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Published: February 17th 2010
Sunday morning we started the drive to Prague. It was quite a way to go in old Jonsey so for the sake of him and our boredom levels we decided to break the journey up and sleep at a roadstop that night. Monday we woke up early and continued our drive. As we crossed the Czech border it wasn't border control or signs that alerted us to the new country but the horrible bumpy roads! As we made our way to the campsite we bounced and jumped and banged in pot holes that littered every inch of the roads. After going on the longest wild goose chase due to never ending roadworks, finally we made it to the campsite, only to see that it was closed for the year and when we checked the GPS we realised we were forever away from the heart of the city, so it wouldn't have been the most economical place to stay anyway. Back on the road again and after torturing ourselves driving on their roads we finally made it to a campsite (campsite Drusus) that was thankfully open!
A charming old grey bearded little Czech man greeted us at the door and welcomed
us to his site that had only one other camper there, talk about serenity. We were still 8km away from the city centre, but they had good transport links in, so we decided not to push our luck any further and we settled in. It was quite a pretty little area and was more like a country side camp than a site so close to the city. It was complete with rolling green hills, horses trotting down the streets and no noise other than the chirping of little birds. We had a wander around looking for the best spot and soon after we set up camp we realised that unfortunately we had forgotten one thing - food! So after some directions from our friendly host the boys jumped on the bikes and road to good old Tescos (so nice having a supermarket we knew to shop at). We didn't realise it at the time but that day was also to be the last time the bikes were ever used, a sad moment as it clearly was a symbol of the summer ending and therefore our trip!
Once the boys returned fully stocked up we hurried inside the van out
of the cold, turned the heater on full power and chilled out with some wine, beers for the boys and of course many games of cards. Vince and I had been playing the same games of cards for 4 months now so we hoped that when Furby arrived he would have some new games to teach us. But unfortunately for us he didn't have any ideas and it was Furby who got the new and exciting games as we taught him what we played. The favourite game that was played over and over was none other than 'shithead'. Although let me tell you that playing this game with boys who like to call you a 'shithead' gets rather tedious after a while!
Come Tuesday morning we jumped on the metro and headed into Prague city. Vince and I had no expectations of Prague and to be honest we hadn't really heard too much about it. Our first impressions of the city though were nothing short of glorious. Pretty Prague is definitely a good description. So we wandered the streets and found our pick up point for our tour. As we were early we got some tips of the tour
The astronomical clock up close
I think you can see Vince's birthday in this shotguide and headed to a delectable cheap bakery just out of the main square. Now when I say cheap I mean very cheap. Vince and I bought a crossiant each for breakfast as well as 4 other goodies for lunch/snacks a coffee and a bottle of water for the equivalent of around 3.50 Euro! It was at that point we decided we loved Prague, cheap good food is always a winner in our books.
After our breakfast we headed back to the tour guide and started our FREE tour of Prague. Yes that's right, free. It was the first of many of our free walking tours to come, but all over Europe (as we only just found out) there are free tours that operate only for tips. So obviously you can save a whole lot of money as instead of 20 Euro tours you can pay whatever you like. So off we went with Jana (our tour guide) on our 3 hour tour! Jana was great and so enthusiastic about her job and being a local of Prague she had endless stories to tell us.
The tour started at the old town squre with it's sophisticated astronomical clock.
And when I say sophisticated this clock is amazing (similar to the one in Venice) it not only tells time, but the clockwork includes star signs, seasons and a 365 day rotating calendar that celebrates a person's name for each day. We're not sure exactly how that last part worked but apparently everyone's name in Czech is dervied from this wheel of names and as such each person celebrates their special day as per the calendar, so they not only have a birthday but a celebration for their name day - I'm all for that, more presents I say! ha ha. Anyhow needless to say it was very complex.
From there we explored all of the old town including Charles Bridge, one of the town churches (complete with the bones of a man's arm who tried to steal the mary statue - only a legend but there is a real bone hanging from the ceiling in there!), the gate to the city, beautiful historic parliament buildings and old monasteries. Throughout the tour (and afterwards) I explored many of their endless shops. In my opinion you would not think of Prague as an eastern European city anymore as the main
Great danes guarding the clock
Nah not really, just massive dogs we got a photo of. shopping mall is bursting with life and all the modern stores you could expect in somewhere like London . The only clue that gives them away is the old world street scapes and the myriad of puppet shops and Russian doll stands which gives you a hint of the east. After our long day of walking, we headed back to the campsite around 7pm. And yes you guessed it, the night consisted of more card games and more drinks, surprise surprise!
Wednesday we slept in and relaxed at the campsite for most of the day as we had a big night coming up. Another activity on many major European cities agendas are pub crawls. That night we went on the Prague pub crawl to really see and experience the city after dark (this included four bars and one club). As we arrived at the bar where the crawl began we were all greeted with absinth shots to get the party started. From there it was free beer/wine for the first hour and once we were all rather happy and had mingled with our fellow crawlers we were off! The night followed with vodka cranberry shots, cinnamon shots, fugel shots
(like a weird energy drink liqueur) and many other drinks in between. Eventually we made it to one of the main clubs in Prague. It was around 4 levels with different music types in each room. From a disco laser show, to a smoke machine filled techno room to hip grinding r&b and a house “pit” where you could literally stand above the crowd dancing in the pit below…….. it had it all. Sad thing was by the time we made it to the club our weariness was setting in and our feet wouldn’t groove us along to the music, so after giving it a go for an hour or so, it was time to call it quits and rest our alcohol filled bodies.
Thursday morning we said farewell to the lovely host of our campground and pretty Prague and we started the journey to Poland. As we left yet another city on our brilliant one summer trip, it was slightly sad, as we knew this 6 month dream was starting to draw to a close.
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