In 2011, I was planning a 10 days trip to visit Eastern/ middle Europe. This all initiated by two little instances in my daily life, a recommendation from a colleague to check out a UNESCO town in Czech and a growing popular scene set ink-pop drama. 'Český Krumlov' and 'Hallstatt'. The rest of the trip kind of built around figuring how and where to go around these two charming towns, it's also adding additional challenge if you don't want to do the round trip flight (because I really hate losing a day just to catch the return flight) with a tight budget. After evaluating couple scenarios, we set the itinerary. Our first stop? The city of hundred spires - Prague.
Prague Castle from across Vltava River
To be fair, Prague isn't some place you visit just to kill the time in between, and I don't mean to make it sounds not important. This is a charming city has a lot to explore - part of mid-century super power Habsburg family, King of Bohemian- the reign of the region and left a legacy of oldest castle complex of the world. Plus, one of my favorite artist - Alphonse Mucha, devoted last 20 years of his life on artwork admired by his nation. And those towers, yes, if you have endless energy don't mind climbing up and down - this can also be your parkour playground.
Mucha's Mural
We took a usual red eye flight straight to Prague from New York. From the airport, you need a train to connect the closest metro stop, which you need to time quite precisely cause the bus doesn't come that frequent. We had endless debate whether to take a bus or a taxi in exchange for time. Short answer to this, if you aren't traveling alone, any option don't initiate a fight is a good answer, you truly don't want this to spoil your mood on the first day of the journey.