Girls’ Weekend In Prague

Friends are relatives you make for yourself.  ~Eustache Deschamps

One of the perks of military life is that it gives us numberless opportunities to make friends wherever we go.  One of the other perks of military life is that sometimes some of us get to live really close to each other even after our original assignments. That’s what happened with a number of my really good friends after we moved away from Japan. As soon as most of us ended up in Europe, we decided we had to get together for a quick weekend reunion! Our plan was put into motion and we nailed down a date that would work for all ten of us. Prague was chosen as THE place to meet and party!

Most of my girlfriends were driving from Germany, one flew in from Spain and one came all the way from Washington DC. Nine out of ten ended up being able to come (we missed you Erin!!), and our eleventh friend, who so wishes she had been there was trying to convince us that having a baby (her fifth!) just weeks prior was good enough excuse to skip our girls’ weekend (yeah, you know who you are, our hot chocolate loving friend).

We rented an apartment right in the city center for a great price, especially if you consider that we all split the cost. In fact, as it turned out we got way more than we bargained for! The whole three nights we were in Prague, the city was holding their light show exhibit or something, so they were showing films in various locations, including on the wall across from our apartment. So every night till midnight, we could watch and re-watch these abstract movies with no words and only wailing noises accompanying them-haha.

The other thing that we could have lived without, but I am totally laughing about it now, is random strangers ringing our apartment bells all through out the night! Sheesh! That was scary! The first night we were all on edge because one of our friends was flying into Prague at 1 am, so she was going to get to our apartment at almost 3 am. Every time the bell rang we thought it was her! But it turned out that it was just random (drunk) people who were partying next to our apartment building and pressing buttons by the main entrance. OR it was people who forgot their key to the main door and rang ALL the bells in the apartment building to see if anyone would let her in. Crazy! On the third night we were there, a group of crazy British guys who were staying on the floor above us, couldn’t figure out that OUR apartment was not theirs. The guy who owned our apartment felt very bad after all of this, so he let me and Renee (people leaving the latest) to check out very late that last day.

Well….now…after such a “fun” opening to my post, I’ll have to prove to you that we had an amazing time together!

The way you know you are among true friends is that the moment you see each other, after not being together for YEARS, you feel like it’s been just days. That’s how I feel with these ladies. We are all different, and all of us have different degrees of closeness among each other (depending on where we lived in Misawa, where our husbands worked and the ages of our kids), but we all got along great!

On Friday morning, the first day we were in Prague (half asleep after our very eventful night), we walked over to the Old Town Square to find a free walking tour that would make it possible for us to see quite a bit of the city in a relatively short amount of time. After much deliberation (and me being me trying to go with the guys I knew were rated highly on Tripadvisor), we chose New Prague Tours. Oh what a right choice that was! Although our group was quite large (about thirty people, I think), we managed to see a ton!

We started out with discussing the Church of the Virgin Mary Before Tyn (built in the 14th century). And the first question was, “Do you see any differences in these two towers”? My artsy friend Janeen was quick to answer, “The right one is wider than the left one!”.  Some might say that the right one symbolizes Adam (and manhood), while the left one is for Eve.  

We learned the story of Jan Hus, Czech reformation leader who was the predecessor to Luther and Calvin in European church history.  As many rebels against the church at that time, he was burnt. I actually remember learning about him in school in Ukraine.

Here are Tawnya, Renee and Liz, listening intently to the tour and trying not to freeze (it was actually around 55 F (13C) but standing for long periods of time did not help).

Czech Republic (well, Czechoslovakia at that time) was ruled by the Communist Party of  from 1948 till 1989. I thought this sign was very funny, not that I think that all Matrioshkas are evil.

We also came across this shady guy next to the Estate’s Thatre. This is a monument to Don Giovanni. Mozart premiered his opera “Don Giovanni” in Prague. He loved Prague! He said that people here really understand him. When people of Prague learnt of Mozart’s death, more people came to commemorate his departure than even in his native Austria.

Here are Diane, Liz and I near the Powder Tower.

It is difficult to recall now all the facts from the history of Prague. We covered a large area-walking from the Astronomical Clock in the Old Town Square (Stare Mesto) to Lesser Quarter to Jewish Quarter.

This is Tami, Tawnya and I by the clock that has a fascinating history. The guy who made it was blinded just so he can never recreate what he built. Every hour on the hour you can watch a cheesy show that the clock figurines put on (or you can simply take the free walking tour and your guide will give you his own version of the show). The show is super short and quite underwhelming but it gathers intense crowds in the square!

We saw the famous Charle’s Bridge. Charles IV ordered a new bridge to be built in 1357 to replace the bridge that used to be in that spot but was damaged by the flood in 1340s. Centuries later, the bridge is still standing. After our tour we walked down the bridge several times but I cannot get my friends to send me any pictures from there!

Oh yeah, so after our FREE walking tour (you tip the guide at the end) we signed up for the Castle tour in the afternoon. We decided we were just going to make that day our major sightseeing day.

The Castle tour took us up the hill (we took a tram) to the…well..Castle, the place where kings of Bohemia and presidents of Czechoslovakia have had their offices.

It did not look much like a castle in a way I think about castles.

It did have a beautiful St. Vitus Cathedral in the middle of the Castle District.

But unfortunately for all of us on our tour the building was closed to visitors due to an unexpected private function (our guide did not know about that either). So that was a bit sad.

At the end of the tour we felt like we’d seen all the highlights of Prague. We did a lot of walking but we had a ton of fun.

For dinner we went to the place that turned out to be 10 meters from our apartment. It had some traditional Czech food, so we had to try a pork knee:). And my vegetarian friends had some salad and potato cakes.

On Saturday, we spent a couple more hours shopping for souvenirs, then four girlfriends had to drive back to Germany. Renee, Janeen, Rose and I had one more night in Prague.

So we walked around some more along the beautiful streets near Charles’ Bridge and went to a vegetarian restaurant for dinner. It was fantastic! The place’s name is Nishta. We loved everything they had to offer (and felt good about stuffing ourselves with their food).

On Sunday morning, we had to say good bye to Janeen and Rose who were on their way back to Germany. Renee and I had evening flights, so we headed to the Jewish Quarter to visit a museum and Jewish cemetery there. Unfortunately, I still don’t have any pictures from that day, but I hope Renee will share someday the ones she took and I can add them to my post.

At the Jewish museum  we were not allowed to take any pictures (maybe that’s why I don’t have any?). We saw walls covered with names of thousands of Jews who lived in Czechoslovakia and were killed in the Holocaust. We also saw an exhibit of pictures drawn by children who were imprisoned at Terezin, a concentration camp near Prague. A teacher from the camp would ask children to draw pictures depicting different subjects and events—happy and sad ones. She then kept their drawings and somehow they survived the war and are now displayed in that museum. It was quite amazing to see them.

Prague is the place where Hitler was planning to retire after he was going to be done with invading everyone. That is the reason it was mostly spared from all the bombings, thus preserving beautiful churches, cathedrals and theaters that are still standing after so many centuries. Prague is truly a beautiful city, a must-visit for a weekend at least.

I am so grateful that I was able to spend a weekend together with my friends exploring the city, chatting, laughing and making memories. Hope we can do it again in the future—destination yet to be determined.

Lyana.