Monday, May 7, 2012

Prague Day 2 Part 2

Sidenote! I have never smelled this much marijuana in my life as I have in the Czech Republic.It is everywhere. You try to sleep at night, you smell it, you walk down the street, you smell it. But back to the story.

So still in Prague. We left the castle and we are of course staving and of course we are in a tourist area. So find a cheap menu and sit down. So at dinner the night before we were charged for the bread basket. Normal depending on which country you might. Just like in some countries, France in particular, water and bread is free, but we figured that here they just charge. So we didn't touch the bread this time, although it looked really good. 

It was a three course menu. Brandon and I had onion soup, Johannah had a salad.


Then our main dish. It was a pork something with a sweet and sour pepper sauce with wedges. Johannah had an omlette. It was so tasty!

The view from our table.

And then dessert was an apple strudel cake. Tasty too!

We get the bill, and we have been charged for our bread! What! So we ask, apparently they always charge you. The charge covers the bread, salt, pepper, ketchup,etc. So we asked if you could then have the bread back. We meant to eat it but instead the lady bagged it up for us! So embarrassing, but at least we had bread for the day.

So at this point, we have all been pounding the free water from the hostel. I have had about 2 litres at this point. We were so well hydrated, the idea of water sounded repulsive during lunch. But then of course we had to pee. On the way to the bathroom, Johanna found this.


Five doors to get into the bathroom and five doors to get back out later, we headed for Petrin Hill. Here, Brandon went to the bathroom and Johanna and I got a view of this guy. Whoa! Those are short!


Walking up the hill. This hill looks out over all of Prague, there is also a tower at the top that you can climb to get a better view.


This was a funny menu that we saw on the way up.


And we made it to the top of the hill!

This thing looked like a mini Eiffel Tower

We paid our 55 crowns to go up, that was really confusing and then began the climb. To be honest, I was nervous. This thing did not appear to be the most sturdy. It wasn't too high, but it seemed that we were really high as we were already on a hill.





You can see our hostel from here!

Do you see the bridge. We stayed at the left end.



Milds this is for you.

There is also a funicular that you can take up and down. We walked... obviously. No rest or weakness for the weary.


On the walk down, we saw this. The Magic Cave. No clue what is magical about it, but it did have cold air blowing out of it which was nice because it was hot and humid.


We stopped for some ice cream. Took in the view, and then made it to the bottom. Just in time as the clouds opened up. We hung out in this tunnel for a while until it passed.


So there are old cars like this all over Prague. You can rent them and they will drive you around to all of the sights.

The rain finally stopped and we headed back to our hostel. We had to change rooms. We only had that huge one for the first night.

This time we were in a dorm but the rooms were still great even though they were more shared. Here is my bed.

The whole room. There was a total of seven beds in this place I think.

Back outside, we were ready to go. We all changed our shoes, took another water bottle and were ready to  take on the afternoon. Keep in mind this is still our first day in Prague. We waste no time.

View on Charles Bridge.

View of the river.




Opposite side of the bridge from our hostel.

There are several of these towers all over Prague.


So two things that I can say about Prague. One, it's really pretty. Two, it's all tourists. But not in a bad way, just that they are there... and it's only May!

Then we heard drums and the Hare Krishina were upon us.


After they passed I saw this guy. I am not kidding, this is a popular hairstyle here. I have seen a bunch of people with it. Here's what you should tell your hairdresser. Shave everything except for a ponytail in the back, which you then dread, and if you are feeling crazy, color, bead, or wrap. Your choice.

We made it to the main square in Old Town and I was just waiting for The Volturi to descend upon us and feed. Or at least for Edward to step out of the clock tower that was just to our right. Sadly he didn't.

More of the main square.

More people celebrating St. Marcus Day, the day when St. Marcus drove all the vampires out of the city.

Please tell me you know that I am kidding.

And here is the astronomical clock. So this was a funny. This clock does something every hour. However, we kept missing it by like five minutes. Like this time.

Okay, hold the phone, these are amazing. This is the greatest invention ever, I want to bring these to American. The have this long metal rolls which they wrap dough around, spin them over hot coals to cook them, and then roll them in nuts and sugar. Hello! Yes!

Johannah taking a picture.

The glorious Trdelnik!

Einstein really liked Prague.

Another tower. I believe this one is called the Powder Tower.

It was getting later, but we still had to make it to the train station to ask a question about our train tickets. This transported us a bit to Eastern Europe. Not the prettiest part of town and a bit communist looking.

We asked our question, moved on from them to the Champs Elyssee of Prague! Here it is!

Cool cross outside of a museum.


Brandon saw this mural. It really describes this part of the world I think. It's tanks followed by bulldozers. The bad guys come in and then the country had to clean up and rebuild the mess.

We walked out in a park to get a view of the city. It's getting time for dinner and we were hungry!

Our hostel man had recommended a place to us called Lokal. It's were all the locals go, named appropriately I guess, with traditional food. I had snitzel and potato salad. It was neat. The place where we sat was in the basement and all the walls were made of rock.

Let's just recap that dinner by saying the food and price was pretty good but this is where we fell apart when it came to czech money. I don't think that I have ever been more confused in my entire life and that is not a lie. It took three people almost an hour to pay. When we finally figured it out, we felt like we had been through the ringer. Johannah and Brandon felt the need to do a celebratory dance when we got back.


Pretty much things went downhill after that dinner. We had been so productive throughout the day. Seriously, we owned that city up until 7pm. And then the bill beat us up and then this.

Note to self. Never talk about people you don't like unless you are sure that they cannot hear you! We learned this the hard way. We met this tool in our hostel. And his dad. He was full of himself and his trip and was happy to share all his smarts with Johannah and I. Well, he finished his speech, told us he and his dad were going to go smoke a joint, told a us about a cool bar he found where all the czech people go, lit up in his room and then a few minutes later they headed out.

We proceeded to discuss our distaste for them in French, but we were going out too. So, once we got outside, we switched to English. Loud English. So there we are, mostly Johannah and me, ranting about them, repeating what they had said, what they had done, etc, loudly in English. And then we realize that we were walking past them.

Johannah and I cope with the situation by running away. Brandon, the least guilty, keeps walking. I have never been more embarrassed in my life. So terrible. So, so terrible. It took a good four hours to get over. We went to the bar he suggested, it was not great and there were plenty of international people. We recovered from insulting the Americans, headed back around midnight, we still had another day in Prague!

2 comments:

  1. SERIOUSLY?! your blog makes me want to crap my pants .. i will be there in 6!!!! DAYS!. Keep making notes of good places to eat, you literally have done everything I want to do.. we can compare notes after I get back and plan a 604 Harrell Prague Trip?!

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  2. Britt, sounds like such a great time. Keep the pictures coming. Loved all the views. I especially loved the clock picture. Sorry you missed the event.

    M

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