A while ago, I couldn't see my Saturday posts coming in a different way than sharing another travel experience. However, while I still have quite a few stories to share from the places I visited in the last 2-3 years when I also had my latest trips, the pain and frustration that I am not able to travel as much as I used to lately, made me want to take a break from these posts and share thoughts from other passions of mine.
Normally, I would say that there is nothing wrong in doing this, as, in fact, some of you might remember about the times when I was writing daily, each day having its specific theme (e.g. Gaming Reviews on Monday, Movie Reviews on Wednesday, Short walks and Photography posts on Thursday, Cooking Recipes on Sundays, etc). But after two burnouts in a pretty short time, I decided to slow down the rhythm. No matter how much I want to write and how many stories and things I have to share, sometimes it's a bit too much, and nobody enjoys some articles written superficially when, if you take one or two extra days to write them down, they could really turn out into masterpieces.
However, with a slower rhythm for work, more "me time" and reflections on life in general and how quickly it can change, it made me miss the good times I had in Prague, especially that I got to live a really special day when me and the girls I was travelling with decided to begin our morning walk on the Charles Bridge before the sunrise.
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On a normal day, we would most likely opt for a walk even if it was around 5 or 6 AM in the morning. However, as in the previous night we had a bit too much fun, trying out the local beverages, it turned out to be a big challenge to wake up in the morning. So we decided to take the bus on the way to The Charles Bridge that would save us a bit of time.
At the time of our arrival, the sky was still dark and the street lamps were the single source of light, which played such a cool role in the overall scenery that was quite quiet despite more people being around the bridge, waiting for the big event.
So we took advantage of the time left before the surinse to walk around, take pictures, admire the surroundings that are so hard to be observed in a normal day when the sun has been for a long time up on the sky already.
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Not only that we enjoy sunrises and sunsets like everyone else and consider them a great and easy way to make a moment easier to be remembered, but we also heard that this bridge becomes one of the most popular places in town during the day which makes it almost impossible to admire its real beauty, the surroundings or even cross it from one side to another. So these reasons were the main ones that contributed to visiting The Charles Bridge really early in the morning.
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Some of the aspects that make The Charles Bridge so special are the 30 sculptures and groups of statues that pop up here and there, but where most of them are replicas, the originals being safely stored in museums to be well protected in front of possible damage and bad weather conditions.
The construction of the bridge began in 1357, and it was raised using medieval stone that would make the crossing over the Vltava river possible, under the auspices of King Charles IV, who also represents where the name of the bridge comes from.
The place dedicated to the bridge was not randomly selected, as there was a different bridge before Charles Bridge, but which was severely damaged by a flood in the 14th century.
Even if the statues and sculptures were added later on (between the 17th and 18th century), Charles Bridge quickly became a point of interest not only for the locals that could make it faster from the Prague Castle to the Old Town of Prague, but also for the tourists which leave almost no empty space on the bridge no matter the day or season. Sooner or later, all of this led to having The Charles Bridge on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, but also considered one of the most beautiful and photographed monuments in the world.
A few more stories later, a good laugh remembering about the last night's experiences and after socialising with a cute guy who was passing by and offered his help to take a picture of all of us, the magic moment seemed to finally happen.
Not only that the sky changed its colour almost in a blink, but at the end of the bridge, some impressive buildings seemed to be set on fire with the sun slowly hiding behind their construction.
I am more used to catch the sunrise on a beach, lake, or mountain camping resort where the sun rises whether beyond the forest or from the water, so this moment was a lot more magic than expected, almost forgetting to take the pictures we were there for, because it was so easy to fall for this and let yourself admire the view without feeling the need to capture the moment too much.
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After getting ourselves fully recharged with vitamin D, we decided not to cross the bridge yet, as we were about to make it to the Old Town a bit later that day. Instead, we wanted to take a closer look at the surroundings before the landscape was fully lost in the water, so we followed some of the many stairs leading on the sides, where we had some more pictures captured and admired the 500 meters long construction from a different angle.
There are many magic moments I got to live while in Prague, but if I had to make a top, then catching the sunrise at The Charles Bridge is definitely up there and an experience that I'd recommend to anyone visiting this city.
We had our accommodation not too far from The Charles Bridge, which made two bus stops enough to get pretty close to our first destination of that day, but whether you opt for Bus No. 119 or Tram No. 17, both are good options to consider to reach this place quicker.
Other places I've seen during my stay in Prague: - The "John Lennon" Wall - The Nustle Bridge also known as "The Suicide Bridge" of Prague - Street Art in Prague - The Dancing House - Idiom Installation - the book tower of the Prague library - Vyton Naplavka and Palackého Most - Grotta, Havlíček Gardens - Vyšehradské Sady (Vyšehrad Gardens) - National Library of Technology - Prague's Astronomical Clock (Pražský Orloj) - The Narrowest Street of Prague - The Brick Gate (Cihelná Brána) - Letná Park (Letenské sady) - Vyšehrad Cemetery (Famous Czechs of the Past) - Saints Peter and Paul Basilica - First Ladies’ Fashion Exhibition (at Prague’s National Museum) - The South Gardens (Prague, Czech Republic) - Accidentally Witnessing Prague’s Changing of the Guard - Eyes of Prague - Prague’s Culinary Traditions - Catching the sunrise at The Charles Bridge
more coming soon...
Gabriela Travels is the FOUNDER of "Festival Mania" who started this community from the passion of attending various festivals and with the purpose of encouraging more people to explore festivals all around the world and share their experiences. At the same time, Gabriela is an independent Graphic Design Freelancer since 2019 completing over 600+ orders in this time and collaborating with various businesses and people from all over the globe. Additionally, Gabriela has her own corner on the internet since 2017 where she writes various articles for her blog, the most popular being the travel ones (300+ articles written on this field), but also approaching other topics as well, like game reviews, lets plays, movie and series reviews, photography posts, cooking recipes and more, boosting the total number of articles written to 750+ blog posts. Gabriela is also a gamer since she was 11 years old and gaming remains one of her biggest passions along with traveling, owning a YouTube channel for each of the two.
~ @GabrielaTravels ~