Praha

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Today was a travel date, and the 8am bus departure was extremely unpleasant given the night I'd just had. Did pass out for a bit, so I wasn't a complete wreck. We were stuck in traffic jam for an hour, so our stop in Dresden was a ten minute scramble. There was a long break after the Czech border however, and an unexpected one at that. Busabout apparently makes a "bonus" stop for a tour of Terezin. I had calculated my last bank withdrawl so that I'd basically run out of euros by today, and rather unfortunately, I was right on the mark. Hence, I had to borrow money for the tour of Terezin.

The tour itself was rather ill-timed. Our scramble to make up time lost to the traffic jam had left us with no real breaks to get something to eat. The weather was also the other side of peachy. Hence, I got to tour a Nazi holding prison (for people rounded up in Czech destined for even worse places) cold, starving and on three hours of sleep. I was a ball of sunshine after that one...

The day got better as we got into Prague. I was a bit disappointed that Busabout chose a hotel 30 minutes from central Prague, but I understood that there's pretty much nowhere in central Prague capable of taking in the numbers Busabout drops off. I will be looking around and probably switching places in the next day or two, since I have five days here.

I signed up for the orientation tour (in good part because my Lonely Planet Western Europe has no section for the Czech Republic). It was informative, and was especially helpful in dropping us off for dinner in a pretty good restaurant. Most of us decided to try traditional goulash, and I even ordered potato dumplings under the mistaken impression from looking at the goulash that it wouldn't be enough. The whole lot, plus beer, came to just under 120Kč, which translates into less that $6CAD. Lets just say I'm liking Prague for more than one reason right now.

Some of the people I'm travelling with really wanted a saturday night out, so they headed off to a famous club right next to the Charles Bridge. It's the largest in Eastern Europe, and is four stories high. I would have joined them if I wasn't completely and utterly exhausted. Plus, what's the fun of going clubbing in Prague if you're in no condition to survive even a single shot of Absinth?

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Photos

Terezin
This particular cell was for Russian prisoners. It went downhill from there, especially for the Jewish prisoners. This was not exactly what I had in mind (cold, starving and sleep-deprived) when the guide said "bonus stop".