A letter from Prague

By Avonlea Brown

The city of a thousand spires, the city of magic, the golden city, the mother of all cities. The guidebooks did not lie. 

I arrived in Prague skeptical of all the hype I had gotten from every person I talked to about my upcoming travels. One city could not be as beautiful, peaceful and interesting as people had said. And yet here I am, sitting on the bathroom floor in my apartment at 1 a.m. so as not to wake my roommates, writing about how Prague has to be one of the best places I have visited so far. 

My first impression of the city felt muted by the minimal sleep and food I had on the flights. Over the following days, I explored the streets, alleys and passages weaving throughout Prague. 

I am constantly surrounded by the Baroque and Gothic architecture I was so used to seeing in fairy tales. Yet the towering structures have a richer history, standing through the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Communist regime to the present day. 

The spot where the historical buildings all converge is Old Town, where the center square dates back to the 10th century. Here various old churches, buildings and towers come together to form one of the most popular tourist attractions. Even now, despite it being the off-season, I could walk to the square and find hundreds of people gathered from all around the world. 

The rest of Prague does not differ greatly from Old Town, except for being a few hundred years younger. Remnants of communism remain in the brutalist concrete buildings seen outside and scattered around and outside the city. 

To take it all in, I mastered the art of looking up and walking forward without crashing into the people or poles in front of me. Yet there is also plenty to see at eye level. 

Cobblestone streets and mosaic-like sidewalks bring back a love of walking I only claim to have when I am traveling. A desire to see as much as I can in a short period of time spurs me on, and in this location, it is not hard to find new places to explore. 

One of the best ways to find an adventure is to hop on one of the many options for public transportation in Prague. If I could write a love letter to whoever invented the tram I would. 

Trams, metro lines and buses run 24/7 with easy-to-read timetables at every stop. A ticket for half an hour is thirty crowns, which translates to a little more than $1.25.

Transportation around the city may be easy, but remembering the names of the stops takes effort. For the first week, I had to assign them English gibberish in order to get off on time. For example, my apartment is located by Strossmayerovo Namesti, but the first few times my flatmates and I referred to it as “stress mayo.”

While it is not hard to find English speakers in restaurants and cafes, grocery stores and other adventures require either a basic understanding of Czech or a good translator app. I have enjoyed learning bits and pieces of the unique Slavic language through my daily routine and the people I meet. But the first couple of times I tried to speak the language reminded me that I really should have spent more time on Duolingo. One such encounter happened when I was searching for washcloths and I stopped into a local store.

“Dobry Den!” The old woman at the counter said hello, looked at me expectantly and proceeded to ask me something about how she could help me, but at the time I did not understand.

“Ah, nemluvim cesky… Anglitsky?” I stuttered my way through asking her if she spoke English and hoped my facial expression did the rest of the communication. Her equally confused expression gave me the answer I needed. 

After that, I learned the helpfulness of hand gestures. 

Communication may be hard sometimes, but other aspects of everyday life are far more familiar and comforting. 

One of those comforts is the cafe life here in Prague. Littered around the city, cafes are great for quick caffeine stops or longer stays. The best way to get over culture shock in any location, in my opinion, is to sit in a cafe for a couple of hours and observe the life going on around you. 

The quiet atmosphere of the city differs from what I come to expect from touristy areas. The announcements on the tram are easily heard, quiet conversations aren’t hard to have on the street and the chiming of various clocks can be heard on the hour from blocks away. A culture of quiet, either as a result of the past or a natural affinity, makes Prague stand out from its competitors like New York City and Paris.

Prague is not another tired tourist city. The environment, beauty and history offer travelers experiences suited to their various interests. Despite being a popular location for so long, much of the originality of the culture is preserved and found across the country. Of course, tourist traps sneak their way into the most popular locations and attractions, a result of tourism in any popular vacation spot. Yet every experience is still worth it, from climbing up to Prague Castle to crossing the Charles Bridge. 

As Henry David Thoreau said: “It’s not what you look at that matters. It’s what you see.”

Avonlea Brown is a junior Journalism major and Campus News Editor for Cedars. She enjoys hiking, reading and doing chores while listening to music.