Outlandish

The Petrin Hill on the Mala Strana side of Prague is a 300-meter-high hill next to the castle towering over the city. On Sunday we decided to go inspect the hill and maybe try and find the Royal Gardens, which we couldn't find from the castle itself. Before the climb we needed to get some snacks, of course. Proper energy bombs like crisps, chocolate and cider. Some strawberries as well to keep things healthy...   The climb itself wasn't that bad but I wouldn't recommend it to the elderly or people with heart problems. At some stages the path was so steep that your pulse rises to surprising levels. Instead of climbing you can take the Funicular up the hill. On the hill you will find lovely parks and an Eiffel tower-inspired viewing tower. You can climb all the way to the top of the tower but we weren't interested in queueing. Walking down the hill we wandered off the main road and came to a little square with a huge palace on the right and ...

Every capital in Central Europe has a castle and Prague is no exception. The first version of the castle was built at the end of the 800's by the first Bohemian kings. The current outlook it received under the rule of the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa who constructed it with a lot of passion but did not spend much time there. Apparently she didn't like Prague or the Czech people. Something me and my namesake disagree on :D Going through the two first castle yards you come to the most impressive part of the castle: the Cathedral of Saint Vitus. It's like a "small" Notre Dame towering above all the castle walls around it. The cathedral took altogether 600 years to build. Something that is different in this cathedral is the fact that the stained glass windows are billboards as much as they are depicting religious events; the entities that donated money for the cathedral's construction wanted their names displayed, of course. So, for example Banka Sla...

I may have just found my next home city! All the good things I've heard of Prague have now been proven to be accurate; the city is truly wonderful and full of stories. So full actually that one post would become simply too long. So, here's part 1 of our Perfect Prague Weekend. I traveled to Prague from Bratislava on a bus. But not just any bus: Student Agency is a company that offers super cheap plane, train and bus tickets around Central Europe. I prefer to travel by bus since train takes approximately the same time but is more often late or cancelled. I prefer bus also because Student Agency offers coffee/hot chocolate on the way and every seat has its own screen equipped with several movies and TV series to pass the time. The Hobbit was perfectly over three hours long for the four-hour-ride. For hotel me and my friend chose the Beseda Hotel a short walk from the Vltava river and the Old Town Square. It was a 4-star-hotel but not expensive at all, especially beca...

Midsummer is the time when Nordic people withdraw away from the cities into hiding in their summer houses in the countryside. No matter what the weather is you sit outside and have a barbecue for four days. Last year I moved to Bratislava just before Midsummer so I didn't have much time to spend in our summer house. Neither this year. I am traveling to Prague for an alternative Midsummer with one of my best friends in Finland.  I feel like I'm a professional when it comes to packing. I've been moving around Europe so many times that most things come automatically for me when it comes to packing... not passport, though. No, that's way too obvious. I've been very happy to carry enormous bags on my travels instead of getting one with wheels. But now, going to Prague for five days, I thought that the bag would have to be so big that I probably couldn't carry it. So I had to go searching for a small, pull suitcase. There were these regular ones, nicely c...