Day Two - Exploring Prague

By 09th June 2025, the majority of folks attending Flock To Fedora 2025 were checking out of the hotel to either head back home or travel forward to attend DevConf.CZ 2025. I ended up waking up as early as 0500am Central European Summer Time on that day even though I had scheduled an alarm for a couple of hours later. After some conversations with my friends and family back in India over a phone call and getting ready for the day ahead, I headed downstairs to meet with the likes of David Kirwan, Sherif Nagy, Jonathan Dieter, and Fabian Arrotin with my equipment. As they were on their way to the airport and I was planning on heading out by myself for some more exploration, we decided to leave the hotel together after I was through with a quick breakfast of barely half a glass of orange juice (much to Fabian's surprise) at around 0745am Central European Summer Time.

Bidding farewell to the four of them who boarded the Bus #191 to Vaclav Havel Airport Prague (PRG), I boarded the Tram #15 to Staromestska from the Andel tram station. I decided to proceed on by myself when I did not hear back from Vipul Siddharth and Samyak Jain for the itinerary planning. After getting off at Malostranska, I took a walk through a public garden and the rising staircase to finally make it to the Prague Castle. The climb was a steep one, but there was nothing like a brisk morning walk to freshen me up on that day when I was travelling by myself. I managed to reach the entrance by 0815am Central European Summer Time and was one of the first ones to make it there, as I was concerned about possible crowds. After making it through a brief security check, I headed into a weirdly vacant campus with most shops being closed or just about to open up.

I, therefore, took the time to explore the campus of the Prague Castle as the ticket kiosks were still not open for service. The vistas gave me a rich understanding of the prestigious cultural heritage of the place and just how robust their infrastructure had been for ages. As the campus was located at the peak of Prague, I had a breathtaking view of the entire city from there - something that I could not help but keep recording and photographing. I ended up visiting a nearby souvenir shop when I was right about done with my first circuit around the campus to purchase some goodies for my friends and family. On inquiring from the staff there, I got to know that the ticket kiosks would not open for another ninety minutes or so - which was alarming, as I also planned on visiting the Old Town Square on that day. I could not afford to waste time here while exploring Prague by myself.

After munching on a bar of Snickers because the half glass of Orange Juice from the morning was clearly not enough to energize me, I decided to go for yet another round of the campus. I lucked out this time, as at around 0930am Central European Summer Time, the ticket kiosks had opened — but that also meant that I had to deal with the surging crowd, thus nullifying any possible benefits I would have had for arriving early. I decided to go only for the main circuit exploration of Prague Castle, which included exhibits I, III, V and VIII. After purchasing the ticket, I joined the queue heading into exhibit VIII, which was the St. Vitus Cathedral. Of all the statues and structures that I got to witness there, the stained glasses happened to have captivated me in their beauty the most. I headed into exhibit V next, which was the Old Royal Palace, closely following an adjacent tour group.

After exploring through the vistas of the said exhibit, I headed into exhibit III next, which was the St. George's Basilica. There was seating arrangement here for the folks entering and some interesting cave-like corridors to explore. Finally, I headed towards exhibit I, which was the Golden Lane - consisting of a small alley with colorful houses. This alley ended with a small room with some ages-old equipment stowed in a room to give a glimpse of how life looked like back in the day. The one thing that probably ended up intriguing me the most happened to be the Prison Tower, which I witnessed on my way out of exhibit I. There were a couple of floors of stone-walled prisons with torture equipment and imprisoning shackles. The one thing that made me feel a lot more restricted there was the narrow stairwell leading into the places - thus establishing a desolate atmosphere.

While not being an exhibit to generally take pride in, the Prison Tower drew a dramatic perspective on human beings trying their best at their worst times. After viewing this exhibit, I could say for sure that I had explored most of what Prague Castle had to offer, minus the permanent exhibitions that I purposefully decided not to visit. On my way down from the campus through the steep staircase, I witnessed a group of musicians trying to earn their livelihood there. Prague has been a lively city, and there always happened to be something around the corner to catch my intrigue. It was also time for me to head over to yet another one of the liveliest places around Prague, which was the Old Town Square. While I had budgeted four hours for exploring the Prague Castle, I was already on my way out at around 1130am Central European Summer Time, barely after three hours of visiting.

I swiftly made my way back to the Malostranska tram station, from where I caught a Tram #15 again to get off at the terminal station, Staromestska. With the Old Town Square being a walkable distance away from there, the place definitely had a different level of vitality. This was most definitely true on that day, as I had to weave through a sizeable crowd to be able to get to the Astronomical Clock. Old Town Square housed not only the said tourist attraction but a bunch of other interesting spots, including historical hotels, fancy restaurants, dramatic theatres, and goodies stores. I decided to visit one of the souvenir stores again while having a brief chat with Tomas Hrcka, and I was glad to have taken his advice on going around the place when I could have some time. I soon found myself around the Staromestska tram station at around 1230pm Central European Summer Time.

I was able to wrap up the first half of the exploration pretty quickly while not having to worry about if I gave enough time to each of these tourist spots. Aboard the Tram #15 bound towards Kotlarka, I got off at the Andel tram station for a quick no-brainer KFC takeaway for the lunch. I decided to catch up on Yashwanth Rathakrishnan's travel status, and thankfully, he had reached his house in India by then while I headed back to my hotel room. After having some conversations with my friends and family over the lunch, I decided to catch up on some well-deserved rest with an afternoon nap. It was a difficult feat to achieve (you read it correctly), as my biological clock had been malfunctioning severely by then, so I decided to give up on the siesta at around 0430pm Central European Summer Time, even though I initially planned on waking up about a couple of hours later.

On following the advice from Aurelien Bompard, Sherif, and Jonathan, I decided to visit the Museum Of Communism. After some nine stops from the Andel tram station, I got off at the Jindrisska using the Tram #9 bound towards Spojovaci. The destination was only a couple of blocks away from there, but I kept taking detours every now and then to take in the wonderful vistas of the Prague evening. On entering the museum with a nominal entry fee, I got to explore the history around the beginnings and the demise of the communist regime across the globe. While the exhibits were a bit heavy on the reading, there were plentiful experiences to be had with both historically significant objects and timelessly detailed footages. After getting a couple of souvenirs from the attached store, I ran into a stranger on my way out of the museum who asked me if the place was worth the visit.

That was a tricky question because while I was not much into communism (or into politics in general, for that matter) - I did appreciate the information bestowed and the impressive quality. I did provide the museum the feedback on potentially improving the accessibility to appeal to the differently abled folks, as a ton of what was there to be witnessed involved reading. I suggested giving Museum Of Communism a try as he was there anyway - and who knows, he might actually find something interesting there. With that, I was on my ride back from Jindrisska to Andel on the Tram #9 bound towards Sidliste Repy at around 0830pm Central European Summer Time. I decided to bide my time to packing my luggage up for my departure tomorrow, as I had to ensure that I was carrying no more than 30kgs of content in my check-in luggage, before freshening up and calling it a day.