It's not easy to get to Prague -- at least, not if you're trying to be cheap and buy inexpensive tickets using credit card points. Your journey begins with a 630a cab pickup from San Francisco (it turns out that cab companies can at least schedule those, even if they are completely useless after 5pm). An 830am flight will deposit you in Chicago 4 hours later. As you taxi in to the gate, you'll see a Lufthansa 747 approach and then recede, and you realize that with every extra foot of taxiing, your walk is increasing. After a brisk walk to the other concourse, you get to your gate, change your seat at the counter (because United can't change Lufthansa seats, and Lufthansa won't help you over the phone if you're already checked in), scarf down some pretty decent Mexican food (try the torta milanesa), and board your 8 hour flight to Frankfurt. Lufthansa is, at least, a bit nicer than United (high bar, I know), so you'll have some decent movies on the plane, but it's an old plane with those blasted dual-connector headphone jacks.
At 7am you land in Frankfurt with an hour to clear immigration and make it to the next plane. Charging down the hall to beat the crowd, the lady guarding the staircase down to passport control inexplicably sends away a crowd of Malaysian tourists (and you) to some unspecified point down the hall, at the other end of the terminal. Protip: let the Malaysians wander; ignore her and hang out right at the top of the stairs, because she's just a metering light. (Ignore this advice and you'll follow the lost Malaysians for 10 minutes before cursing and just going back). Famed German efficiency gets you through the line and through passport control in 15 minutes; the short walk to the gate leaves you 10 minutes before boarding the flight to Prague. Don't bother with the bathroom by the gate; it's mostly broken, and the cleaning lady will chase the line away before more than two people have managed to use it.
On the hour-long flight, you may be seated next to a very friendly and talkative pastor (wouldn't they all have to be?) from St. Louis but living in Prague, returning from a mission to Addis Ababa. His advice, though well-meaning, will rapidly vanish from your travel-addled head, so smile and make polite small talk. Upon landing, you can safely bypass the Travelex ATMs and exchange booths inside the terminal, inside baggage claim, and outside baggage claim; once you turn the corner near the taxi reservation station you see the ATMs associated with real banks. A taxi to the city center would run you 600 CZK ($30), but the shared van to the center (conveniently a block from your hotel -- how well planned!) is only 150 CZK/person.
The room wasn't ready upon arrival, so the first course of action was to wander around Prague's Old Town for an hour or so. The Koh-I-Noor pencil company sells some sweet pencils - boring black pencils, pencils that are giant sticks of graphite, mechanical pencils, multicolored pencils - so that was time for gift-buying. Just down the street, there was a long pedestrian mall full of food stalls and shops; it wasn't until several days later that i realized this was Wenceslas Square. I'm pretty sure this store sells sausages, but they might also just sell videos of Psy's Gentleman:
A pub near the hotel offered a quick lunch of spaghetti con carne, and soon enough the room was ready. After a shower and quick nap, it was time for more evening wandering around Prague. It was late enough that a proper restaurant didn't seem worth it; so instead I followed the map to Bakeshop Praha, which sold a delicious goat cheese and tomato quiche.
One thing about Prague: even though there are a ton of little (and big) squares scattered about old town, there's not much in the way of public seating. That means you end up closing out your day trying to people-watch and eat on Namesti Republiky (Republic Square) like this:
Location:Prague, Czech Republic
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