České Budějovice

Never heard about this place before? So did I. We visited this small town on our way from Prague to Salzburg. České Budějovice is the Home of Budweiser, yes the beer! With a population of almost 100,000 people, České Budějovice is the largest city in South Bohemia. Many of my friends from the group think that this small city is the most beautiful city that we've visited during the trip. Let's see these pictures to understand why they could think that way.

Our bus stopped by the river not far from the hotel Budweis which is a pink hotel. A very impressive building. So we knew from our first steps that it was going to be a special kind of transit for us!

Than we continue walking to the center of the city which is a square, a beautiful square with colorful buildings.

There is also a tower called the Black Tower, was built of the dark local stone in the mid 1500's, and the viewing deck offers wonderful views over the South Bohemian countryside. But of course we didn't have the time to visit the tower.

The most impressive building is the town hall.

I envy people reading book at the square, it's so peaceful! I wish I could do the same.

We had a group picture in front of the fountain, which is located at the central of the square.

The square is surrounded by pub and cafes, of course all with the Budweiser.

We had lunch at a hotel called Maly Pivovar. Actually we had lunch at a restaurant inside the hotel. We had a salmon steak and a soup, and also a glass of ice cream.

We only stopped by for lunch and were given few minutes to take the pictures at the square. But this short visit was such a memorable experience for me. I am thinking of renting a car to explore Prague countryside with rene. Hope someday my dream will come true.

written on December 6, 2011

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Hilton Prague

I was very excited when I knew that Hilton will be one of our hotel during our east europe trip, I thought that the hotel was going to be as nice as Hilton Bandung, my hometown in Indonesia. But when we arrived at the hotel, it wasn't look like what I had in mind. Yes it was a huge hotel, and I believe many groups are coming here, which made this hotel looks very busy.

The biggest dissappointment is for the room, is it really a Hilton? Look at the TV, so old!

The lobby area is huge though..

The breakfast is really American, it was always crowded at the breakfast area.

The hotel located within a walking distance to the old town, and it is also a short walk to Palladium, the shopping mall. Of course there are many options which are closer to the Old Town. For example, Ibis is only few doors away from Palladium. But as for group, I think Hilton is great as it has a huge parking area.

written on Dec 5, 2011

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Prague Old Town

We continued walking from Charles Bridge to the old town of Prague. We passed by really antiques street, beautiful shops, lovely buildings, wohooo I love every corner of this old town:) I have managed to recap many pictures for this special post. Hope my blog readers can enjoy this old town just like me.

First destination was the astronomical clock, which what I read from Wikipedia, this clock was installed in 1410, making it the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest one still working.

The clock is located at the Old Town Square, a very busy square especially with a food festival when we visited the place.

I also saw people having fine dining at the resto around the square, wow every table has its own flame to keep the guests warm.

After visiting the clock and also the square, we were given free time to explore the old town on our own, our group visited the hard rock cafe first. While other people were shopping, I enjoyed free wifi from Hard Rock Cafe.

Than we walked to a street full of souvenirs shops. The famous souvenirs will be bohemian crystal, but of course it is too fragile to take it home.

All the shops are unique, the branded items, the chocolate shops, the toy store..they are all very photogenic:p

One of the famous tower is the Powder Tower, I visited this place with Pak Eddy and Lisa.

By the way, it was very challenging to find toilet at the old town. The toilets are limited, we had to queue and of course we had to pay.

We also had dinner at the old town, we had dinner at a Thai resto. Too bad no pictures were taken:p After the dinner, we went to Palladium mall before going back to the hotel. This mall has a Marks and Spencer outlet, Esprit, Mothercare, and also Sparkys, the toy store.

Later that night, when everyone were transferred to the hotel, I ask Pak Yulius, one of the photographer of our group, whether he would like to walk to the river near the hotel. He would love to. So we walked from the hotel and take a picture of Prague's river at night.

All about Prague was fantastic. There are still so many places to see, we had only a full day to explore Prague, and for sure it was not enough. Looking forward for another chance to visit this beautiful city.

written on Dec 3, 2011

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Charles Bridge

Charles Bridge is one of the famous bridge at the Prague river. It's a stone gothic bridge with many statues on it, officially there are 30 statues on the bridge. Build in 1357 (wow!) and finished in the beginning of 15th century.

There is a tower standing at the both sides, we were coming to the bridge on the side of the old town.



It's one of the must visit of place in Prague, so this bridge is always full of people. There are artists, musician, souvenirs vendors, well, it's a very touristy place.


And this is the Prague castle and the opposite bridge as seen from the Charles Bridge.




With this view, I could stay hours at this bridge! Too bad we didn't have much time, as we had to continue exploring Prague's old town. I still wonder how beautiful it will be to see sunset from the Charles Bridge. Really hope to visit this place again someday with rene:)

written on November 29, 2011

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Vltava River

After visiting the Prague Castle Complex, we were transferred by our bus to one point near the river and continued on foot to explore the Vltava River of Prague. We were actually heading to the famous Charles Bridge, but I will make a separate post on the Charles Bridge.

It was very cloudy that afternoon, however we still enjoyed the beautiful scene along the river. This is the first bridge we saw at the river.

We continued walking to the left side of the river, where there is a park full of people selling their paintings. There are also boat resto along the river, a group of Harley Davidson, it's a perfect place to hang out.

The Prague Castle was very beautiful seen from the Vltava River.

written on November 25, 2011

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Prague Castle Complex

I am very excited to share my first visit ever to Prague in my travel blog. This is the most impressive city during my East Europe Trip. I fell in love with Prague!

We arrived at Prague at about 5 pm after our journey from Brno. We went directly to Hilton Prague, than had a group dinner. I didn't join the dinner that night, as most of the time I couldn't eat anything if we had local food dinner:p

The next day we explored this beautiful city, started with a visit to Prague Castle, which located on a hill. We alight at one point, and began to walk. We were warned by our tourguide to wear comfortable shoes that day, as we had to explore the city on foot. Than we arrived at a gate, the first entrance we found at the castle complex. Behind the gate we found a square with a beautiful fountain at the middle.



We kept on walking, until we found a bigger gate guarded by a soldier and which decorated with statues of Fighting Giants.


In front of the gate there is another square called Hradcany Square.



There is also a viewing gallery from the square where we can see the city of Prague.




We walked into the gate and found the St.Vitus Cathedral.



After that we got the ticket to go to the Prague castle, too bad we couldn't take the picture inside, but the ticket got the picture of it, so I posted the picture of the ticket instead.



Than we also went to the Golden Lane to see a street where houses are so small that they fit more to dwarfs than to people. Probably it's the smallest street in Prague:p



We also visited what so called Toy Museum.



The whole complex is just amazingly beautiful :)

written on November 23, 2011

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Brno Czech

On our way to Prague after visiting Vienna, we stopped by for lunch at Brno, the second largest city in Czech Republic. We had another Chinese meal at the center of the city, and after our lunch, we were given one hour to explore Brno.


It's a very beautiful and quiet city. We enjoy all the shops and the ambience at the square. Checz currency is crown (koruna), 100 crown is equal to 4 Euro.


I also found two toys store, Sparkys is a modern store which I also found in Prague and Salzburg. While the right picture below is a traditional toy store "Komiksy" selling toys made from wood. A really interesting store:)


Tram pass a road full of shops...


Wish that we had more time in Brno, I really love this city.


written on November 15, 2011

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