have fun even if you put me in a closed sandbox.
I won’t lie to you – The trip was a pain in the ass. If you’re planning on visiting Prague, take the plane, because from Zagreb to Prague is approximately 11 hour bus drive. We arrived around 11 am but our check-in at the hostel was at 3 pm. So we left our suitcases at the reception and went for a walk (read: went to find the nearest place to eat and drink beer. I know it was only 11 am. It’s Prague!) So after getting lost in crowds of people we ran into some burger place and Giulia said that we should just quit walking and chill there. It was probably the best idea we had during our entire stay. I linked the places in the headlines of each stop.
MEET BURGER
I didn’t take any photos of the burger itself because we were too busy eating and relaxing in that moment. But it was absolutely amazing I won’t lie. I didn’t eat meat for two and a half years because I had gastritis and the bare thought of eating meat would make me sick. I’m much better now even though I still don’t prepare it when cooking for myself, so I eat it only in occasions when a big craving comes, and this was one of those moments.
WANDERING THROUGH PRAGUE
These are our girls from Erasmus. We were soooo happy to see each other! They went away at the beginning of February and even though it’s only three months, we felt like we didn’t see them for ages, but at the same time it was like we were drinking coffee together yesterday. So after soaking up the sun and catching up with most important parts of our lives, we headed back to the hostel for a check in and decided we’re gonna meet at Letna park in the evening to have a few drinks together and then go to a party at Cross Club. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my Canon for our evening hangouts because I was too scared something bad will happen to him (such a good mama), but at the end I was sorry he didn’t come with me because Letna park was one of the most gorgeous places I’ve ever been to. It’s full of random beautiful people, everything is decorated with lamps and they had stands with beer and hot dogs. We had such a beautiful time there. But Cross Club was something else… I’ve never been to a real underground party before, I must confess, so this was a completely new experience for me. The music playing there is just… I don’t know how to even describe it in words, like drum and bass on acid. But we still danced our asses off. When we were near the club, my friend turned around to me and said: ”Welcome to Cross.”, and when I looked closer, the place looked like entering into a post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max. I’ll never forgive myself for leaving Canon locked in a safe that evening.
We left the club around half past five in the morning and we decided to take the metro. Because we were tired and a bit drunk, we forgot to buy the tickets for metro (even though we bought already three that day), and the control caught us. When they showed me the badge I thought they were trying to sell something to me, and I just nodded my head ”no” and continued looking trough the window. Few moments later I realised that we’re getting a ticket of 800kč (37$) each. It’s not much, but still, I could have spent that money in a better way. We were so desperate and begged them to let us go, but they didn’t and instead insisted to go with us to the hostel to get the money because we didn’t have almost anything in our wallets. The photo above is taken around 6 am when we paid the ticket and they let us go. I was too overwhelmed with everything but the sky was so pretty and I just had to take the shot. 🙂
The next day we got up, had delicious coffee from McDonald’s and made a plan about how are we going to spend our day. We decided we’re gonna go to the Old Town Square and visit Prague Castle. It was first time this year I went out in a huge oversized shirt without leggings. I’ll never forget that feeling and smell of warm summer air. We had a bit of hike to take and we had to take a break every 200 m, sat in the shade and drank liters of water. We were broken from the night before so the walk was quite nice and refreshing for the organism. I took soooo much photos… I couldn’t put my Canon down. Everything was so gorgeous, old, full of story and spirit. I get so hyped when that good feeling comes over me, I can’t stop smiling. And here are reasons, more accurately, photos why.
Depth of subject by my dear friend Giulia. Sign on the shirt: ”Today’s outfit: oversized t-shirt and sneakers.” Best outfit ever. Even though my legs were killing me from Converses.
OLD TOWN SQUARE AND PRAGUE CASTLE
We were walking and getting lost for hours and in that time talked about how amazing it is to just be and exist in some new place, not know which direction is the right one to take, to decide based on the feeling and to find beautiful spots across the town we would never find if we went on some guided tour. I bought postcards, climbed to a fire hydrant to take a better photo at the Old Town Square (the people were staring ofc, but anything for a good photo), we got beer and food along the way, got lost in crowds of people and I could feel the blood pumping through my body. What I loved most about Prague is the fact that there are parks literary everywhere. And above that, they’re full of people, just chilling, reading, having picnics, drinking, laughing. The city just had that positive aura around it. We met with Ines and Marija, guess where – at another park, to go, guess where – to another park to watch the sunset. It was one of the most beautiful, heart warming, emotional experiences in my life.
RIEGROVY SADY (THE SUNSET PARK)
As you can see on the photos, the park was filled with people. Everybody had blankets and booze and the music was playing from people’s phones randomly. In one moment, a song from Maroon 5 – She will be loved, started playing and finished in the moment when the sun had already set across the horizon. It took my breath away and I’ll never forget that moment. Especially because I shared it with one of my favourite people in the world. Besides my beloved Canon, I also carried a polaroid I got for myself as a present for this year’s birthday. And this was the moment that definitely deserved a polaroid photo. There was a couple sitting in front of us and I took the polaroid with them as the main subject. Giulia said to me: ”Imagine how happy they would be if you gave them that polaroid.” and I did, but also took another exactly like that one for myself because I wanted to have that memory. They were so happy it made me overwhelmingly happy too. Because I knew how I’d feel if some random stranger gave me a polaroid of myself and my boyfriend, at a picnic, during the sunset, in Prague haha. 🙂
Ines and Marija took us to Vzorkovna bar (eng. sample room). We called it Dog’s bar because they had three, absolutely huge, Great Dane dogs, white, black and grey, just strolling around people in the bar. When you enter the place, you’re actually descending down the stairs into a basement of some sort and the first thing I saw were swings made out of skate boards and chains, with black Great Danes sleeping underneath them. When I say basement you would think it’s a small place, but it’s actually huge. You have different floors and bars everywhere, so we had a couple of bears at the beginning section of the bar, then decided to go to the floor where people were playing live music. I can’t even describe in words what an amazing place that was, and besides that sunset moment, Dog’s bar was definitely my favourite moment of the trip. I also cuddled with the dogs and that is a huge plus. With Ines and Marija came two of their friends, one was Andrej that was studying with us in Rijeka but we never met before, and other one was Pascal from France. All of them were too tired from the night before, so they went to the dorm. But Giulia and I, as real champions do, didn’t quit at all and stayed up till the closing hours. The music was so amazing, because there was this one guy playing the guitar, and anyone who wanted to sing could come up to the stage and sing while this guy followed him on the guitar. We couldn’t leave. But the place and the mood were so cosy that we almost fell a sleep, so we decided that we should leave while we’re still awake. The bar was few minutes away from our hostel so we decided to take a walk. We had pizza of course and when we arrived to our hostel, we realised we’re still hungry, so we ate some more, but this time it was traditional Prague sausage. One of the best meals I’ve had in my life.
VZORKOVNA BAR (DOG’S BAR)
The next morning, while Giulia was taking a bath, I just went out with my make up from the night before, hair all messed up, with huge sunglasses on my head, to get some ice coffee and cookie from McDonald’s for breakfast. I know it’s terrible, but we were sleeping in a room with 6 other girls and you couldn’t open the windows, so I woke up every morning with a headache due to the lack of fresh air and besides that, it was hot as hell in that room. So the ice coffee really woke me up. I heard someone playing some heavenly music behind me and when I turned around I saw an angel. She really knew how to attract crowd and sell her albums. So I went back to the room to get my Canon, took some photos of her and left her a few kč. She smiled at me.
It was our last day in Prague so we wanted to make the maximum out of it, but before anything, we realised we haven’t bought almost anything besides postcards. So we went to Tiger (the cutest store on earth) and bought random cute stuff as you can guess. At the end of the post, you can find some photos of the things I bought. Amongst them is, of course – a notebook because I’m obsessed with them. I write every day and get myself one every time I visit some new place. It’s kind of an usable souvenir, so for me it holds an even greater value.
LENNON WALL
STRELECKY OSTROV
We met with Marija and Ines and they took us to another park that was located in the centre of Vltava river. It looked like a like small island. So we chilled there during the afternoon, took a bunch of photos as we soaked up the sun. Ines told us that Pascal was throwing a party with his roommates in their apartment. We were excited to go because it was a home party in Prague, what an amazing thing that is. But when we arrived, it was even more amazing. The apartment was huge and his roommate made food, decorated the place with confetti and balloons, the music was playing and everything was so nice.
We met two guys from Finland that brought Finish vodka with them to the party and of course – we had to try it. It was poison. It was so strong, my eyes started to water. This guy, Hari was so funny! I’ll never forget him because he told us one of the funniest jokes in the world. I told him that my parents visited Helsinki and how my mom was amazed by girls who walk down the street in ballerina shoes on minus 20 degrees. So he told me: ”The only three things that don’t get cold in the winter are penguins, polar bears and sluts.” Hahahaha how funny is that? When we got back to Rijeka, we told the joke to everyone. The party was amazing. We had such an good time and met so many interesting people from around the world. And because Pascal’s room had balcony, we watched another beautiful sunset while drinking beer. Bliss.
Somewhere around 11 pm we decided we’re gonna go to Chapeau Rouge bar and once again I was surprised by how many gorgeous places you can find in Prague. While we were there I felt so much happiness and gratefulness for the opportunity to see and experience all of the things I did. I didn’t have summer break last year because I worked at a store selling jeans to earn money for my new Canon. I went to the beach once, and I live by the seaside, so my soul was hungry for an adventure and new experiences. This trip was everything I could wish for. Giulia decided to stay for another day in Prague in a dorm with Ines and Marija, so I went back to Zagreb with the group, sleeping over two bus seats the entire drive. I couldn’t stay with her because I was going on another trip the next day with Anja, a friend that didn’t go with us, and our college group for the tour de ex Yugoslavia to visit the monuments of revolution.
This is the sunset from Pascal’s balcony. I’ll never forget that feeling. I wanna thank the entire crew that was with us that day and every other day of our trip. One of my favourite quotes was from the movie Into the Wild: ”Happiness, only real when shared.” and I couldn’t be more happier to share it with all of them.
Hope you enjoyed the post, and I hope you’ll visit some of the places I mentioned. This whole ”day -to- day” story telling posts are completely new to me and I would love some feedback on it. If you enjoyed it, leave a comment or write a Instagram dm to me, so I know more about what you wanna see from me. Thank you for reading and visiting! Sea of love, S.
SOUVENIRS
Guess which one is the punishment ticket.
Polaroid of cute strangers.
My favourite polaroid from the trip.
