Yesterday, I was checking some of my recent photos, and I realized that I didn't share my impressions from the last trip to the Krakow HiveBeeCon2.0 meetup! I mean, I did share 2 posts from that trip, one about the meetup with @godfish and
@honeydue in Prague, and the other, big recap about the HiveBeeCon itself... What I didn't share was the trip BEFORE the HiveBeeCon, so I will try to do it in the next days/weeks... I have noticed that I got too lazy with content creation, and I got too narrow to HIVE (and crypto) topics, which kind of overwhelmed me...
Combine that with a heat wave in Spain, and you will completely understand this getaway into November 2025, as a way to cool down in Eastern Europe late autumn...
What was the main idea of this trip? I have the weird custom of trying to be the most effective in everything I do (I do fail many times... 馃槀)... As we don't have too much free time to do trips, when we do them, the idea is to see as many things as possible, or destinations... So, for this one, we had the next itinerary: landing in Prague on November 10th, checking the city... As the train trip to Graz in the spring last year was fantastic, the idea was to get to Krakow by train... There were no direct trains, so we decided to make 1 stop somewhere on the way to Poland... By @ewkaw's suggestion, we picked Wroclaw (hopefully a post about it will come too), and the last leg was Krakow, from where we had a plane back home...
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Why Prague? Many of my non-Hive friends have visited the city and had some great stories about it, with zero complaints or negative reviews... All that, plus having some local Hivians there made this decision very easy... 馃檪 During the Graz meetup, @godfish promised to find me a beer that I would like, which obligated me to come to Prague, the place where the best beer is made... and drunk... 馃槂馃嵒
We arrived in Prague in the late afternoon, a bit tired, so we postponed all activities for the next day...
As you noticed (or will notice), I shared a lot of photos in the post... But, hear me out... I tried to pick FEWER photos, so this is a VERY reduced gallery... 馃槂 They do look all over the place, but they are chronologically listed, so you can literally follow the route on the map. 馃檪
The next morning, we left our accommodation at 9 o'clock to meet our tour guide... If we don't know someone local (who has a lot of free time 馃槀), we tend to join a guided tour to know more about the place we visit... For those who didn't try something like that, check it out; there are some FREE tour guides everywhere!! Of course, at the end of the tour, you can (and should 馃槂) leave a tip to the guide... You pick how much you can!
This was the meeting point... Rudolfinum, a 19th-century cultural venue with concert halls, an art gallery & exhibition spaces.
The first stop was the city square where we spent most of the time... Why? Well, because there are so many different buildings around and so much history, our guide could talk for hours about it...
Of course, one of the main attractions is the Prague Astronomical Clock, where we witnessed all the "magic" that happens when it's calling an hour... Also, got a long explanation of everything that's ON THE CLOCK itself... I would suggest you check out the Wikipedia page about this clock for a start, and feed your curiosity onward from there... 馃暟
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No, that's not Gandalf from HIVE in the photo... 馃槀 That's statue Il Commendatore, by Anna Chromy, in front of the Estates Theatre in Prague...
Somewhere about this point, I got a bit tired and hungry, so my focus on a tour guide declined... 馃槂 We were strolling around the city center, but luckily our guide knew where... Not needed to say, the architecture was astonishing, wherever you would look... as you can see it for yourself...
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Somewhere around this tree, we stopped for a coffee to warm ourselves up! (Oh, the irony... Writing this while sweating in the middle of a summer heat wave! 馃槀)
When you are interested in something, you don't forget it... As a big fan of Franz Kafka, who unfortunately didn't have a long life, but still contributed a lot to the world's literature, it was great to see the statue of him, somewhere in the entrance of the Jewish part of the old town...
The sculptures present Franz sitting on his father's shoulder... As his father was working hard, what he remembered the best was his suit, and not the body... In the photo above, you can see tiles forming a bug, which was the main "role" in some of his stories...
Jewish museum with Spanish architectural influence!
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When old meets new... In the middle of the old town, you can exchange your currency for local currency, but also buy/sell some crypto and fill your bags!
Old New Synagogue is the oldest active synagogue in Europe! It dates from 1270! There was an even older one, which was demolished in 1867 and was newly built, the Spanish Synagogue...
This was another story that got engraved in my heart and brave... What you can see on TOP of these small shops is a cemetery! The curious thing about it is that it became too small for the town, and they were burying people in "levels"... So, you have like 5-6 floors of tombs, one over another!
You may have noticed an old-timer car from the beginning of the post, and this was the second one I spotted the same day... I suppose they have been rented for special occasions, like weddings... Until then, they are an eye-catching attraction for not just tourists, but locals too...
And we have arrived at the end of the "morning walking session" for that day! We were tired, but committed to return and attend the afternoon session the same day (more in one of the next posts)! But, to survive that tempo, we had to put some food in our mouths... On the recommendation of locals, we picked the traditional place for lunch and got a traditional dish...
Thank you for your time.
--ph--
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