Prague Central Station is a busy place, as it is the biggest and oldest train station in Prague. When I first got to Prague, I came on a train from Berlin and was first introduced to the city through the station. A woman sitting next to us on the train who was from Prague told us to not judge the city based on the station. She told us the city is beautiful so don’t let this first impression scare us. After getting off the train, we wandered around looking for a taxi, we weren’t sure how Ubers worked in the Czech Republic and didn’t have a metro pass yet. The station was empty it was late at night in a city we had never been to before.
Today when I went to the train station it was an entirely new experience. For one it was mid-day and the sun shone through the transparent roof. The station was open, so we were able to experience the Art Nouveau architecture combined with the newly renovated interior filled with stores and restaurants. Unlike the women on the train, Teriza explained the station as somewhere where the beauty needed to be rediscovered. During the communist era, the station became dilapidated and now needs to be refurbished.
I like the combination of old and new, it creates an interesting juxtaposition. Prague has so much design and art history to be unearthed. While it also is an innovative metropolitan city.