Advertisement
Published: February 1st 2012
Edit Blog Post
Spanner in the works
The clock tower that started the saying! Another drive day. We were in camp by about 3.30 which gave us time to set up camp and then have a cocktail party!
We had all paid €5 to Katie and she and Brad had gone shopping for a bunch of different alcohol and mixers so we could make cocktails. We had this party as an optional escapade tonight because we were going to a massive night-club - also due to being budget travellers - by drinking beforehand people hoped to cut down the cost. It was the first time we all got dressed up to go out to a club together so it was good fun and a cocktail party at the same time - what more could you want!? Not everyone wanted to go out (every now and then you need a night off) but we decided we would to experience the night life.
Because we hadn't seen around Prague yet - we saw a glimpse of the Charles bridge and a few other things - but at that stage - we had no idea what they were. We went to the club (really cheesy music was playing on all 5 floors!) but we all chose the
Adam and Eve
Notice how the Eve side is a little bit plumper than Adam.... floor with the cheesiest and danced the night away. A few people even tried the absinthe.... but we kept it pretty tame because we had a full day of sightseeing to do the next day.
We got our sheet of info and map from Katie, and had a quick mini tour of the the Astronomical Clock, Tyne Church, Jewish Quarter and Charles Bridge (filled with buskers and street sellers).
Prague was a beautiful city and everyone else thinks so too! A lot of tourists the same as us, but it only added to the atmosphere. After the tour we all went our separate ways -we chose to head across the bridge and up the (millions of) stairs to the Palace and St Vitus Cathedral. The bridge is full of statues and heaps of artists selling their wares: paintings, drawings, photos, caricatures, odds and ends. At the start of the bridge you could get your picture drawn in 20 mins for E15; a bit further along a different artist would do it for E12 in 15 mins and at the other end of the bridge just E10 in 10 mins. I'd feel ripped off if I had it done at
Old town bridge tower
at the end of the Charles Bridge the 1st artist.
It was hot too... so the stairs were challenging (and on a hangover!). We stopped at the palace, but the changing of the guards weren't due for another hour, so we decided to continue on our way, but while were standing up here and a gun shot went off, we ducked! it was the canon that goes off for the palace (each hour?) for whatever reason, we weren't to know that!
St Vitus Cathedral shocked us - it was amazing. We haven't seen quite so much gothic architecture in one building and definitely didn't expect it when we turned the corner from the palace... and that was only the back of the cathedral! We went in and had a look and it was just as amazing inside. We then headed back down and wandered the streets looking at the National Museum, Old Town Square (a must see) and whatever else we saw on the way.
Prague is called the City of Spires as there are literally hundreds of churches and other buildings all with tall gothic looking spires - some you can go up, some you can't but all pretty amazing to see - especially
if you can a view across the city. We chose to go up the Astronomical clock - and met a few of the others from our tour up there. It was great to look around the city's roof tops.
We had an agenda while we were in Prague - Donna told us that we had to see a puppet show and buy her a puppet... no complaints from us - and Jude even wanted to come along. So we went to a puppet show which was fantastic and then hit the shops to buy a puppet. The shops were all on small stoned streets and we had a fantastic time running around them all. We all got puppets for ourselves too. Wandering around the markets and shops had lovely wooden toys for kids, glassware, crystal and lots of scarves - the works so it was extremely tempting to spend plenty of money.
Back at the campsite, the radio was playing... Waltzing Matilda... random.
On our last morning at the Prague campsite, we had a rude awakening as some of the tents had been broken into, while the people who they belonged to were sleeping in them, and
some belongings stolen. Really taints your perception of a place when something like this happens. At least it’s only no one was hurt and they had travel insurance - but still, it's the photos lost on the camera that upset them.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.054s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 7; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0303s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb