Sav: What a glorious start to the day! We slept in and slowly got ready to adventure. This hostel also has a free hairdryer, and that is a luxury when you are travelling let me tell you – so we both took full advantage of that. With great blowouts we set off into the streets of Prague to explore and it was so much more than we could have imagined!

Meag: The rest of the day was even more glorious than the start. The whole city is like a fairytale! Every block is beautiful. We spent the entire day walking around with our mouths wide open pointing at everything we passed. Our first stop was the Old Town Square with the Astronomical Clock, one of Savanna’s top things to see. Based on the excited hand flapping, I think she was pleased.

S: I could not even handle it, I was the same kind of excited as I was when I saw Big Ben, which makes me think I have a particular fondness for impressive clocks… I have no idea what that says about me! I made Meaghan stick around the square for almost an hour, not that she was hard to convince. Every hour on the hour the clock does this crazy display where the figurines all ring bells and the solar system switches just a fraction. I could have sat there for hours and I could write an entire post about just this clock – it was borderline obsession I think…

M: In the distance we saw what looked like a castle and decided to head off in that general direction, once Sav had calmed down about the clock. We crossed the Charles Bridge and slowly walked up the hill through the winding streets to reach Prague Castle. Partway there we had to stop and get Savanna some gelato, of course (S: I have a problem). Three weeks in and I can probably count just a few days that haven’t involved a gelato stop for this lady.

S: We can’t just gloss over the Charles Bridge – it was so beautiful! There are large gothic-style lookout towers and gates on either end and there are 30 detailed statues lining the bridge the entire way across, each one completely worthy of its own description. On the way to the castle we also passed by the Jewish cemetery and Pinkas synagogue which are on our list, but it was closed today so we’ve added it to the list for tomorrow. The same thing happened with the castle, which was only going to be open for a couple of hours and we think we’ll want more exploration time, so tomorrow’s looking busy! It was not at all a disappointment not going in anywhere though, because just walking the streets felt eventful and important. As far as cities go this one is special in an indescribable way, which makes it one of my top recommendations to date.

M: Everyone we’ve spoken to about coming to Prague has said it’s beautiful and that we’ll love it. With all those built up expectations, I was ready to be a little let down. But this city has actually exceeded my expectations and it’s only day one. Day two promises to be just as great.

S: As silly as this sounds I had a picture in my head of Meaghan and I running around the city in a film montage with super upbeat music playing and we’d just be astonished and smiling and laughing the whole time. It’s difficult to externalize the feeling of happiness I am experiencing in this city.

S&M