Prague Day 3 & Cesky Krumlov Day 1

Okay! Here we go! I'm trying. I just left Brandon eating breakfast by himself so that I could run upstairs and get some work done! Hopefully he is really taking advantage of the all you can eat breakfast. I ate way too much butter and now am eating gummie bears trying to get that lining out of my mouth! Yuck!

Anyway.... Prague Day 3.

So we wake up and we are dead. Literally dead. Prague was not meant to be seen in one day like we did. We are so tired! But there were still a couple small things that we missed the day before, so we trucked on. 

We had the entire morning in Prague and then at 1pm we had to catch a bus to our next stop, Cesky Krumlov, another town in the Czech Republic. But Prague first. We drag ourselves out of the hostel, Johannah only ran into the jerk guy once while he was coming out of the bathroom and she was going in. I, thankfully, never saw them again. We finished up the last of our cereal, this is the bran with dried cherries and chocolate. 

Oh my god this cereal is terrible. It is like eating straight protein. If you get too many bites without cherries or chocolate in a row, it's about the same as eating cardboard. We finish that, take our bags downstairs to store, have our free nespresso curtesy of Daniel, hostel man, and in our zombie like state, head out.

They have segway tours here! I have done these tours twice before, once in DC and once in Rome. If you are ever in a city where they have them, I would highly recommend it! So fun and a great way to see a place. We however, are poor, so we didn't do that :)

We kept walking and Brandon did a double take down and alley. This is what he saw. This is actually an entrance to a museum. So weird. There are quite a few references to nuclear war, really anything nuclear, ways you can die, warning signs, they just put it all out. It was weird to see all signs with these warning but I guess that is just what people grow up with here. So sad.

We headed across town, currently Johannah and I are utitlizing the Brandon app. We follow his directions and then we don't get lost, and we see cool things. All of them. This time, the Brandon app was leading us to a museum about the history of Prague. Apparently it was free. We walking right in, did the whole museum, saw this really cool 3D map of Prague, actually that was the reason we came, and then on our way out, realized that they were charging people and we had gotten in free! Oh yeah!

What was also great about this place, was that we had made it out of the tourist area of Prague. Finally, time alone with the Czech's! We found a bakery, discovered how much stuff should really cost, and had lunch. I had a ham and cheese sandwich on this amazing bread. The entire thing was covered in different types of seeds! It was great and was only 50 crowns which is about 2 euros which is about $2.60. Yes, it sucks going through all the conversions.... in my head! Thankfully, the Brandon app includes a calculator and a converter so that makes it a bit easier.

After that, we head back to the main part of town to attempt to see the astronomical clock. At this point, we have already missed seeing it twice. As the French say, "Jamais deux sans trois." (Never two without three or in English, "Third times the charm." We were about 20 minutes early so we found ways to pass the time.

Brandon got the worst pretzel of his entire life. I agreed, it wasn't great.

Attempt to make a Vans ad so they would give me new shoes... perferably ones without holes in the sides.

And then Johannah and I started to look for people in weird outfits.

Not a great look lady in the denim parachute pants.

Nespresso Pixie! Here I come!

This guy was my favorite. He had his jacket tied around his waist and then had his map tucked in the front.

Finally it was time! The astronomical clock was about to go off!

Here it is in all its glory!

It was getting close to one, so we headed back to our hostel. Brandon gave me a travel journal for my birthday and one of the things that it suggested was to take pictures of things that are a certain color. I choose purple.

Man in purple shirt

A purple hair tie.

A purple flag.

A purple umbrella.

Matching mother daughter in purple

Purple graffiti

The Japanese Embassy

Found this and made me think of Erin Wood's brunch.

Purple shoes

And a purple car! This is another one of the kind!

Killing time, so we went into McDonalds. It was packed!

The menu

My purple glasses!

After McDonald's began an adventure. We went back to our hostel and grabbed our bags. On top of this it was a warm afternoon! We had to walk a to the tram stop to ride the tram 10 stops to the bus stop. But just as we made it to the tram stop, it came! And we hadn't bought our tickets yet! Brandon said, "Let's get on." Johannah and I nervously did. Please, please, please, don't get caught! was all that we could think.

The tram was packed, mostly with kids on fieldtrips, we haven't paid, we each have massive bags that weigh a ton, we don't really speak Czech, and it's really hot. Yes! Thank god I wore my running shoes.

Well we got to the bus stop just as our bus pulled in. The man at the hostel the day before had graciously not only told us what bus to take, but which one was nicer, and then he put the charge on his credit card and let us pay him in cash so we wouldn't get hit with any fees! Can I say again that it was a great hostel! Charles Bridge Economic. Terrible name, great hostel.

Anyway, we bored the nicer bus, it has wifi, and got the last seats in the back. It was a bit tight. The ride to Cesky Krumlov was three hours. There was even a stewardess on board who served you coffee. I am making this sound better than it actually was, but it was nice. They even played a movie, Hachiko, which was odd because I had just read that picture book with one of my students, and after that movie, which we also found out in the last 10 minutes was in English, they played a few episodes of Friends, also in English. Can you say comma splice, sorry I am in a hurry!

Around 4:30...we arrived in Cesky Krumlov! After trying to pee at the empty bus station and getting hailed down by a woman demanding 5 crowns from me in Czech, I used a prewar bathroom and we were off to our hostel. Krumlov Hostel. Apparently the best hostel in the Czech Republic 2010 and 2011, only to be rivaled by our previous hostel.

Needless to say, when we got there, we were exhausted! Brandon was still going strong, but here are me and Johannah. I might be blogging in this picture :)! Any chance I get. For example, I should be packing right now!

Finally, we made it out to walk around the town. Cesky Krumlov is a small outdoorsy town at the very bottom of the Czech Republic. It is a must see in all the guidebooks, trip advisor, wikitravel, so we went. Before I show you the town which there are a million pictures of, here is our dinner.

We all got a "Bohemian Feast." Brandon and I had chicken, Johannah has the vegetarian version. It was delicious and filling. It was like Czech Thanksgiving. The plate had smoked chicken, ham, potato cake, boiled potato, cabbage with yogurt sauce, cucumber, tomatoe, millet, and a few other things that I am sure I am forgetting. It was perfect after our bus ride.

After that dish, we got a free dessert from the waiter, "Big Cookie," which was more like a pastry roll with nuts and sugar. That was nice too.

Here is a view of the castle in Cesky at night.

We are tired!

Can you tell?

And done! Get ready for the rest of Cesky Krumlov!

Also, didn't check for typos! No time!