I went to Prague once in the ‘90s while I was a student living in France. I remembered the castle, the Old Town Square, the Charles Bridge, and it generally being gorgeous and inexpensive. So I was super excited to take a long weekend and go visit a couple of girlfriends currently posted there.
JW was my fabulous co-OMS in London that I had the pleasure of working with for two years and had recently begun a three-year tour. And LP was a friend I made during OMS orientation and training when I first joined State in 2011 who had just a few months left in her tour before departing for her next post this summer.
I am happy to report that Prague is even more gorgeous than I remember…and still ridiculously cheap! At least compared to London and Reykjavik. It seemed quite small from the air and only has a population of about 1.2 million, compared to London’s 8.6 million. I imagine it feels a bit more cramped in the summer when it’s packed wall to wall with tourists. But it has a lovely relaxed Old World feel to it.
JW lives in a lovely apartment right on the water, so I was able to throw back the shutters in the guest room each morning and have a gorgeous view of the Vltava river. The weather was quite toasty for me as they had a warm spell, and the temps were in the 70s. It’s still snowing in Reykjavik, so it didn’t occur to me to pack much-needed sunscreen. But it was a good reminder for me not to bid on any Southeast Asian posts this summer.
We weren’t mad to do the tourist sites, so we had a wonderfully relaxed couple of days that involved a wander through the Saturday morning farmers’ market, a matinee of the Snow Queen ballet at the National Theatre, popping into a local seafood shop that prepared fresh oysters right from the display case with a glass of sauvignon blanc, drinks at the oldest brewery in Prague called U Fleků (est. 1499), and a night out with a couple of other ladies from the embassy at the Hemingway Bar.
The cocktails at the Hemingway Bar were the most creative I’d ever seen. I tried a Fairy Ale made of absinthe, sugar syrup and lemon juice served in an old-fashioned absinthe fountain with a crystal glass. Another drink called a Snow Globe looked exactly like one and contained coconut flakes and rum. And another called the Magic Moment was set on a pedestal and lit from below. So pretty and great customer service!
I wasn’t planning on doing any real souvenir shopping, but I kind of had an eye out to replace a crystal box that hadn’t survived the trip home at the end of my student year abroad. Instead I found a lovely perfume bottle made of malachite glass in one of JW’s favorite antique shops. It was done by Czech glass maker Heinrich Hoffman in 1936, two years before the German occupation of Czechoslovakia when things pretty much shut down, and Hoffman died in 1939. The bottle is stunning, and I’m so happy I found it!
Needless to say, it was an absolutely fabulous way to spend a long weekend. And I was thrilled to get a chance to catch up with both of my friends. I think I should definitely plan more Girls’ Weekends in the future! 🙂
In-Flight Movie - DC Edition 