The Heart of Europe

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Headed to the Alps

I'm writing from a train headed from Vienna to Innsbruck in Austria and will post this when
I have an internet connection next.

Innsbruck was the location of the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics and is located right in
the heart of the Alps. After about three weeks of exploring and partying in some of Europes largest
and most beautiful cities, I felt that a cleansing trip to the alps was in order. I'm
hoping to do some hiking while I am there depending on the weather.

Since I last wrote I have spent another day in Berlin, and the rest of the time in Prague.
I walked around Berlin to some of the main sites that I had lost many pictures from. It was after
dark so they have a differnt feel, but some of them are fitting for the dark days of the
Nazi Regime. So, even though this blog is mainly about Prague, I am posting some of those
pictures from Berlin as well.

PRAGUE, Czech Republic

Prague.... Imagine a town built at the base of an escarpment - like Hamilton - but much better. German quality (or better) beer, but cheaper. Gothic/Medieval, Baroque and Renaissance Archtiecture - still intact and preserved, a labrynth of narrow, cobblestone streets chris crossing all over the busy
city center. Further into the surrounding neighbourhoods are plenty of 5 story residential buildings, small old cars, and locals consuming more beer per capita then any country in the world.

Prague is the least "English-Friendly" city that I have been to yet. The local Czech's are far less likely to speak english (unless they are 25 and younger). Even when they do speak english, many Czech's don't seem to want to help out a lost tourist unlike other cities such as Dublin and Copenhagen. Signage and english friendly bank machines etc are also much less common in Prague. But thats about my only complaint about Prague...it is actually a great city.

I can understand how the locals in Prague are annoyed by, or just don't like toursits. The narrow, cobblestone streets of the city center have no logical order or direction and it is very easy to become lost while walking around - so there are probably lots of tourists asking for help all of the time. The city is known to be one of the most well preserved European cities.

Particularily beautiful is old town square which apart from the massess of tourists still has a look and feel of a city from the 1400's. The city is so well preserved because during many of the most destructive wars in history, the Czech's chose to protest (verbally and by other means) rather then chosing self defensive.
Nazi and Communist armys basically just rolled through the country with no armed resistance.

So after rolling into town after dark, getting lost several times on the subway, tram, and just walking around I ditched my pack at my hostel and headed out to a pub crawl which started in the old town square area (where it's basically a maze). Got lost again...eventually I just hopped in a cab and had him take me to the meeting point. The pubcrawl had a contiki tour group in it full of some wild partiers mostly from Australia, Canada and America (as usual). The first hour was free beer and free shots of Absinthe (high percentage liqour thats popular in CR), so needless to say the entire group of about 40 of us were liqoured up, chatting like old friends, and dancing the night away by about 10:00.

Sites and History

Some of the touristy stuff I saw on day 2 was the town center, including a church with two towers.
One tower is wider then the other, representing Adam, and the second is Eve. A common theme in
Prague is that it takes a really long time for Czech's to build anything. Due to this, there
are multiple examples of bulidings that are initially Medieval in architecture, and then have a
tower that is of Renaissance architecutre which makes for some pretty funky looking buildings.

There is also the astronomical clock which is pretty famous. It shows many things such as the date, time,
which zodiac sign we are presently in, and all of the names that Czech people are allowed to be called.
In CR you have to name your children a name from this list. Each name has a day - like a birthday.

The Czech's lost 80,000 of their 120,000 jewish population during the Holocaust. Most of them were
sent to death camps that Hitler's propaganda machine described as summer retreats. While walking around lost one night I ran into a monument for the jews who died in the Holocaust which had fresh flowers and lit candles.

The Prague Castle is the wolrds largest Medieval castle. It has mind blowing cathedral in the center
of it. I saw the Cathedral up close and couldn't get over careful detail of every single aspect
of the church. Pretty amazing.

The castle is on the top of an escarpment over looking the city (similar to the Niagara Escarpment).
Between the escarpment and the old town square is a wide river, and the two sections of Prague
are connected by the famous Charle's bridge. During the 30 years war several battles were
fought for Prague castle where the enemy could not push past the Charle's bridge which has been standing for centuries.

The bridge has about 20 statues on it and are really cool to check out. There is supposed to be one
that if you rub it, it will bring you marriage. If you rub the other side it will bring you a baby.
I opted to not risk either, and kept my hands in my pockets.

Prague has an interesting, recent story from history that is still fresh in our minds. CR was the last country to be occupied by the Nazi's, even after Hitlers suicide. An army of one million Nazi soliders still occupied the land. The Czechs wanted liberation, like the rest of the west. They tried to call in America to liberate them, but they had just signed an agreement with Russia (who were 5 days from Prague)
so the US could not travel that far east. Nonetheless, an uprising began and a battle between
Czech citizens and the Nazi's occured.A group of 30,000 Czechs, surpised the Nazi's who were in Prague and forced many of them into a basement of a large building. They began flooding the basement until the Nazi's surrundered as it is not honerable to die by drowning for a Nazi. 30,000 common people had managed to defeat one of the worlds most highly trained armies ever. After 7 years of German occupation the Czech people had finally reclaimed Prague. Sadly enough, a few days later the Communists arrived and took credit for the Czech victory. The russians essentially occupied Prague, switching them from a dictatorship to a communist regime which lasted until 20 years ago, with the fall of communisum, Czech Republic was finally democratic and free.

Beer

The Czech's are extremely proud of their beer history. In a small town called Pilsen (hence Pilsner),
in 1842 the first batch of bottom-fermented pale lager beer was brewed. Before this, beer existed, but it
wasn't the golden, bubbly, beautiful liquid that we enjoy today. It was much thicker, less tastey,
and it looked so weird that it was never served in a glass. Beer of old came in jugs or containers
that didn't let you see what it looked like. There are micro-brewaries all over the Czech Republic.
One particularily fun brewary is called the beer factory. You sit down with a group of friends and start
pouring your own beer from a tap beside your table. All the beers you drink are tallyed and a screen
shows how you are doing compared to other tables around you - so it becomes a boisterous competition.
I was only able to stop in, and the group I was with wasn't a strong group of drinkers so I couldn't
put up a challenge, but I can imagine a few of the boys from home and I could give the Czech's
a fairly good go.

Food

After touring around Prague Castle, I went to a local Czech establishment called Beer club with my tour
guide who had highly recommended it. There were 6 micro-beers on tap which were all great.
I had the roasted pork and some fried cheese (two traditional czech meals) which were both
delicious. Katka, my guide had raw ostrich meet. I've never seen or heard of anyone eating this,
but after trying it I was pleasently surprised. It was sort of tasted like a bland steak, and
the texture was like rare steak that had already been chewed up and then spit back out (best way
I can describe it). You dress it up with onions, paprika and some other stuff and put it on bread.
The combination is really good.

Women

For my male readers, and I suppose curious female readers too...some people have been asking about
the women in Europe. Prague had lots of very pretty girls walking around. It seems that if you
are a European woman, in the winter you have to wear 'the uniform'. 'The uniform' includes long hair,
a black, medium length jacket, a black skirt, black tights (blue jeans are sometimes a substitute), and
either black, or beige boots. And a black hand bag. I have to admit though, it sure looks good.
I'd rate countries with the average number of pretty girls in decending order as follows:
Denmark, Czech Republic, The Netherlands, Ireland, Germany. Yes, suprisingly enough Germany is at the
bottom. Germany did however have the odd, knock out supermodel walking around, but I don't generally
approach girls that are like 4" taller then me so I can't really comment on them.
Canada, of course, easily has the most beautiful women of all.😉

Travelling Life

Just another note about the travelling life. So last night at about 3:30 a.m. 7 drunk guys from
Quebec storm into my room and carry on like they are still at the bar. It went on for about
and hour and a half. So that was kind of annoying...but somewhat expected in hostels on a Friday.
When I woke up this morning and got out of bed, I saw two gay guys in the bed
across the room making out, one was naked. Forget coffee, the best way to kick the cobwebs after a rough sleep is witnessing something like that. I grabbed my pack, which luckily I had packed up the night before, gave them a piece of my mind, and got as far away from that room as I could. Damn french people...


Well, Innsbruck and the Alps are calling my name...thanks for reading!

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Photos

Prague By Night
Charles Bridge connecting the escaprment/castle to old town square. Also the location of many bloody battles in the 30 years war.

Adam and Eve Church
In Old Town Square, the left tower is Eve and the Right is Adam

Astronomical Clock
Tells you the current zodiac sign, time, date, name days, and a bunhc of other stuff that I can't recall

The Labrynth
I got lost multiple signs on streets like this one

Powder Tower
It's black because of centuries of gunpowder seeping into the brick work

Prauge Castle
Largest medieval castle in the world!

Holocaust Memorial
Lit candles and fresh flowers were at the bottom of the steps of this little memorial that I found in a lesser travelled area of Prague

Pilsener
The Czechs are proud of their brewing history.

Mixed Architecture
The tower on the right has two types of architecture because it took so long to complete, that by the time the top was added, they wanted a renaissance look.

Castle Chapel
Most amazing church I've ever sen.

Back side of Chapel
Needed a tripod..

Overview
From the Castle looking down

Comments

[DAD]

Fantastic
This is wonderful Ben. Your descriptions of the architeture is especially interesting to me as I have an interest in old buildings.Some day I hope to see some of what you write about.Thank you for letting us share in your experience. Love Dad

[Sarah Sloan]

Hey Ben, Sounds like you are having an amazing time! Keep up with the blog, I loved reading it and seeing the pics! Have fun!

[George Counter]

What up
Yo benny; Good to hear that your having a good trip. Sounds like your getting around. Let it be known that Murph and I are damn jealous although living at thorndale these days feels like the far east. This "blog" thing is pretty cool, eh. I still don't know if this internet thing is hear to stay...we'll see how it plays out...just a fad methinks. I'm glad to hear you like trinty college, you may get a chance to visit your good friend george there....