If you had asked my opinion of Prague less than 72 hours ago I would have told you it was a trashy, run down and overcrowded city. The famous Charles Bridge is jammed with tourists, musicians and street sellers and is definitely best avoided. Even the Old Town Square feels as tired as it is old - and that's nearly 1000 years of spanned time! Whilst there is undoubted charm in the narrow cobblestoned streets of this city, I get a sense that the city's historical qualities have been exploited to such an extent that its beauty is lost amongst the [View Full Entry]

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I arrive at Berlin’s Hauptbahnhof train station the largest crossing station in Europe, in plenty of time for my train journey from Berlin to Prague. The trip takes just over four hours and it gives me a chance to write another blog entry. The old, portly German gentleman rolled his eyes and his wife smiled as I arrive in the first class carriage of the train. It was obvious to him that there was a problem, there was no space for my larger suitcase, however between him, and the three other passengers in the cabin we managed to make room. Every [View Full Entry]

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I was awake early this morning after a reasonable sleep. Being in the roof of the hotel means it attracts the heat of the day and it stayed hot until at least 2am. Breakfast in the hotel was passable, though the staff were far from friendly. Not that they were nasty it was more that they found if difficult to muster a smile. Having witnessed the crowds of the evening before I decided to head off to the old town square before the masses. The Old Town Square's most notable sights are the Church of Our Lady before Tyn and [View Full Entry]

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Prague has exceeded all of my expectations. A few observations: - Prague is a BEAUTIFUL picturesque city (especially with the Vltava River running through the town) - Prague was mostly spared by World War II compared to many other cities in Europe and much of the ancient structures are intact - Czech women (and other women visiting here) are amazingly beautiful and they are everywhere all over the city - Lots of tourists in this place from all over the world - Most people speak English here and do not expect visitors to speak Czech (considering it is not widely spoken [View Full Entry]

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Thursday We left early this morning to catch the bus to Prague. We had to drag our bags around the cobbled streets up a steep hill to a bus station and then caught a very nice bus - posh leather seats and TVs - to Prague. When we got to Prague we were shown to our apartments. I was sharing with four other girls: Andrea, Gill, Grace and Estelle. It was fab as we had our own kitchen and fridge and washing machine! We dumped our bags then met with George who took us on a walk around to get to [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday 19th August A walking tour of old Prague It’s another fine clear morning and the temperature is predicted to hit 30c + again in this heat wave that Europe is experiencing.We are not finding it difficult to get around as there is not the same level of humidity that comes with heat at home.While the sky overhead is clear and immediately above it is blue when you look into the distance there is a yellow tinged haze which we accept is probably the pollution that travels around this part of the world from the large factories and manufacturing plants that [View Full Entry]

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wow... so prague was AMAZING. the hostel i was staying at was the nicest hostel i have ever stayed at... my room was on the top floor and every bed was a single bed, so no top bunk action, and then there was a loft up a ladder and then a few beds were behind some sliding doors... so my ten bed dorm seemed more like a six bed. also we had a great bathroom with a great shower and even a bathtub, right in the room... the kitchen was nice, there was a rad little outdoor area and there was [View Full Entry]

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Monday 17th August A day at Prague Castle It was a very comfortable night in our bargain accommodation in Beroun.The only adverse feature was a car alarm that went off a couple of times in the night.And given that we had read that car theft is a problem for tourists in the Czech Republic we wondered whether we should go down and check that RR was still there.The receptionist assured us that they had not lost a car from behind the barrier to the road,so we went back to sleep,once the alarm was turned off. Breakfast was described as a “Swedish [View Full Entry]

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Praha, Česká Republika, Aug. 4th - 9th, 2009 After spending several weeks staying with Dan's wonderful aunt, it was inevitable that we would have to return to the hostel life. When we arrived in Prague and started walking towards the Chili Hostel we quickly realized that Prague is like no other city we have seen so far. Most of our days in Prague were spent exploring this enchanting city. Every street we turned down was like a new fairytale waiting to be discovered. For centuries Prague has been nicknamed as the “city of a hundred spires” and "Zlatá Praha" or [View Full Entry]

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Fully rested and bright and chippy from not drinking for the first time in perhaps 7 days, i woke up relatively early and went to get breakfast (something i would not usually do anyway) with Enda. In a surprise shock, Conor slept in. After Breakfast we did some research for getting out of Prague (those first few encounters had us hankering for Austria ((which by the way i can now say we were right to do)) which of course was the next step of our journey). Enda got talking to an annoying little fu#ker from Austria (most Austrians are lovely, but [View Full Entry]

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