Prague

Ahoy! It feels very piratey to say hello in Czech but I love it. Prague has to be one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen. The different eras of architecture and the look outs over the city are incredible. We had three full days here after our weird train ride from Berlin.

A wonderful tour guide gave us some good advice about Prague:

1. Czechs don't smile. If they look like they want to slap you when you're ordering food, it's a good place to stay.

2. Restaurants and cafes will try to add things onto your bill or charge you extra if you're a foreigner. You shouldn't pay more than 45 crowns for a Pilsner or 170 crowns for some goulash.

3. Do not say Czechoslovakia. That does not exist anymore and they can get offended.

4. Avoid Charles Bridge during the day. It's too crowed so go later in the evening when it's lit up.

Day 1: When we got to our train platform and there was no train, I started freaking out about missing our train. Turns out German train conductors were apparently on strike so there actually wasn't a train. We ran up to the information center where they told us we'd need to take a bus to Dresden and then we can catch the train from there. Luckily a bus came in about 15 minutes but this caused us to get into Prague later than expected. I had booked us two nights at a campground but when we got to the train station in Prague, we realised how far from the center it was and decided to just find a hostel. We stayed in one of the nicest hostels I'd seen yet . They had one shower in a room with a locked door! You really appreciate this when it's usually rows of curtains. After we settled in we went on the hunt for Czech food. We found a busy place that was highly recommend by the internet and feasted on meat and dumplings... that's all they eat, a big piece of meat and various dumpings. It was really good but is it too much to ask for some broccoli? Anyway, after supper we rolled our way to a bar to grab a drink before bed. It was a tiny hole in the wall and was supposed to be the number one bar in Prague.... I didn't get it though. We walked the city a little bit before making our way back to the hostel.

Day 2: Free walking tour! We got up and made our way to the meeting spot for another walking tour. Our guide Callum was pretty hilarious and made the history interesting. The best part about the tour was the history behind the astronomical clock (which is rated the number 1 overrated tourist attraction every year). Okay, so it doesn't do much.. it rings every hour, a skeleton rings his bell, some figures move and a golden rooster flaps its wings. It literally lasts about 2 minutes. BUT hearing about how it was made and the math and science that went into creating all the different hands on the clock (one hand even shows what zodiac period we're in) gave us a better appreciation for the over rated clock. After our walking tour we needed a pick me up and found a Mexican place to share nachos as Jordon had been craving them for about three weeks now. After taking a quick break back at the hostel, we ventured out to Wenceslas Square which was pretty much a street filled with shops and restaurants. When it got close to supper we found the Olive Garden of Prague... not an actual Olive Garden, just a chain of restaurants that would be comparable, but they had stone oven pizza, which was good enough for us. We ended up getting dinner and a show because in the street below us some hip hop dancers were busking which was pretty entertaining to watch.

Day 3: Because of the success of the walking tour the day before, we decided to book the castle tour with the same company. Now a lot of people think the cathedral is the Prague castle but it is actually the collection of buildings underneath. It is the largest castle in Europe which sounds really cool, until you get there. Most of the buildings have been redone so it's not this cool 4 stone walls with towers type thing. Most of the time we didn't feel like we were in the castle. We did get to go inside the Gothic cathedral, which you could do on your own anyway. It seemed like we could have just walked and did the same tour ourselves. After our tour guide left us we went into this garden where they had peacocks, fish and 6 massive owls. It was a nice place to sit and relax for a bit. We had also booked the beer tasting tour with the company for later in the evening so thought it would be a good idea to have a quick snack before drinking. Now if you know me at all, you know I'm not a beer drinker and this woman put 7 beers in front of me.... Let's just say I held it together really well while the guide was giving us the history and low down on the different types of beer... and fell apart as soon as she left. We only had an hour and a half so 7 beers was way too many. We also hadn't eaten so we had to find some dinner after, as we were giggling down the cobblestones.

Day 4: today was a weird day. We had to be up early to check out of the hostel but weren't leaving Prague until midnight on a night train. We didn't want to do everything right away because then we'd have nothing to do to keep us occupied until our train. We went to Vysehrad which is where the first palace was before they moved it to the other side of the river. We climbed the stairs up to the top of what would have been the castle walls and spent some time taking in the views. We then headed towards a park where "lovers stroll" because we thought "Hey, that's us!" We didn't stroll, we slept. It was really sunny so we took a nap in the grass which killed time. We needed to get groceries after our cat nap but were on a tight budget. We had 1000 crowns left to our name to cover groceries and supper and didn't want to take out more cash because no where else uses crowns. This also caused our day to be weird because we were counting every penny. Groceries cost us less than we thought so we had beer money! Yay! Not only could we get a drink, but we could sit somewhere to kill MORE time (noticing a theme to our day?). Above I mentioned not going to Charles Bridge when it was busy, so obliviously we went when it was busy. To be fair, it was a Saturday night but I'm glad we went. The sun was setting and reflecting off the river with the castle in the background and it honestly took my breath away. I have a couple of photos on my Facebook but they didn't do it justice. It was the most amazing evening and probably my favourite moment on this trip so far. At last, it was time to grab our bags, head to the train station, eat some Burger King (your options are limited at midnight) and get set up in our little two sleeper train cabin.

See you in Vienna!

-Vanessa xo