The earliest recorded name for this country is Bohemian which originates from the name of the tribe that resided here thousands of years back. Czech Republic is in fact just a few decades old. After the communist regime in 1918, they merged with Slovakia to form Czechoslovakia. They amicably parted their ways in 1993 and the nation Czech Republic was born. They are a very patriotic bunch and are in search of their identity. In fact, their national anthem also translates to “Where is my home”.  Prague is a small capital city with the city center at one side of the river and a quite part of the city on the other side on a hilly area. The city center is divided into old town and new town. The new town was created by king Charles to spread out the development of the city and you can clearly see the difference between the two parts in terms of width of the road etc. This city is probably the biggest party hub of Europe during summers. Here are few things to explore while you are in this place.

• Astronomical Tower: This tower was a huge town hall till the second world war. What is remaining now is probably a third of the building as the rest was destroyed during the war. They have planted trees in the torn down portion in the memory of the people martyred for the nation. If you watch closely then you can see that the building abruptly gets cut-off on one side. There is an astronomical clock on the other side which gives you the lunar time, solar time and also points to the name days. Several modern names are also added to the list now. For 220 kc you can also get to the top of the tower to get an amazing view of the city especially during the time of the sunset.

• Church of Our Lady before Týn: It is opposite to the astronomical tower and built during 14^th century. Prague has a history of protestant revolution. The Catholics used to earn a lot of money through confessions and a promise to heaven. With time, people started paying for sins in advance as well. Later some patriots started translating bible for the masses and it no longer was accessible only to people who knew Latin. They now understood that asking for forgiveness with a clean heart is as good as a confession in front of the priest. The peasants staged a revolution and the authorities were overthrown. This church also has an interesting trivia. One of the towers is smaller than the other as the builders lost the plan midway. They just kept going and hoped no one would notice. We also didn’t think about it till our guide pointed it out.

• Powder Gate: This gate was used to store gun powder and hence the name. It also acts as the partition between the old town and the new town. For 90 kc you can climb up the tower to have a bird’s eye view of the city.

• Charles Bridge: This was another piece of work created by king Charles. A very lively place with artists and musicians continuously entertaining the passer byes.

• Estates Theater: This theater is 5 minutes’ walk from the old town square and has quite a bit of history to it. Mozart performed his master piece “Don Giovanni” for the first time in this theater. He received a 30 minutes’ standing ovation from the crowd. Mozart loved Prague and he even composed this music heavy under beer in a remote part of Prague. In the memory of this they have also put a statue of the ghost character from Don Giovanni Opera in front of the theater.

• Kafka Statue: Franz Kafka is probably the most famous Czech personality in the world. There is a statue dedicated to him near the old town. On the base there is the beetle from Metamorphosis, then there is the headless figure from Description of a Struggle and on top of it there is Kafka riding it. Visiting this will be a good tribute for the author who thought and wrote very uniquely.

• St James Cathedral: This is also within walking distance from the old town. Its a small but very beautiful church. Like many other cathedrals in Europe, this church also associated itself with miracles to attract pilgrims during the medieval period. For this one, the story is that a thief was trying to steal a necklace from the wooden lady Mary and the statue came alive. It caught the hand of the thief and finally people had to sever the hand to rescue him. The hand is still hanging inside the church (almost in a mummy form now).

• Walking tours: We did a walking tour of the old town and the Jewish Cemetery. The guide tells you a lot of history about the place and you enjoy the monuments even more. It was a free tour and you are expected to pay a tip at the end as per your satisfaction. 10-20 Euros seemed to be an acceptable range. We also saw some people joining the late night spooky tours as well.

• Letna Park: This park is at the opposite side of the river from the old town and at a walking distance as well. This gives a very good view of the water front, the old town and the Charles bridge (see the pic below). There are a lot of beer stalls available throughout this park and Prague is pretty famous for its beer gardens.

• Stroll on the Waterfront: If you just walk along the river then you will get some good views of the cathedral on top of the hill inside the castle. There are also few more stunning buildings that you can see on the way. It might also be a good idea to have dinner at one of the many river facing restaurants.

• Concert: The square in the old town was hosting a lot of concerts while we were there. That particular week was for Jazz festival. It’s usually free of cost and it is worthwhile to take out some time from the trip and enjoy the music.

• Bohemian Saxon Switzerland National Park: We were searching for things to do outside of Prague and we stumbled upon this interesting national park. We booked a day trip from Cayman Tours and had a really good time. It is spread between Germany and Prague and we visited both parts of it. We saw beautiful sandstone rocks shaped by water currents. It also involved a bit of a hike so be prepared with sturdy shoes and water. The tour ended with a relaxing 20 minutes’ boat ride through Edmunds Gorge. The park was nearly two hour drive from Prague. If you have one day in hand and want to step out of the city for some time then this could be a really good option.

• Czech Food: We tried some really awesome traditional Czech food while we were there. Two really outstanding dishes were Svickova and Goulash. Both of them are pretty heavy on meat. The recommended restaurants will be Krcma (this one is a medieval themed restaurant and you will feel like dining inside one of the GoT diners) and Ceska Kuchyne. For vegeterians, the only interesting thing that we can recommend is the fried potatoes that they serve on a stick. It looks amazing and tastes pretty good as well. They are available at many street side shops near the old town square. And of course try the beer. Czech Republic probably offers one of the largest varieties of beers and you see it everywhere.

Prague will probably be the second most beautiful city that we visited in Europe (Paris being the first). The place is also great for dog lovers. On the streets many people were walking their dogs and we had never seen many of those breeds before.

Quick tips:

• Be careful of the pick pockets. Our walking tour guide repeatedly warned us about it so we were extra watchful. There will also be quite a few homeless people asking for change. We stayed clear of them.
• Take the day pass which costs 110 kc. It includes all buses, trams and metros. They come handy as you keep moving from one place to another and when you are back to your hotel then you will realize that in total how much you have drained yourself.
• And same as in Budapest, Euro is not the main currency. The buses don’t accept them and the shops which do accept, will give kc in return.