Fortuna Luna Prague

... use someone's phone to call Jan because I did have his number. As I was rounding my next place to ask I heard someone call my name. Sadie had come to find me to let me know Jan was finally home. So thankful to be inside, to get warm. We ended our night talking to Jan, reading our books and going to bed.<br><br>P.S. one thing I forgot to put in my first entry about Prague is that they call crosswalks the zebra. Isn't that clever? I'm going to try to use that now.<br>

... and I took the metro to the castle area and also got to go to the Cathedral and the Royal Gardens. Words escape me - just look at the pics. We bid Prague good bye this afternoon and headed to Litomerice. I'm actually writing this from the boat! They've just called for us to leave on a tour. I'll write the first Litomerice entry and post pics this evening. The journey continues . . .

... hours before meeting up with some other people from the Hostel for a Hostel-planned "authentic" dinner outing. So we headed down the the Old Town Square. It was so amazing. By this time it was getting dark already, but all the buildings were beautiful. Everywhere you looked the buildings were so old (and covered in grafitti). We first ran into the Municiple building and Powder tower, I think. Then we got to the old town square ...

... in about 3 times and some Italian chicks kept coming in and out, disturbing out much needed sleep. So we get to Prague this morning, knowing nothing but the name of our hostel, so we caught a train to what we thought was the centre, found an internet cafe, that was 24hr luckily, and found the address and directions. We booked for last night, so once we got here we could sleep all morning, but the idiot who works here, gave our room away, so now have to wait until 2 to check in, not fun.

... was the tiniest train I've ever been on and even though most of the seats were taken it wasn't exactly full and I did wonder if maybe we should just be walking to somewhere closer. Oh well. We got to the other end and found that the town was absolutely deserted. Nothing was open, there was nobody around and like all perfect timing I desperately needed to go to the bathroom. We followed arrows leading to the information centre but it ended up feeling like we were in ...

Such a beautiful city - entirely. Few places we've been to have been exaustively gorgeous. And Prague will stand out in my mind as one of those places that has no "best part." Every little corner we explored was breathtaking. The views from and of the Charles Bridge were, of course, perfect. The old Jewish ghetto, Josefov, the old town, the walk along the river to our hotel...all of it. After Munich we were pretty starved for cultural nourishment (Octoberfest won out over the rest ...

... them frustrated looks - of COURSE they are going to treat you abruptly and short - no wonder the French don't like the Americans. Advancing ahead a bit, when I was in Poland (which I knew nearly ANY words at all), when I went to the local Kebab stand, I attempted a 'please' and 'yes' in Polish. As far as I could tell, it was probably a dismal disaster of an attempt, but, it managed to get a smile out of the girl serving me, and she even answered back in Polish ...

... part of town to explore which turned out to be really fun. The next morning though, we were able to really see the BEAUTY of the city. I absolutely loved the architecture. There were castles, cathedrals, and little cobble stone walkways. At first, hearing that we had a 3hour walking tour did NOT sound fun, but after we saw a glimpse of the city from a lookout point, I was excited to explore more. The Charles Bridge was fabulous ...

... noted by the multiple slangs of 'Vaffanculo' by the few Italian supporters in the crowd. We all know what happened next - that bloody penalty in the dying minutes that killed our chances of progressing on to the next round, when we'd come so far and so close. In a style that only Australians can pull off, the Old Town Square of Prague rang vociferously with the unmistakable chant of '********' for the proceeding ten minutes. I walked home to the hostel a tad dejected ...

... good, inexpensive and it was fun to watch the locals. Being here reminds me of a couple of people I know of Czech descent. In the 1970s, our vet where I grew up (Wawota, SK) was a Czech. His name was Milos Menhardt. Seems to me I remember a story about him and his wife fleeing Czechoslovakia hidden inside the body of a car. I'll have to check that story out with my parents. Our neighbours who lived across the street from us when we lived in City Park (Saskatoon) were ...