I wanted to get out of Bratislava so badly and into Prague that I convinced Andrew to wake up early so we could leave on the first train. We were walking towards Old Town Square by late afternoon and even though we planned on going out for dinner and then heading back to get some much needed sleep, I ended up giving Andrew an impromptu tour/trip down memory lane from my year of living and working in this lovely city! We had Czech food at an old haunt of mine near Mustek, walked through Old Town Square and over Charles Bridge, and had ice cream on the square outside of my old apartment. We walked the back streets of Narodni Trida around more of my old favorite places, mourned the missing smažený sýr stand at the now closed metro stop before we snuck into the back offices in the building I used to work in not to visit my old employers, but to ride the magical (old-fashioned) elevator.
I stopped myself from taking pictures of the square thinking surely, we’d be back through many (many many) times in the next week to come. I was more interested in photographing my old apartment building for my old roomies. Tina was afraid that a Starbucks had taken over the first floor of our building. Luckily, Starbucks moved in across the street instead and our building looked very much the same with the tourist restaurants and jewelry shops below. It’s only a couple blocks away from the end of Charles Bridge. It was my most favorite place I’ve ever lived. We’d walk across the bridge late after a night out, or I’d walk down the tram street just to admire the view of the lit up St. Nicholas Church. It was magical every time.
This is where I mourned my favorite smažený sýr stand. Smažený sýr is fried cheese in Czech. At this particular stand, it was served on a bun with massive amounts of tartar sauce. I gained at least twenty pounds living in Prague for the year, and fully intend on the same happening during our visit this week. Riding the magical elevator (below) made up (just a teensy bit) for the missing fried cheese. It might not look like much, but it’s this incredibly old school elevator that you have to hop on and off of. It’s pretty awesome and might have been one of the best things about working there.
