Prague

• I went with my parents. One of my dad's closest friends is from Czechia, and he'd talked the country up for as long as I can remember — said it was one of the most underrated places in Europe. We finally went to see for ourselves.
• We stayed in Old Town. Got in late at night, exhausted from the travel, didn't see much beyond the cab ride to the hotel. I went to bed not quite knowing what I'd just landed in.
• The next morning I was up early, already too excited to wait. I walked out the door of the hotel and stopped. I had never seen a city look like that. It felt like I'd been dropped into medieval Europe — the spires, the cobbles, the way the streets bent and opened into squares that didn't seem to have changed in six hundred years. Nothing else in Europe has hit me that way before or since.
• My favorite spot was Letná Beer Garden — up in the gardens above the river, the city spread out below, a steady supply of Czech pilsner getting handed across the bar. There's something about drinking a beer outdoors in a country that takes its beer that seriously. Hours disappear.
• I did get food poisoning while I was there — the only case I've had in all my traveling. Knocked me out for the better part of a day. It can happen anywhere though, and it has nothing to do with the city itself. Just part of the road.
• What most tourists miss is that the way to do Prague is no plan. You walk. You duck into a bar, order a pilsner, sit for a minute, walk to the next one. That's the rhythm the city wants from you. The big landmarks are great — but the city itself opens up between them.
• I left feeling like I'd undercooked it. We were only there a few days, and Prague is a city that asks for weeks. It's still my favorite city in Europe, and it's high on the list of places I have to come back to. Next time, longer, slower, and probably alone.

Walking out of the hotel that first morning into a city that looked like it had been frozen mid-sentence in the 1400s. Spires, cobblestone, the river cutting through the middle of it. I just stood there for a minute.