The European Extravaganza!

Drunk on Prague

So it's our third country in five days. Some might call this a crazy pace, but we're actually a little concerned because things are slowing down. We don't have that many things to see here in Prague -- we chose to spend extra time here because it was the cheapest destination on our whirlwind tour, so we're trying to think of things to do to pass the time. We considered doing a day trip on the Monday to a castle that's about an hour from Prague, as it would also allow us to maximize the use of our Czech Flexi Pass. However, we were just accosted by a girl in our new hostel (Arpacay Hostel) who wants people to accompany her to visit Kutna Hora, a church made entirely out of bones. It is just weird and creepy enough to entice us, so we're thinking of tagging along and moving our visit to Prague Castle and the Jewish Cemetary to Monday instead. [Note to Fil: See! We have now chatted with four (4!) people, and we're even thinking of daytripping with one of them! Aren't you proud? Also? The keyboard here is exactly like the one we have in North America...]

Anyway, we made it to Berlin Ostbahnhof station with absolutely no problems, now that we have made the metro our bitch. We even managed to find our platform and the place where our car would arrive, without asking for any help (part of this is self-sufficiency, the other is a bit of our anti-social nature, and our fear of speaking to German authority figures... some things never change). Or so we thought... because at 9:40 (our train was due to depart at (9:42), I had the foresight to check the destination announcement on platform 3, only to find that our train was there instead of on platform 2! We scrambled on board (after helping an American family by giving them the head's up), and then struggled to find our streets since they weren't really in numerical order, or in any numbering system we could discern. Then, we essentially settled down for a 5 hour train ride to Prague.

Steph and I slept in shifts (without deciding to do so beforehand, it's just that we are that good at travelling in potentially dangerous situations), although we were both awakened by a screaming baby... thankfully its mother decided to stand between cars rather than annoying our entire (German) car. Then when we reached the German-Czech border, we both received snazzy new stamps in our passports, one from German (why they didn't stamp our passports when we entered, we don't know), and one from the Czech Republic. Man, those border patrole people are scary what with their guns and their clubs.

When we got to Prague, we were harassed by several locals who wanted us to come stay with them for accomodation. We politely but firmly declined as we already had a hostel and are also not stupid. Then we successfully procured money from the ATM, but of course the smallest bills we got were 200 Kc, and it only cost 12 Kc to ride the subway... so we had to buy water to get some smaller coins (since the metro woman with her lazy eye and cigarette did not have any change). We then continued our streak of rocking with foreign public transport by making it to our intended station on the first try... But once we were there, the fun began. I got us lost on the way to our hostel, as we ambled about aimlessly trying to find a bridge crossing the train tracks. At one point, I led us up a steep ramp, only to be almost run over by a car. However, we did find the bridge, and the hostel (although our confirmation email had told us we were staying in the building across the street, and we trekked up 6 flights of stairs only to find out that this was not so). It was ridiculously hot, but then it always seems to be hotter when we're carrying 12+ kg on our backs, and it started to rain a bit, but we finally made it, and none too worse for the wear.

The hostel is really nice here. We're sharing a dorm with about 6 other people, but the room is much larger. We have been given perhaps the world's smallest toilet (there is a door separating it from the sink itself), but it's clean and all the furniture looks new. We even have a kitchen at our disposal. We are very tempted to make use of it because groceries are so cheap here, but it is hardly any more expensive to just go to a restaurant and get a filling meal prepared by someone else. Best of all: Free internet access!

After we had recovered a little, we decided to brave the streets of Prague and get acquainted with it. It turns out that Prague is incredibly beautiful and not at all frightening. Everyone speaks English here, and even tourists from other countries where English is not the main language communicate with the locals in English. The girl working at our hostel told us that there are actually more tourists in Prague than there are people from the Czech republic itself! We took the metro in for 8 Kc (approximately $0.40 Canadian), and then made our way to the old town square. It was so gorgeous, that it almost didn't seem real. Steph later remarked that it looked like something you would expect to see in Disneyland (like that street they have called something like: Main Street, USA), except there is not Mickey or Minnie Mouse wandering around. We just missed the sounding of the hour by the Astronomical Clock, so we ambled away from the main square having been told that it was more expensive to eat around there. We found a side street with a restaurant that seemed to have decent prices, so we decided to be decadent and eat there, even if it was a rip off. It turns out we couldn't have made a better choice! Sure, Steph thinks the place's name makes reference to prostitutes, and there were dirty comics framed and placed all over the walls, but the food was good and cheap. The total price for both of our meals and one Czech beer came to 250 Kc (tip included). That boils down to about $6.25 per person! Our beers were only $1! For half a litre... Bloody hell! I can't believe we each drank half a litre of beer.

After dinner, we strolled over to the Charles Bridge, which was filled with vendors and street performers (a man playing Bach on wine glasses, etc.,). When we got to the end of the bridge, we wandered into a supermarket because it had a huge Absinth display in the window. We were soon enraptured by all of the strange Czech foodstuffs, the most expensive of which seemed to be $2.50... you could buy 1.5L of bottled water for $0.45, or many chocolate bars for $0.35 each! Steph is now covetting an authentic "absinth spoon", and apparently you can get red absinth too! We will be heading back on Monday, if not tomorrow.

The sky was getting cloudy again, and thunder was rolling, so we decided to head back towards the old square to catch the Astronomical Clock ring in 9 pm. A bunch of figures appear from behind these windows, and little skeletons begin to ring bells. It was all very "Pirates of the Carribean", but awesome. We also got to enjoy two scoops of ice cream, our first true food splurge since arriving in Europe. Once the show was done (it really is a show! People gather around just to watch the clock strike the hour, and clap when it's done!), we returned to the hostel. We figure that we don't want to do everything Prague has to offer our first night here, since we're here until Tuesday morning. If we keep going at the pace we have, we'll have to be on a train tomorrow... In fact we might be, to check out that bone castle, but Prague will still be our home base!

That's pretty much it for now. We don't know how to say anything except "please" in Czech, and we can now recognize the word for "exit" (but don't ask us to pronounce it! We like it here, and don't want to incur any ill will!). Maybe if we can successfully upload the pictures from my camera, we'll have a link for you to enjoy them at soon.

posted by Laura @ 9:04 pm