44 Prague

... br> Lewey even tried a famous Pilsner Urquell beer!

The food in general was very cheap, one night we sampled some of the local Italian fare (couldn't resist) and got a full size large pizza for a mere 115Krownes, equivalent of around 8 Aussie dollars! Dani sampled some of the shopping, requiring Lewey's help to convert as she was initially against the idea of paying 700Krownes for a pair of jeans, but when she realised it was a mere 50bucks, she was delighted and went on a mini ...

... center of the nave with garlands of skulls draping the vaults. It also includes a large Schwarzenberg coat of arms (bone).

Onward to Prague and only about an hour later we arrived at our Pension. Luckily our room was ready so we were able to unload our luggage, park the car nearby in their private parking lot, and soon set out for Prague by ...

... went to a local restaurant around the corner and decided to have a feast instead! We ordered a few beers, some goulash, spinach-stuffed chicken, and decadent potato pancakes stuffed with melted camembert cheese. By the time we were done all this food and were ready to leave, Jamie's roommates still hadn't returned home, so we went to another pub around the corner. We decided it was too late for dancing, and eventually ended up back at Jamie's apartment to watch another ...

From Bavaria we drove to our beloved city, Praha. The Karluv Most in the day... the Castle of Prague we woke up at 5h30 to be on the Karluv Most for dawn and find a quite empty bridge. Next time, we'll be here at 4h30.

... s hair green. Joe's buddy, Dennis was a not-so-willing participant but ended up with green hair anyway. Dennis is actually from Ireland so it was fun hanging out with him on St. Patty's day. We ended up leaving around 11:30, which means Jerry, Maria and I sat in the bar for over 7 hours. The next couple of days in Prague were spent doing "tower climbs." The first climb was the astronomical clock in Old Town ...

... and graffiti everywhere and dilapidated buildings. I also had the tour-guide who had a father born in the Czech, and who has friends who lived through sneaking out from under the iron curtain. So, until we found the heart of Prague, with it's tourist center, I was left wondering what all the fuss was about. Then we found old town. You can see from the photos, it's beautiful. And there is an amazing amount of history in the monuments and buildings ...

... the current generation of 16-20 year olds etc. will be able to put aside the more dour outlook shown by their previous generation and put a smile on their collective faces. There presently is not much going on in the way of smiles and people do not seem able to look others in the eye as you walk about the streets. Several characters we have encountered seem to have a particularly unhappy demeanour about them. Hopefully things here continue to improve for the Czech people.

... out. We were on our way to what was billed all over town as, "Middle Europe's largest dance club," or as I preferred to call, "Middle Earth." The place was huge - 5 levels, each operating like a mini-club unto itself, with it's own theme, featuring a different style of music. We started out on the first floor (imagine that), which featured techno music. Or was it house? I don't know. That **** all sounds the same to me. Oh my God - I've become my father. "Turn down that ...

... that if we just sort of start mingling with the other people who actually paid for the tour, we can just sneak on. And oh did it ever work. We must all just look the same to this tour lady. Once we had cemented ourselves onto the tour, we began realizing where we were. Huh, thats odd. Isnt that spot 2 blocks down exactly where we started when we wanted to find this place? Didn't we take pictures of it before we began looking? We most certainly did! Isn't ...

... up. They were a good-looking, mid-thirties couple who'd left the kids with grandma and were going to Bologna to see a rock concert. Simontina was very excited about what I was doing. She kept turning around to face me as she rabbitly shot questions about my life. My Spanish-spoken-with-an-Italian-accent had picked up a lot of local words this day, and I was pleasantly surprised that I could converse halfway decently here. "Grazie." I left them in Ravenna, a town ...