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Published: March 26th 2009
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Friday 23 May 2008 Our 9pm train from Zagreb arrived in Salzberg with plenty of time to find our connecting train and make use of a convenient pit stop - despite the disgruntled caretaker. At around 4am we boarded our connecting train to Prague and settled in expecting to sleep through til late in the morning and be ready for a big day of sightseeing in beautiful Prague. Of course, it wasn't to happen that way. At around 6am we were woken from our sleep only a couple of hours later by a guard telling everyone to get off the train. Very confused, we followed instructions and found that we had just crossed over into the Czech Republic - Yay we were in the right country at least - and there was trackwork! As Sydneysiders we were all to familiar with this phenomena as Cityrail conducts such fruitless activities frequently - though the service never seems to improve. So we collected our belongings, and transferred to the bus service. The bus service took us on a windy - and dangerously speedy - journey through the beautiful Czech countryside and to another railway station where we we able to catch a
train on to Prague. And so that is how a journey of 2 trains turned into a journey of 3 trains AND a bus!
Absolutely exhausted, grumpy and sleep-deprived we arrived in Prague and negotiated our way through the metro system including the ordeal of even trying to get a ticket and found the not-so-aptly-named A Plus Hostel. It was much less than A+. The rooms were scabby with carpeted walls to absorb the noise and the bathrooms were communal. We expected them to be communal in the standard hostel fashion, oh no! SHARED SHOWER CUBICLES! Lucky it was mid afternoon so most of the other residents were either already out shopping or still sleeping off their hangovers. Barbara was very proud that she managed to get brief but exclusive use of the bathroom - she was hoping not have needed to go a 3rd day without a shower.
After a brief nap we headed out to do some touristing. First stop was the very interesting Museum of the City of Prague (Muzeum Hlavního Mesta Prahy). It was also conveniently located just across the road! Barbara then collapsed with exhaustion back to the hostel and was soon to
be followed by Michael who attempted another museum before passing out.
Saturday 24 May 2008 Refreshed after a pretty decent night's sleep we headed out early to visit the Museum of Communism. A fantastic place! Despite it being quite small - and ironically located above a McDonalds outlet - the museum was interesting and comical!
We then continued on to the Old Town (Staré město), where we met our ‘free’ tour guide (‘free’ meaning that she relies on tips). That was a good thing because as far as tour guides go, she was pretty crap. Our judgement had almost nothing to do with language barrier except that her English sentences made no grammatical sense so we had to thin for a moment before we know what she meant and thus missed the next bit of info. The biggest problem was that she would never specify what she was actually talking about. She would stand in a square surrounded by 40 buildings and say “the building was built in 17XX, etc”. Which building? That one (without pointing to any building in particular). Which one? The blue/pretty/tall one (giving some feature which did not uniquely identify ANY building in
particular). Bloody useless! This continued on for a number of hours and gradually the group became smaller and smaller until it was only a quarter of the original size - at which point we made our exit. We did see some pretty buildings along the way although we are still only vaguely sure of what they were.
From our map and some later research we were able to identify that we’d seen the famous Charles Bridge, experienced the underwhelming cock of the astronomical clock, some old synagogues, the Church of St Martin in the Wall, St Václav riding a dead horse upside down hanging from the ceiling of a shopping mall, and Wenceslas Square. In addition she did point out the Two Bears Tavern which we vowed to visit later.
Glad that we only had to stay in the A Plus Hostel for one night, we checked out and headed off to meet Euston & Carolyn who had just flown in from London. From there on, our Czech adventure became much rosier.
We lugged our packs onto the metro and caught it to the last stop on the line on the very outskirts of town and then
waited 1/2 an hour for a 20 minute bus ride even further out into the middle of suburban nowhere to our new accommodation, Pension Ross. Apparently the website had specified that it was in the centre of town. Where not sure which town it mean, but we didnt mind the location because the owners/managers were lovely, it was quite and there was no carpet on the walls, it was spotlessly clean, we got a homecooked breakfast every morning...and no communal showers! So despite the location it was good value and we had a lovely time there.
We took Euston & Carolyn into the city for the evening and showed them Wenceslas Square, the Church of St Martin in the Wall and then dined heartily and drank merrily at the Two Bears.
After dinner we walked along the river admiring the lights of the city at night and the girls went to look at the glamour of the Opera House while the boys competed to take the best photo of the Charles Bridge.
Sunday 25 May 2008 The Sunday markets in the old town were a treasure trove of Mucha souveneirs and puppets. When we had shopped
to our hearts' content we showed Euston & Carolyn the underwhelming cock clock. It was actually a little more interesting and less underwhelming the second time around.
The we walked along the river, crossed the Charles Bridge and explored the Little Quarter. There were great murals and a restaurant by a big waterwheel that amused us over lunch.
Up the very steep hill to Prague Castle, we climbed. There we found a classical concert which was as good excuse as any to rest and have a beer before watching the changing of the guard and exploring the castle.
After exploring almost the entire castle complex, we headed back down to the river where Michael and Euston once again competed to take the best photo of the Charles Bridge - only this time Euston came prepared!
Monday 26 May 2008 Back into town and back up to the castle. We sent the morning exploring the remainder of the castle complex and gardens. Then we wandered down the hill to see a curious concrete sculpture called The Grotto.
We found a great place to eat where Euston and Michael once again proved there was no chance
of them ever becoming vegetarian and viewed David Černý's famous statue of men pissing.
It was then time to temporarily farewell Euston & Carolyn as they had a plane to catch back to London that evening - we planned to follow them the next day.
Our party of two continued through the streets of Prague and found some of the less touristed areas. We dined at the friendly and delicious yet smokey Restaurace U Zpevacku and hung out in the funky Globe bookshop around the corner.
Tuesday 27 May 2008 Twas an early start for our 7:30am flight to London but with the helpful shuttle from Pension Ross it was much less painful.
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