I know, it's a bit puzzling and confusing, but, yes, cities also have nicknames, just like our best friends sitting next to us in the school. Don't quote me on this, but it's a secret, cities don't like to let everyone know their nicknames, and there's even a rumor that there are cities that don't like their nicknames. In fact, I read in a storybook that some cities keep the sky cloudy, and block the sun all the time to punish those who call them with their nicknames. I agree with some cities in this regard, there are many cities where nicknames are unfair.

During my trip, I witnessed many times that Prague was happy with its nickname, the city of 100 towers! They also mentioned another nickname there, the city of bridges. As they say to Venice. I could not adopt this nickname because there are enough bridges in many cities in Europe, including Venice, Amsterdam… And if Prague is to be remembered in any way, it shouldn't have to do with its bridges. That's why I named this post the city of 100 towers!

I spent about four days in this beautiful city. Well, since Prague's nights are as lively as its days. It would be good if I correct the time I spend into four days and three nights. Four days and three nights, each one is different from the other.

On the first day, as soon as I arrived in the city, I left my bags, and stuffs at the hostel where a few blocks from the old town square and went out. My aim was to get to the hill where I took the main photo of this blog. I crossed the Mánesův most (Manes Bridge) and walked along the stare zamecke schody street and climbed the hill. All of Prague and its towers greet everyone who took the trouble to climb the stairs. Everyone felt it, not just me. Otherwise, I couldn't explain the sparkle in the eyes of people who are tired because of the stairs.

At the end of the street, a street greeted me. When I saw the small and colorful houses surrounding the street, which Rudolf the Second called Zlatá ulicka (the golden path) to honor the jewelers working on alchemy, I let all my tiredness go to unknown lands. At the sam time, there was another tiny house that attracted me to it. The guest of house number 22 on the street was Franz Kafka, albeit for about two years. He lived here with his sister. I remembered a word he said at that moment. I started humming slowly as if I was praying in my own language, Turkish. 

Praque never lets you go… This dear little mother has sharp claws. - Franz Kafka.

When you step out of the museums and magnificent buildings without deviating from the road, you step into a courtyard as soon as you leave Bazilika Sv. Jiří (St. George's Basilica). Here, I would like to give a brief summary of the basilica, because it is the olderst basilica building that has survived to the present day. Although it was built in 920 and has seen many wars (two world wars, and the second one was devastating enough) and disasters, it is still standing and as solid as the first day. 

Anyway, to continue from the courtyard, it is surrounded by royal palaces, guest houses, a few large and small churches whose names I can not remember right now. There is an obelisk in the middle, and pools right next to it… When you stand there, take a short breath, and close your eyes and listen to the silence, you feel the gothic style. Of course, this feeling does not end there, you hear the harmony of the wind that seeps through the cavities of the stones and the monstrous gargoyles. They all want to tell you something, pull out a memory from the past and whisper it in your eyes. 

Then when you open your eyes, the largest gothic cathedral in Europe appears before you. You falter in different emotions. The cathedral winks at you like a picture straight out of a fairy tale book. For a while you don't know how to feel. You just can't figure out what to feel. Ugliness and beauty, magnificence and vulgarity, fear and love, grandeur and simplicity are all at once before you. All the feelings that will take a while normally, bloom and fade in a moment before the masterpiece we see, and you are left in uncertainty. 

Here is metropolitní katedrála svatého Víta, Václava a Vojtěcha (St. Vitus Cathedral), the cathedral that drives you from emotion to emotion.

You can spend as much time as you want in front of this view. Frankly, I sat on one of the benches accross from it and watched every detail for a long time. If I remember correctly, I watched the details on the roof, the towers, the gothic animals in the gargoyles and the expressions on their faces for close to two hours. 

When you go straight through the courtyard, when you step outside the Prague castle, you will arrive at another square. It is Hradčanské náměstí (Hradcancy Square). Again, a square decorated with magnificent houses and palaces. Again, you can see the perfect combination of all kinds of architectural styles here. Small-headed, pointed towers, rococo and gothic masterpieces will be eyeful.

I will follow the road that winds down from the royal square and step on Nerudova as if gliding through history. I will look at the rows of houses on the last part of the royal road and arrive at Mala Strana Square. I will greet Kostel sv. Mikuláše (St. Nicholas Church), famous for its elegance, and excitedly take the road leading to Karlův most (Charles Bridge), the bridge that every Prague visitor will never get tired of visiting. 

It is bridge that tells you different stories with thirty different statues on it. You can catch them from facial expressions shaped by every hammer blow from every era, and you can also make inferences. You can try to guess the story of each sculpturre like a magical game, and you can go on a long and fairy tale journey with what the sculptor wants to tell. As if that wasn't enough, you can support your story with the voice of a singer  coming from somewhere around the corner. 

If you give yourself the opportunity to go to other lands and stories along rhe bridge and have fun with the songs played in your ears, you will be deemed to have given everything its due. Then, you walk towards the biggest square of Prague Staroměstské náměstí with a thousand memories in your mind and ofcourse with a tiny smile in your lips. As a matter of fact, that's how I did it and I will not stop doing it every time I visit to Prague.

 It is impossible to miss a monument erected in this square. It looks at you there, and even if you don't look at it, you see it, even if you can't see it, you feel it, even if you can't feel it, you are sure of its existence. It is named as Kostel Matky Boží před Týnem (The Church of Mother of God before Tyn).

it will be updating…