Since we thought it was our last day in Prague (more on that later!), we didn't have anything planned. I bought some shiny things at a bead shop next to our apartment, and we debated about whether we should try to see Vhserad.
Vhserad is a park, but what makes it interesting is that it was once the site of a castle. I say once because there is no sign of it now, and historians aren't even completely sure that's where it stood. To confuse matters further, there are some other ruins in the park (baths), and a far more modern fortress complex, as well as a twin steepled cathedral reminiscent of St Vitus from Prague Castle. Between the ruins, the cathedral and the name of the park, the attraction 'Vhserad Castle' was born, despite there being no actual castle there.
Or so I think. Although we started to walk towards the park, I was going especially slowly that morning, and we still had to finish packing so we turned back before we reached the park. And although I couldn't actually find any proof of there being a castle (like any photos of it), it is still mentioned repeatedly. Anyone been there? There isn't really a castle there, right?
So we turned back, got lunch, finished packing and left for the airport.
We caught the right bus to the airport, and everything seemed to be going smoothly, until we tried to check in. Entering our names, scanning our passports and swiping our card got us no where at the check in kiosks. Entering our ticket number only gave us a message that we couldn't check in for our flight at that time, so we figured there was just a glitch, and stood in line with the people checking their baggage so we could talk to real person.
The real person told us she couldn't find us in the system, and asked if we were sure we were using our names correctly (?). Then it dawned on me that we'd been considering returning on both the 2nd and the 3rd, and whether a week was too long. With a feeling of dread I checked our confirmation email.... And sure enough our flight was confirmed for the next day.
So there we were in the airport, hastily trying to explain to the airport employee that yes, we showed up on the wrong day. After finding that it would cost 300 euro each to change our ticket to fly out that day, we needed a new plan. Thankfully, there was free wifi in the airport and we were able to book a surprisingly cheap hotel room near the middle of town. We tried to treat this as a surprise bonus day rather than a horribly embarrassing mistake.
That night we had dinner at a Noodle Bar we'd been eyeing previously, and took a final walk around the old Town.
Our new hotel room was quite large, with lots of big, dark, old furniture. It was more centrally located than the AirBnB studio we'd been staying in, and best of all there was no construction to wake us up early!
Feeling pretty sheepish about forgetting which day our flight was on, we decided to enjoy our bonus day instead of dwelling on the fact that we made one of the stupidest mistakes in the book.
I'd heard of a nice place to get tea just down an ally near the Old Town Square. I find I have wildly different experiences when it come to tea. Sometimes it's just flavored water, sometimes it's amazing, like the Andalusian tea we had in Malaga. This place was pretty, but I wasn't thrilled with my tea or the service. There's a charming little bell on each table that you ring when you're ready to order, but whenever I rang it nothing happened. Not too big of a deal, but along with the flavored water I wasn't too impressed with the place.
My husband, on the other hand, wanted to try out a beer bar serving more traditional Czech food. After a little shopping we arrived at the Pivovarský Klub, where he got a plate of brewmaster's goulash with bacon dumplings, which he still reminisces lovingly about even today.
A woman sitting at the table by the door downed beer after beer, flirting with and teasing the server who was half her age until he started keeping his distance after her 3rd (while we were there) beer.
After lunch, it was time to go home.
This time we made it
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