21st – 22nd – The long, but comfy, way home

Getting up as usual with a quick breakfast before gathering my things and checking out. I returned to Church of Tyn to see if there was any chance to get in. Something like finding someone and “if I donate so and so much can I get 5 minutes?” or finding an accidentally unlocked door and getting caught “oh? Closed? Sorry, wasn’t aware, I’ll leave now”. But no luck – it looked pretty sealed up. You weren’t even allowed to photograph inside now even if there wasn’t a mass going on. 

I turned around and headed east. There wasn’t much to see; the futuristic radio tower with a viewing platform and Franz Kafka’s grave (I didn’t have much else in my sights so I thought I might as well check them out). When reaching the tower I considered going up but decided not to – the view might be from a different angle than the other views I had seen but I’d be standing up there annoyed not being able to take advantage of the fact that they were open to midnight.

The futuristic Žižkov Television Tower.

I continued to the graveyard and it turned out to be much bigger than expected. In some areas no maintenance had been done so it was all overgrown. Despite it looking like a perfect location for a horror movie it did have a certain beauty to it. Further east the plots must have been more expensive as everything looked much more well maintained and thus looking like what I’d call a “normal” cemetery. Some graves had had no one added for 100 years, others had very recent additions. Some were just a normal tombstone, others had huge intricate statues, and some had their own small mausoleums. Franz Kafka was in the Jewish part of the cemetery and with my luck that part was closed off today due to the Jewish holiday. Walking through the area I noticed that there was a lot of families with the name of Rodina. It wasn’t until much later I realized that Rodina was the Czech word for Family.

Overgrown.

More well kept, but you don't get a lot of room.

Some get their own small mausoleums, though.

And some get one a bit larger...

I circled around and returned to the city centre, had a quick lunch and went north and saw the metronome, an art installation which is exactly what you’d think it is: a massive metronome. Walked through the park where it had been built, and then received a text informing me that my flight had been cancelled.

BEHOLD! The metronome.

No, I don't get it, either.

View from the metronome.

I decided to go to the airport immediately despite it was an hour before I had planned to leave, mostly in a naïve hope that I’d be able to get out there early to be prepared for any new departure time I’d be presented with.

On the way to the airport I received a message with my new departure details – I had been put on a flight early tomorrow morning instead. A quick call to the airline later I learnt that there were no other earlier flights, not even with layovers, but he did confirm they’d cover any expenses for an extra night and meals. I checked into the hotel just across from the departure terminal at ordinary airport rates, 3-course dinner and wine. No worries, it’s covered. I’ll admit it was quite a satisfactory evening, despite it all.

It was an unexpected extra night due to a cancelled flight, and the view was to an interior part of the hotel, and yet it was my best view from any hotelroom in a very long time.

Only issue was that I had to get up early; the flight was at 0710, but at least it would let me get to work directly after arriving in Copenhagen.

The morning felt as early as it was, I checked in, visited the lounge, got onto the plane and without further ado I made it to Copenhagen. Despite my previous plans I ended up going home for a quick shower and getting my mind in order before returning and getting into work.

Despite bad timing and an unfortunate trip home I really enjoyed Prague and I actually feel that I could have spent a few more days there. It’s a beautiful city which I would recommend everyone to spend a few days in and while the prices might not be as low as they have been due to the large number of tourists you are still able to get a good meal for a fair price as long as you stay away from the most congested areas. And talking about tourists – there are a lot of them. Like – really many. I did notice, though, that some of the tour groups had the guide walking around with a small microphone and all the clients had a small headset. Made it much easier for people around not part of the group compared to the groups where the guide was yelling and trying to keep everyone’s attention. In any case – visit if you can, it is quite memorable and not quite like other places.

Full album can be seen here.