I got into the city at 10 AM on saturday (after catching a 3 AM bus to get to the airport in London). My first thoughts when we were landing were that the countryside was very drab. A mixture of brown and grey covered all the ground that I could see, and I began to get quite nervous that people's descriptions of Prague were just lies told to boost tourism rates. After struggling to convert 100 CZK's to coins (with my terrible conversion skills I recon that's about 5 pounds) so I could have bus money, I gave up and waited in a 50 person line to try and get to the transportation kiosk which was manned by one little old woman.
After getting the bus and then metro I headed to my hostel. The hostel was picturesque. Situated right on the river and in a beautiful old building, I couldn't have asked for more.
The hostel manager taught me about the 17 different keys that it took to get into my room and when that was over, Bri and I went down to old town to have a look around. Old town is centralized in a square that includes a clock tower and a huge church (possibly a cathedral as I am still not quite sure what distinguishes one from the other).
We decided to go grab lunch and headed to a restaurant right on the river. I looked at the 'Czech favorites' and ordered the potato pancakes, pork' and sauerkraut dish. It sounded revolting (mostly because sauerkraut is normally foul) but was actually very tasty. To add to the good meal I got a beer, but not just any beer. It was called Kosel, and I love it.
We finished the day by going to the opposite side of the river and up to this really elevated park. It looked out on the entire city and was so amazing... I'll put up pictures as soon as I can.
The next day was our big tour of the city that was going to include a traditional medieval lunch (with beer) and a boat ride. Our tour guide took us to old town and told us all the history to it, and about the many civil wars that were fought to prove who's religious stick was bigger, which is funny because now the country is 95% atheist. I also have decided that when I take over the world I will have the astronomical clock moved to my backyard as it is very interesting and I would like to figure out what the hell all the signs on it represent.
We moved onto the Prague castle, a funny structure that's castle section almost completely covers the beautiful gothic cathedral. The cathedral was especially interesting because of the stained glass windows, which were unbelievably intricate and detailed. Also a couple fun facts about those windows; some of them are simply painted windows (though just as beautiful) and also that there are adds for the window companies painted or stained onto the windows... Just a fun thing to look out for.
Next we moved onto our medieval lunch. It was in a creepy cellar deep underground which was lit completely by candles. I got duck leg and stuffed dumplings and a tasty sweet cabbage thing, all of which were really tasty... Cabbage is definitely growing on me.
We then waked down to the Charles bridge. It might just be one of the most famous bridges in the world, not because it was built out of limestone and eggs, not because it has withstood about 17 major floods, and not because it is a testament to how Charles IV created a golden age for the Bohemian people, but because in Mission Impossible, everyone's favorite scientologist uses the bridge as a tool to show how frigging fast little elves can be. It was awesome.
From that point we moved onto the boat tour. I got free hot wine up front and free, so I knew that it was going to be an enjoyable experience. Our guide took us down the river and into the 'Venice of Prague.' It would all have been very lovely if it hadn't been for he French tourists who were on the boat. As our captain tried to tell us more about the river in english, they started talking very loudly in French so that no one else could hear the captain. At one point on man went to push the captain off his seat so as to get a picture of a bridge. Our captain then lost his temper and took the man forcibly back to his seat. The picture taker whined and tried to worm his way back to the spot, but he captain, in full sailor gear stepped in his way. 'No french! You go anywhere else on boat! Not here!'. This didn't do much good since the man obviously spoke no English, but it was mice to know that it wasn't the American's who were being despised on an international tour.
We finished he tour in the Jewish Quarter. A ghetto made long before Hitler hatched out of his sociopath egg. In the quarter there is a notorious graveyard that has 12 layers due to the government ignoring their desperate need for more land to properly bury their deceased.
The tour ended and Bri and I stayed around old town log enough to look at some marionette puppets and to gab some of her favorite rock candy. All in all, Prague was amazing. I only wrote about 5% of what I saw and learned, and I could probably talk for hours about it. In my books, it hasn't done too bad for a country that has seen 8 different governments in the past century. A testament of this is that it's taken me three days to write all this on my iPod just so I can get it posted as soon as possible (so sorry for the spelling errors). But hopefully it will give you
an idea of what I'm up to on spring break. Stay tuned for my installment on Berlin!
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