Prancing Through Prague

---

Alright so back to the east for us! We departed Dresden and headed 2 hours south-ish to Prague, Czech Republic. We had heard really good things about the city and were excited to Czech it out.... seriously tj made me do this. Anyway, we arrived at our hostel, Sir Tobys, and quickly discovered that it was the best hostel we had stayed in on our entire trip. The rooms were clean, they served delicious cheap meals, and the staff were nice. Plus, the people staying there were incredibly cool.

We spent our first day exploring the old town. We wandered around a cute outdoor market, dodging overly eager shop owners and buying souvenirs for people back home. We saw the Astronomical Clock in the Old Town Squre. Luckily we had been pre-warned that it is the No. 1 overrated sight in all of Europe, so with that in mind it turned out to be quite amusing. On the hour, a skeleton rings a bell and some macabre looking religious figures spin around prissily. And thats about it. Next we went to the touristy but pretty Charles Bridge which spans the river. We crossed to the far side and hiked up a big grassy hill to the tower on the top. The tower looked like a mini Eiffel Tower and we climbed to the top for a sweet view of Prague. It was extremely windy with a storm blowing in and we almost got blown off the top. Luckily we survived. Following our near death experience we returned to the hostel and found the hostel bar totally dead. We went down anyway wit hthe intent to get the party started and succeeded. Soon we were joined by about 16 Aussies and a Norwegian guy. The group of us went downtown to TJs new favourite place in Europe: The Beer Factory. Its a pub that has beer taps at each table, so that customers get to pour their own drinks. Even better, the amount of beer drank at each table is charted on a big screen that everyone can see, and tables compete to see who can down more. Our table enjoyed a thrilling victory with 40L consumed, despite not everyone at the table participating (ie. Teija didnt drink the beer haha!).

The next day we scrapped our plans to join the free walking tour after the snarky guide informed us that there was a mandatory $20CAD tip,.... kind of defeats the purpose of "free!"...jerks. Instead we walked up to Prague Castle and witnessed the changing of the guard ceremony, complete with marching band. It was really cool! We snuck into the castle complex and managed to see a few of the sights in there for free (mwahahah!). Next we visited the Museum of Communism, whic documents the communist past of the city. it was extremely well done, with lots of information and cool paraphrenalia. There was also a compelling video compilation of amateur footage of riots, uprisings and police brutality at demonstrations. The whole experience was excellent. We went back and hung out with our legion of hostel buddies in the bar for the evening.

The next morning we woke up to SNOW! Glorious, beautiful snow! Us and two friends decided to take the train east to nearby Kutna Hora which is home to the "bone church". We managed to get on the world's slowest train (called the City Elephant for some reason) and an hour long ride became 2.5 hours. Despite this, the trip was fun as we enjoyed good conversation and beatiful scenery, and even wild bunnies and deer. The bone church is not in fact made of bones, but it is decorated inside with them. Apparently the bones of around 40,000 people were used in the building of 4 pyramids, a chandelier, crests, crosses and other decorations. Surprisingly it wasnt creepy. It all seemed very ornate until you considered that these adornments were made of human remains. We found a cute Czech restaurant in Kutna Hora and ate some local specialties. Luckily we caught the fast train on the way back and arrived in under an hour back in Prague. That night Teija enjoyed a quiet night in, kicking ass at Scrabble, while TJ ventured out with a group of Aussie boys to catch the rugby game. The game ended favourably for the Aussie side, and the venue was also the site of the world's dumbest snowball fight. The night came to an end when some local tried to get us into a midget trapeze show..... TJ decided to call it a night and avoid that weirdness. Apparently some of the Australians went for it...

On our last day, we walked up to the Tesla Arena, home of the HC Sparta Prague hockey team, and bought tickets for ourselves and 8 friends. The tickets were about $3.50CAD, and the seats were decent. We attended the game that night with a group who had never seen hockey before, and they all enjoyed it a lot despite the lack of fights. Hockey games overseas are an entirely different experience. For instance there were cheerleaders with a full on sexy dance, a band that played at different times throughout the game, and an entire section dedicated to soccer-style crazies. The hooligans chanted throughout the entire game, which was very entertaining! Sparta ended up taking the game 4 to 1 which made the home town crowd delighted. On a side note ex-Columbus Blue Jacket David Vyborny, who could not backcheck to save his NHL career, is a defensive specialist over here. Odd. Also, the amount of mullets at the game made Jaromir Jagr's early 90s achy breaky bad mistakey look like crap. Ew...

So after an amazing 4 days in Prague we reluctantly left our hostel paradise and took the train West to Berlin, where we will spend the next 6 nights. So far the city seems great! More updates soon...

Note: we are home in a WEEK!!!!

---

Comments

[Peter Wright]

The Mullets...they are everywhere in the east!!!