Cold Prague

---

Well we finally made it onto our first holiday from the UAE. Dubai airport was a nightmare with bizillions of people all around. We were most thankful for our new E-Gate passes that let us skip all of the queues and go through customs within about 2 seconds. V cool.

Austrian Airlines didn't meet with our most favourable impressions however. The plane was packed in like a tin of sardines and the food was awful (this did however improve somewhat on the return flight).

We flew into Vienna and then went straight from the airport to the sudbahnhof train station to catch a train to Prague. As we were there so early we caught a in-direct train and had to transfer in Breclav.

This was a most interesting little town. NOT. It was a total hick little place and our 30 minute stop there wasn't the best, especially after a long day at work, then a long flight to Vienna. Czechs use crowns rather than the Euro so that was fun as well. Especially as our hotel bill came to 7,400. I really didn't like signing that bill.

Prague itself was freezing cold. Admittedly we had just left 40 degree heat so anything would have probably been a little cold, however the windy 13 degrees we found ourselves in was not at all conducive to the shorts and t-shirts that we had packed. Our first souvenir was a jacket for Jeremy and a fleece for me. It was much better after that. Along the jandals that I had taken with me had to later be replaced in Vienna as well (it wasn't our fault, the weather forecast the week before had said sunshine and 27 degrees!)

Our first day in Prague was spent wandering around the old town area - our hotel was on Wenceslas square. This was very nice (if somewhat cold). We visited the astronomical clock (along with everybody else in the world), climbed the stairs to the top and looked at all the other tourists and then wandered our way over Charles Bridge and climbed up to the castle. By the time that we had made it there it was too late to go into the castle so we watched the changing of the guard (the most boring that I had ever seen) and wandered back down the hill for some din dins.

The weather the next day was a little better and the sun actually shone. We walked back over the charles bridge, which first thing is the morning is empty of the crowds that swarm latter in the day, and wandered back up to the castle. Visiting the castle took most of our morning and afternoon. On the way up there we stopped by a busker who was plucking desolutley at his violin. As soon as we looked as though we were going to pay him some attention he burst into laugh and treated us to a magnificent perfomance. He seemed to have throat cancer as he couldn't talk to us. His playing was masterful however.

I got my photo taken with the boring guards on the way into the castle and we then spent the next few hours trapsing around the castle listening to the unbelievably long audio guide commentary. Every time you thought it might have finished, it has just paused for breathe and then kept going.

The castle itself was a bit ho-hum, but the cathedral in the centre of it was quite stunning. The first impression on walking into the cathedral was quite amazing and some of the stained glass windows were quite special. However the best part of the visit is a toss up between the apple strudel and green tea and the birdman suit of armour(see pics). Very hard choice.

In the remainder of the afternoon left to us after the rigours of the castle we went off to the jewish area of Prague and took a look at the synagogues and cemetry. Jeremy's comment after we had completed these tours was a little racially insensitive (but quite funny so I will include it in this blog). He mentioned that the Jews still know how to extort money from people. The jewish area of the city costs the same amount to enter as the castle and is about 1/4 as interesting. It was quite extraordinary. I will however note that the spanish synagogue was really quite beautiful - but of course you were not allowed to take pictures.

I had picked out what sounded like a really cool restaurant to go to dinner in. It was apparently a small underground restaurant in a cellar and was recommended by the lonely planet (word to the wise - don't trust the lonely planet recommendations all the time). The meal started off delightfully but then because this restaurant is recommended in the lonely planet it started to get busy. And then an italian family, with 6 screaming children arrived. The parents did nothing to quiet these children and the waiting staff stopped attending to our table, to the point where they didn't even bring us our desert. When we finally got our bill it had the desert on it so we had to try and explain to the staff just how useless they had been. However the food had been amazing - well those courses that we had received.

The third day involved a whole lot more walking again (our entire time in Prague was spent walking). We wandered off down towards the river and took in some more of the modern sites of the city, including the very cool building in the pictures. The weather then started to take a turn for the worse so we trotted back to our hotel room and hid for the rest of the afternoon. That was after Jeremy took me to see the worst exhibition ever. The Bodies exhibition. He loved it and I absolutley hated it. The whole exhibition is a series of real bodies (dead ones) that had all been pulled to pieces to exhibit and describe how incredibly complex the body is. It complelty weirded me out. I can see how it would be interesting but I couldn't get past the fact that these were real dead bodies.


We caught up with some friends of J's for dinner that night and went to a fantastic underground restaurant. The entire restaurant was about 2 storeys underground and had the most amazing Czech band who played local folk songs throughout our dinner. It was totally fab. Much better than our experience the previous night.

The following morning it was off on another train, back to Vienna

---

Photos

The clock
The all famous (and rather dull) astronomical clock

Pugsy
On the train to Breclav

Street Performers
There were everywhere in Prague. It did give the streets a lovely feel however

Tourists
waiting for the hour to change in front of the astronomical clock

Me with my new book
A childrens book of Prague

Jeremy at Charles Bridge
rubbing the statue that will allow him to return to Prague again.

The guard and I
At Prague castle

The cool building
in Prague - whose name I have forgotten and I can't be bothered getting up to look it up