Bruge, Brussels, Prague, Cesky Crumlov

Hello again,
Well it has been an amazing week. I think i last left off when we were about to head to bruge for a day trip. Bruge was fantastci very cute little town with venice style waterways meandering throught the city. Highlights, were the bell tower, which almost made me crap my pants when it went off whilst we were enjoying the view. for those who have seen the 'in bruges' movie of late, it is a bit spooky standing outside the bell tower and imagining that guys smashed up head...its not a great flick, but the town is great. We went for a wander to see the sights, and a really sweet little area, which was many hundreds of years ago, was where the spinsters, widows and women of faith used to live. Scotty eyed off an enormous apple tart on the way to dinner, which resulted in purchase... i think my love of cake is finally wearing off on him.

We did our christmas shopping in Brussels (think chocolates...) and then flight to prague, where it had been SNOWING all day, and still was when we arrived. Snow is so cool, all the people thought i was hilarious getting all excited about the plane landing in snow and the airport being covered. so cool. Headed to our hostel which is a must for anyone heading to Prague. THe most organised, friendly easy to use hostel, with amazing facilities and breakfast menu. An example of how awesome they are, they buy monthly public transport tickets which you can rent for the day at a mucj reduced price compared to normal day by day tickets. We caught up with mands and simo at teh christmas markets for some more mulled wine and a quick bite before heading to this awesome drinking spot, which was full of czech artists who welcomed us into their drinking session, and after some chatting, they did a couple of hearty renditions of balvarian folk songs. It was awesome. THanks Mands for picking that one ;-)

Saturday, an early start up the fenacular (elevator up the top pf the mountain). for some snow fights, amazing powdery snow covered the hillside that runs from the prague castle, which we headed to. Prague castle is great, but after the louvre, its hard to get excited about castles. The golden lane which is embedded in the prague castle grounds was pretty cute and contains the smallest house in prague/czech republic, which was about the size of our spare bedroom...crazy. Over the charles bridge and then to an earliesh dinner which was a non event as after our big night the night before, we all crashed and i could barely keep my eyes open. Back to the hostel, a trip planning session and then bed.

Sunday was 'Vanessa's tour of Prague'. Starting with the jewish cemetary and the spanish synagog, both amazing in completely different ways, approx. 100,000 people were buried there in multiple layers, an area the size of... half a hockey field. Then after history onto food, my favourite pass time. We went to 4-5 cafes, which were all famous for differnent things, architecture, communist history, or donuts that you can buy to throw at other patrons... THen onto our most interesting eating adventure, after amandas meal came out incorrectly and the waitress fought a little with her about her order, when we went to pay, we offered a 5% tip, and they returned saying that we had made a mistake, that a 10% tip was required..the lady was very forceful and basically we were forced to pay the extra money. Service in Prague is amazingly poor, but it isinteresting how other countries work.

Sunday was our last day so after drinks and christmas gift giving we headed to a special dinner with simo and mands at 'club architecture' a basement restaurant, which was the best food we had had to date. after many many drinks for 'our christmas' we drunkenly said teary good byes and headed home. Which took scotty and i 2 hours, just when you think you know the tram system, you get screwed. In our 3 days in prague we only once got off at the right stop at our hostel and this night the tram tracks were broken in a section and the tram detoured a long way from where we wanted to go...funny.

Today we were up early to catch the bus to Cesky Krumlov, which is so beautiful. Itt is a UNESCO world heritage site and a very small town. Our hostel is lovely, and the first time we have spashed out on a double room, so being able to leave all our junk around will be a nice break. We wandered around town today, and we are about to head off to dinner for a bohemian feast!!! i am so hungry just thinking about it. did i mention that there is still snow here and it is meant to snow more over the next few days...woo hoo.

Tomorrow we will take a stroll up the local 'highest point' for views over CK and then on an audio tour of this very beautiful part of the world. Thursday will be beer tours and castle wanderings then thursday we head back to prague to catch the overnight bus to warsaw to meet up with Scotty's cousin David.

Hope that everyone is well, we haven't heard from many people over here, let us know what you guys are up to.

THinking of you
Ness and Scotty

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