Before you all rush to congratulate me on such a stunning piece of word play, I must point out that that slogan is on approximately every third t-shirt sold in prague. Its almost embarrassing, but I managed to control myslelf and didnt buy one.
The trip here was largely uneventful and went surprisingly smoothly, although we were asked to remove our shoes to see if we were carrying explosives. And we almost became a part of the British Triathlete Squad, but bottled the trip to Valencia at the last minute.
Once in Prague it wasnt long before we experience the lush history of the place. The local supermarket was banging out tunes from the mid 60's and Phil Collins was viewed as a progressive musician. We got our first bit of good news when Vick found out she had not just passed her exams, but in the majority nailed them and walked away with a mid-2.1. Awesome work! It was bizarre walking around an unfamiliar town, with absolutely no idea of the language. I didnt even know what to say when I accidentally bumped into someone, nor even how to say a number and point to things - it made the trip to the supermarket a good learning experience.
The following day we explored the Old Town of Prague. There are cobbled streets everywhere, and the buildings all look listed or designed for story books. We crossed Charles Bridge, which is now a topic of heated debate. Whilst I rank it as the 3rd best bridge of all time, Vick is adamant that it comes in at number 2. Shocking. We then took stock of the astronomical clock in the middle of the old square and were fortunate enough to see it strike 12. There is a sequence of intricately designed figurines that come and disappear from view, whilst a skeleton rings a small brass bell. Its a touch surreal, but well worth going to watch.
We then took to wandering around Prague, taking in the shops, Wencelas Square and the National Museum. Wen. Sq. is not in fact a square, but much more of an oblong which is flanked by the busiest road and home to all sorts of large shops. It is a prime example of the east-meets-west culture here, with big names such as Marks & Spencers, Debenhams and McDonalds sit next to booming Czech shops whis names we cant even begin to pronounce, let alone work out what they say. The National Museum was quite interesting, with some intricate displays on minerals, skeletons and Madagascar (random!). Most of the info was in Czech-ish, so we had to resort to looking sagely at the displays and occassionally nodding our heads or murming positive noises to avoid looking completely special for not buying the english audio guide (which was a complete rip off, by the way). Our last port of call was the Botanical Gardens, which were surprisingly great. They provided a tranquil spot in the middle of what is quite a busy city. What should have been a very pleasant walk home along the river turned into slip'n'slide home as the heavens opened and soaked us. The day started brightly, so we had left our cagouls at home. It turns out that jeans and hoodies soak up water quite well, and can take a while to dry! No lasting damage done though, and our spirits were lifted by our hostel putting on a free BBQ and live jazz music that evening. The food was excellent and we cold easily get used to having BBQ food provided to us for free every other evening.
Today started with us having a mooch around the market. There was a disappointing lack of local produce, but we did stumble upon a veritable goldmine. It was an incredibly old music store, which specialised in tapes from yesteryear. Two that caught our eye were the first Hanson album and the instrumental versions of Elton Johns greatest hits....circa 1967. Brilliant. What really topped it off was the 'new' section where they were just introducing CD's,although none too successfully by the looks of things. We hid our MP3 players as we left, in case we were branded evil travellers from the future and chased out of town.
We took a tram into Wen. Sq. and walked again across Charles Bridge (defo not as good as Sydney harbour bridge and Bridge of Sighs, Venice). Incidentally, Prague is a lot like the eastern european version of Sydney. A great bridge, beutiful botanic gardens, lots of local markets and a world wide famous attraction. For Opera House read Prague Castle. The castle was where we were headed. Its the largest castle complex in the world and is truly magnificient to look at. It dominates the skyline and a trail of tourists can be followed if you're ever not sure how to get there. It was built way back when....15 hundred and something..... and it looks it. The stone walls look old and worn, but this just adds to its feeling of grace. The grounds also hold the Czech parliament house, making the actual site of power, as well as a nod to the past. Another attraction within the walls is a frankly massive Cathedral, with stunning stain glass windows of awesome detail. The celing is dizzyingly high and the arches curve across the ceiling most beautifully, making the whole thing a pure sight of beauty. Definately a top place to go. We also climbed to the lookout tower in the Cathedral. We were prewarned it was 287 steps high, but until you climb them as one long spiral staircase, with people coming up as well as down, its difficult to describe the trickyness of it. The views from the top were amazing though, looking out across Prague from a great height and well worth having someone elses bum in your face for the five minute journey up. We meandered around the rest of the castle grounds and soon found ourselves following some marching soldiers. Vick, naturally, started to mimic their marching step and it was all only mildly amusing til I realised they were about to do the changing of the guard. This is a very popular event, and so there were crowds of tourists all watching Vick march behind the guards. This was all very amusing as I had managed to duck into a side passage as soon as I realised, and when Vick saw what was going on, we watched the changing of the guard from right at the front of the crowd.
The beer here is excellent, as you all probably know. All the local brews are fantastic, provding different subtle flavours and they are all cheap! The pub in the basement serves exceptionally cheap beer, about 90p for 0.5 litre, just an awesome way to end each day. The food is also exceptional value, with a massive pizza costing just under 2 pounds when eating in a restaurant. And the quality is pretty good too!
Thats all from Prague, we've got our train seats booked to Vienna (or the hilarious local name of Wien) so we'll see you there!
Sam and Vick
PS tried to put up pictures, but the computer spacked out a bit, so we'll try again in Vienna. Bye!
