Day 21: The Charles Bridge

Another fine day in Prague. I woke up this morning with my classic loose plan for the day. My goal was to see the Charles Bridge. I hadn't heard of it before coming to Prague, but it seems to be a pretty big landmark for the city.

I woke up and started walking in the general direction of the river. I kept my eyes open to the city around me, taking short detours when I saw something interesting (including lunch). The biggest detour was when I came upon a rather large park. The first thing that caught my eye was what I found out was a monument to the victims of communism. The monument consists of several statues descending a staircase. At the top of the stairs the statue is just legs, but it slowly becomes a complete human piece by piece as the stairs descend.

I decided to explore the rest of the park, which was mostly a hill. I saw a tram that went up to the top, but the line to get on was a little too long for my liking. I didn't want to spend too much time here when I wanted to get to the river.

The park was a great break from the city, even though I only spent maybe an hour in it. The hiking was tough because it was uphill most of the way. The hillside was covered in small apple trees. At least I think they were apple trees. Maybe crabapple. The grass around the path was extremely overgrown, practically taking over the small path I walked on. The path got to the point where I had to step aside to let someone else go by.

After walking back down the hill through a forest of much taller trees, I suddenly appeared back on the city street. It felt like I had walked through a portal from the forest to the city, that's how abrupt the change was. But I pushed forward, making my way towards the river.

I found a different bridge first. It wasn't the famous Charles Bridge, but it gave me a distant view of it. The water below was full of small pedal boats (is that what they're called?) exploring the water. The river was sectioned off by what must be man made waterfalls, so the boats couldn't go exploring too far. Also on the far side of the river was a canal that bigger boats could use without the threat of hitting a tourist.

I sat by the water for a while, watching the boats go by. It was a very relaxing time.

I walked along the river on my way to the Charles Bridge and stumbled upon one of the most frightening things I've seen on my journey so far. Some of you may be familiar with the freaky baby heads behind the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. I found something on the next level.

Behold! The villain of your nightmares for the next few nights.

This baby statue is taller than me, and it doesn't have a face. Instead it has some kind of vent where the face should be. I may be out of tune from modern art, but if I saw this in real life, I would try to escape the horror movie I was clearly transported into.

Anyway, I made it to the Charles Bridge. Maybe it was the large crowds or the sides of the bridge being lined with caricature artists and other random merchants trying to take advantage of the crowd of tourists, but I didn't enjoy the bridge that much. The statues were beautiful and well crafted, but I couldn't stay on that bridge for too long.

I left the bridge and started looking around for something to eat. I let myself take too many detours this time and at one point I realized I had wandered in a circle back to the Charles Bridge. I saw the crowd and I quickly turned around.

I found some good food and sat with my book for a little while. I walked back towards the apartment and stopped at the park for another good look at the sunset. I stayed a little longer this time, watching the sun go down, reading my book, and watching a bunch of dogs run around the park. I think the people of Prague either have really well trained dogs or something against leashes because I have seen more unleashed dogs here than anywhere else. And not just in the parks either, there's a lot of unleashed dogs that walk down the sidewalks too.

On the way home I realized I was still hungry, so I stopped again for more food. Good thing Prague is cheap.

Already my time in Prague is running out. Tomorrow is my last full day. But I'm not going to think about how much time I have left. Instead I'm going to look forward to tomorrow. I think I will try to get to the Prague castle tomorrow because, as I've learned, it's tough to go wrong with castles.

So thanks for reading and here's to tomorrow.