I'm Smitten with Prague

Praha! What a dreamy city. A few days after Christmas I took an evening bus from Munich to Prague to celebrate New Year's Eve with Marcella and her family. The highway between the cities at night closely resembles the 5 freeway from Los Angeles to San Francisco; a constant black landscape punctuated with yellow-orange streetlights. Every six minutes or so dimly lit commercial depots and fluorescent combination gas station/McDonald's pop up along the road. If you're a Californian you likely have a clear image of the Central Valley. This was the autobahn to Prague.

To arrive in Prague itself felt like I had travelled to an alternate universe rather than a neighboring country. All of the street signs and store names were in Czech (duh), but as Czech is a slavic language and Prague is a former soviet city, I felt far away from Germany. Some serious Eastern block feelings were being had. Czech architecture was toy-like, the cobblestoned streets felt fake to me (in a positive way). Although, the colors and styles simultaneously feel authentic whilst also as though you're walking across the set of a James Bond movie from Universal Studios. Fun fact Marcella taught me about Prague; many films set in major European cities are shot in Prague because of it's lower costs, so keep an eye out for that in the next Tom Cruise film.

Only one building was destroyed in World War II in Prague, that of City Hall. The bombed out building was on Old Town Center and has since been replaced by a memorial of trees sitting in the shadow of the Astrological Clock's tower. The city's survival, and preservation since, gives it the storybook, medieval feel about it. Many of the bridges and churches date from the 1400s which is a wild number to conceptualize for a city's age when you come from California where most of our major landmarks were built within the last hundred years. Crazy, seriously. Ahhh history - this has been my favorite part of traveling around Europe thus far. While the variance in language and culture is special and all, the sheer age of these cities and buildings, and the evolution of culture and language that they have withstood are what really leave me with a mile-wide grin.

^I am a sucker for stained glass.^

^proving why Prague is called the "Golden City.^

^the castle took around 100 years to build, so the architecture is conflicting.^

^cheese fondue party for NYE, despite hating cheese it was great fun.^

^what's better than wine? wine with alcohol. hellllllo sangria.^

^the Astronomical clock is gorgeous and apparently pretty accurate.^

^Mozart's monument from Don Giovanni.^

^god's gift to Prague: in the cinnamon roll/churro family. yum.^