Interailing

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Geo: 50.0878, 14.4205

Shared a cabin on the train from Holland to Czechoslavakia with 2 more people one of who whom was male blonde possibly German or Austrian ( could picture him in lederhosen) seemed a bit pious and knelt down to say his prayers which was a bit unusual. The other had a guitar & you guessed it had an impromtu concert with Kum-by-ah & the Way to Amarillo (I hate this kind of carry on) and all other travellers seemed to love it and were crowding in to the cabin to join in. We hung out in the corridor - where I seem to remember were some pretty gross toilets so early in the journey. Anyway we did get to go to bed only to be woken up in the middle of the night with flash lights & alasatian dogs by Czechoslavakian (it was not a republic then) customs which was a bit alarming.

The 1st thing I noticed about Prague was the underground trains had plactic gold 1970's panels on the tunnel walls & the escalator's were wooden & seemed to go on forever. The other thing that struck me was the amount of plunging necklines everywhere, bizarre. Anyway we read that it is normal for people to come to station & hawk rooms & it is safe to accept them, so we went with our hawker to a nice apartment where they let out a room complete with a fridge. So that was cool. Only after a few days someone else had booked it so he brought us to another friends place & we stayed in their sitting complete with austere looking photos of dead ancestors & a dog running around wearing a nappy. It was while staying here we decided we would one day get married to each other (aahhh).

Anyway Prague was ace. The city is divided by the Vltava River, the pedestrianised Charles Bridge is main route to cross it passing buskers & jewelry stalls (got some nice stuff)& caricature artists. Of course we ambled down to Wenceslas Sq. the scene of the demos for end of communism in 1989 - now the street seems to be the club district. Went to a really good jazz place in a lovely building with sumptous red drapes etc. There's music everywhere even the buskers were playing classical - got loads of classical cd's for £1. Franz Kafka is the local famous boy & we went to a very good play by him.

The jewish quarter Josefor was very interesting & heartbreaking to see the possessions of the WWII victims in the museum & the disused synagogue & the chocker-block grave yard.

The trams were great the 22 does the scenic route from Old town Sq to the Castle. Prague Castle is a district in itself where there was an amazing art gallery & the zoo. And beside it Petrin hill which a tower on top (299 steps) & a great view. And the Mala Stana park below is nice.

The food was nice too - on the street hotdogs were great too & the 'hungarian' goulash I remember as being lovely. I seem to remember the shops were still old fashioned where only a few people were let at once & you ordered you stuff at one counter after you pointed to it behind the massive counter, paid at another one & collected your little brown packages at a 3rd. I also remember some ordeal in the bank about cashing euro cheques cause my writing was too bad! Also the beer was good. There were quite a few Americans there but not as many I believe there is now 1,5 decades later. All in all a great place.

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