A Tale of Four Cities, Part 3

Prahahahahaha (Sept 11-14)

Our extremely early arrival in Prague led to some loitering outside our hostel before the reception was open - but once we got inside we were greeted with free internet (8 fast brand new computers), a huge breakfast for about $6, and showers! The hostel was really nice - lots of way too friendly people once again, but a lot bigger than the one in Budapest. There were 6 levels (of course we were on the top floor - but there was an elevator) and our room was amazing! Apparently they don't usually rent that out to people but they "knew we were couples" (what??) and so there were two mattresses in the main part of our room and then a big double bed with two twin mattresses in a smaller bedroom off of that. Sami and I took the bedroom, obviously. We had a kitchen, too, but we didn't really use it. The best part was our roof deck! A ladder from our room went up onto the roof of the hostel -- a huge area just for us! The view was beautiful and you could see everything from up there.

Kitchen/boys' part of the room. In the back was Sami and my room, with a little balcony off of it.

The roof deck! Or terrace as we liked to call it.

View from our roof -- Prague Castle is in the distance

The first day we got a ton of sightseeing done - we saw most of the Old Town, Old Town Square, the Astronomer's Clock (it's this big weird clock in Old Town Square that is supposed to do some cool things every hour when it rings... the first time we missed it by seconds so we went BACK to see it later. totally not worth it.), and the Jewish Ghetto. We had kilbasa in the square from a stand - they were so delicious but I have no idea what was in them. Don't want to know.

We were deciding what to do and saw a man beginning a tour of the Jewish Ghetto in Old Town Square, and figured it was worth it to have someone lead us around. He was pretty entertaining and kept talking about "my people" and "my country" - the Czech people. He tried to give some interesting history lessons but his mannerisms and accent were more interesting than his stories. A lot of it was a basic overview of Jews in Eastern Europe... what the ghetto was... Jewish traditions... the Holocaust - stuff we knew quite well. Maybe Michael learned something, I don't know. Anyway, we got to see the famous old Synagogues in the Ghetto, and also the Jewish Cemetery. It was the only cemetery that Prague Jews were allowed to be buried in for centuries, so they just kept putting more layers of dirt and tombstones in the cemetery, piling them on. It was pretty spooky.

Middle of Old Town Square - by far the most touristy place we had been.

Jewish cemetery

Our tourguide, Roman

Kilbasa!

After our history lesson we went to - yes, you guessed it - a park! Letna Park was north of Old Town Prague, and had an amazing view of the city. At the edge of the park, overlooking the city, is a giant red metronome. It sits where there was once a giant statue of Stalin and several men backing him up. We saw photos of it and it really was quite imposing. Breshnev ordered the statue to be dynamited soon after Stalin left power. Now there is just this odd concrete area with a huge metronome, keeping time for Prague. Sort of symbolic and spooky? And definitely a great view.

Sami and I doing the silly Titanic pose from where the metronome is

Andy, Sami, and Michael by the metronome

We napped in the park, and then walked to a biergarten and played cards. There were tons of people in this park - businessmen, teenagers skateboarding, mothers and strollers, and even a weird stoner next to us - literally smoking a joint at the picnic table beside us in broad daylight! Crazy.

That night we took it easy and had pizza (yay for normal food) at a place near our hostel. We sat up on our roof for a few hours and had a nice night talking and playing games. Andy, Michael, and I even attempted to sleep up there for the first part of the night - but the freezing cold night air and the hard wood deck wasn't the greatest so we had to give in.

Friday we did more sightseeing but nothing intense, as usual. We went to Prague Castle and walked around the grounds for free. It is a HUGE building that the President is supposed to live in, but this one doesn't because apparently he is very modest. It is gorgeous, though, and has a really interesting mix of architecture - lots of things added on over the years for sure. The window from which the famous Defenestration of Prague occured is there too - see the photo below! Mrs. Wyrsch would be proud. There is also a huge cathedral on the inner courtyard of the castle which was really pretty. It wasn't one of the gaudy gold kinds that all seems the same - it was more stone and grand - unlike most of what I've seen before.

In the cool subway station - reminds me of those dot candies on the long sheets of white paper. Anyone?

Window of the Defenestration of Prague

Imitating the statue outside Prague Castle...
We were quite the spectacle

For lunch we had some more traditional sausages at a very traditional pub near the castle - we were definitely the only Americans. The beer was delicious and cheap, and they kept track of your order by tallying everything up on a piece of white paper that they left on the table. Weird. We walked through Petrin Hill area (a huge hill/forest south of the Castle) and went to another beergarden and played cards. Noticing a pattern yet? We went to this kids' attraction, the "Hall of Mirrors" which was really just a room with some messed up glass. Honestly, Mac's Photobooth is more exciting. But we managed to take some goofy pictures and pretend we were five for 20 minutes, so that was nice.

Hall of Mirrors

That night we had another non-Czech dinner (can't take too much sausage, seriously) and went to this cool wine cellar called U Sudu in Nove Mesto (new town) afterwards. It was like a labyrinth -- room after room, winding around, up and down stairs, with different music and decor in each one. It was really smoky but we felt pretty authentic so it was okay.

At the labyrinth

For our last full day in Prague, I allowed everyone to sleep in (so nice of me, right?) because we didn't have too much sightseeing left to do. We went to the Museum of Communism which was great! Learning about the history of the places we visited made it so much more interesting - especially when the history takes place in the last century. It is so much more alive and relevant that way. I bought a great poster with some words in Czech that I have no idea what they say. Oh well, it's decorating my room right now and I like it. We walked across the famous and romantic Charles Bridge - lots of people selling jewelry and art. There are statues lining the bridge, some with interesting stories. Michael and I managed to lose Andy and Sami after turning around for 5 seconds... the first time anyone really got lost on the whole trip. It was okay within ten minutes though - and the grudges only lasted for 15 minutes or so :) Our last stop was this very modern building that looked like it was falling over into itself. It was the only modern thing like it in Prague, so it really stood out. I have no idea who the architect is or what it is called, but I'm sure I could look it up. I know that people in Prague don't like it because it's a bit of an eyesore, but it's very intersting how different is from the rest of the buildings there.

Entrance to the Charles Bridge

View of the Charles Bridge and much of Prague from somewhere...?

Weird building... can't remember the name of it.

The last night in Prague we finally decided to experience the crazy Prague nightlife! We decided we deserved a good meal in a good restaurant so we went to a delicious French/Czech restaurant listed in our guidebook. We had a drink at a little Czech bar (by the way, they serve only one kind of beer at almost every place we went -- In istanbul, it was Efes everywhere, in Budapest, just one type at every bar, and here, the same. you just order beer.) with graffiti written in chalk all over the walls. We made our way to a crazy club that was like a jillion stories high with all different types of music and bars and cocktails... and lots and lots of Eurotrash. We were SO glad we were with the boys. There were so many guys there in tight white t-shirts and tight tight jeans, and they all looked the same. They ALL looked gay. It's totally true - the European exception, I like to call it. Anyway, we had a good time dancing and being silly and not talking to or making eye contact with anyone else. We met some Brits on the way home waiting for the tram, which got us pretty excited about heading to London. They knew their US geography as well as we did, and they also were obsessed with Scrubs and One Tree Hill. Weird series to pick, don't you think? We slept on the roof one more time and saw the sun rise over Prague castle. It was beautiful!

In da club

Michael and Sami drinking our yummy Rum/Lime/Sugar/Ice drink... what could be bad?

Weird fog thing on one of the levels. Not sure what's going on here but it is funnyyyy.

We made our way to the train successfully, and said goodbye to Praha. We managed to get some more souveniers here, and probably took the most pictures here than anywhere else. Prague was definitely a lot of fun and there was a lot to see, but it was by far the most touristy place we went. There were Americans everywhere - nice because everyone spoke English, but very different from Budapest and worlds different from Istanbul. We didn't really get a feel for the residents of Prague itself and the Czech people, because the city seemed to be filled with tourists only. Not really bothersome - just very different.