[Remote Year] Welcome to Prague!
Nine years after my first visit to Prague — a four day trip during my study abroad in Siena, Italy — I’m back in this beautiful city for month 6 of my Remote Year!
I remembered the city as being beautiful, full of colorful and unique architecture, a river running through the city, an interesting history of communism + revolution, and my first exposure to Eastern Europe.
Little did I know that I’d later spend a year living in Bulgaria teaching at the American College of Sofia. So it’s strangely familiar to hear the Czech language and be in this city, and it’s certainly a relief for my bank account after our month in London.
Much of why I travel and feel more comfortable living abroad than in the US is rooted in spending my first two years after college living in Morocco and Bulgaria. I didn’t anticipate how much that experience and those places would shape my worldview, lifestyle, and values, but I’m glad I blindly took that plunge and am on such an unusual life path as a result.
BUT ANYWAY, Remote Year 2 Battuta is in Prague and you want to know what it’s like. Well, you’ve come to the right place!
Like I did with the Collective in London and my street tour of Cusco, I’m going to take you on a little photo journey around town and my living + work spaces here in Praha.
Welcome Event
Our RY welcome party last night was hosted by a small restaurant at the Vyšehrad (Czech for “upper castle”), a historical fort built in the 10th century on a hill over the Vltava River.
Remote Year organized an amazing acro-yoga performance by Circo Frico (themed around an Italian potato-cheese dish, lolz) as well as a fire show with some impressive sparkler action that had us all ooh-ing and aah-ing.
Prague
Everything I remembered about Prague from my first visit 9 years ago seems to be mostly the same today. On Saturday, after settling in a bit, we ate (surprisingly good) pizza and went for a stroll around Old Town.
I saw the Astronomical Clock (Orloj) that so fascinated me before, partly because it’s beautiful and puts on a great show on the hour with moving figures, and partly due to this legend I heard about it:
Formerly, it was believed that the Orloj was constructed in 1490 by clockmaster Jan Růže (also called Hanuš); this is now known to be a historical mistake. A legend, recounted by Alois Jirásek, has it that the clockmaker Hanuš was blinded on the order of the Prague Councillors so that he could not repeat his work; in turn, he disabled the clock, and no one was able to repair it for the next hundred years.
I love the baroque architecture around town, and I can’t wait to revisit the museums + galleries I saw before and see new ones. Let me know if you have recommendations!
Workspace
Our workspace this month is the brand new & amazing K10 Coworking Space, which just opened last month (probably for the RY group that was here before us). It’s housed in the old Embassy / ambassador’s house, so the architecture and grounds are quite beautiful and special.
In spite of it being a newly opened space, everything seems to be set up and running well. They have a great kitchen that includes both a lunch chef and a stocked fridge of sandwiches and salads, but also a self-serve area of drinks, espresso machine, and pastries. There’s an ipad system that we use to check ourselves out (honor system) and pay by scanning our cards to add the items to our balance. Nifty!
Behind the building is an expansive patio and a large yard. Dave already got me to agree to lead some yoga classes, so I’ve scheduled two mornings this week and am excited to practice + teach outside in such a lovely environment.
Living
I am in the Belgicka Apartments, along with about 40 members of our group. My apartment is 3 bedroom, 2 bath, so I’m with two other RY2 ladies (we think Jason roomed us together because we all have matching blonde hair).
So far, it’s been great — I have a lovely view down the street through big windows, I can actually unpack all my belongings, the apartment has high ceilings, the plumbing and kitchen appliances seem to work reliably, and it’s all pretty new and clean.
And that’s all she wrote! (for now)
Excited for the next four weeks exploring this incredible city — hoping to potentially organize a little gallery show if I can make it happen.
Suggestions for food + activities + art welcome, just comment below :)
Katherine is a digital nomad, working remotely while she travels the world — on the road since June 2014. She’s a member of Remote Year 2 Battuta, living around the world with 75 other digital nomads from February 2016 to January 2017.
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