Getting lost . . who me? . . Never!

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I woke up and went up for breakfast and was talking to these 5 English guys who had just gotten in on the night train about their travels when a familiar voice comes up to me and says hi. I looked up and it was Sara! She went to Budapest for a short stay and now she is in Prague for a day and a half! She told me a few stories about how the Hungarians were down right mean to her; I knew they weren’t the kindest folk and wouldn’t really lend you a helping hand but if you just steered clear of them you were fine, but the stories she told of the Hungarian people blatantly discriminating against her was sad to see. (I am experiencing some of these things with the Czech people).

We made plans to go into the city together and soon enough we were off (one of the guy’s in my room now seriously smells like feet, I was so happy to have the room to myself for a whole day!). We just wanted to kind of get lost and see where we ended up while hitting the main sights of the Charles Bridge and the Prague Castle. We made it to the bridge without any problems, it is gorgeous, but there were so many people that it really took away from its beauty. Even though the sun was out and it was a nice day I really feel like Prague as a whole (and especially the bridge) would be most complimented by a gray winter day covered in snow. I had read that you need to get there at dawn to really take in all of the beauty of the bridge without the gaggles of people there. From the bridge we could see the Prague Castle and we thought oh no worries we just need to head in that direction.

We succeeded in getting very lost, when we finally sat down and looked at a map (thank goodness a nice person offered to give us some help on finding where we were) we were just about off the map entirely! We backtracked a bit and got on the right path to the Castle, on the way there we passed a few restaurants that had the best looking salads on the menu! Sadly we weren’t very hungry; it’s a shame since everything in town is meat and starch! We were going to miss this restaurant later.

Walking to the Prague castle is a good workout as it is uphill the entire way! But once you make it there it is very cool. The castle itself is huge and has the prettiest gothic church inside; the only downfall is that the church is inside the castle, so you can’t get all of the castle in one shot with a camera! You can only get so far away and it just doesn’t do it justice as you stand there and just stare up in awe! While walking around inside the Castle I was telling Sara a story about Budapest, and I must have been really into telling it because as we were walking I hear this voice right behind me say "Excuse me!" I nearly jumped out of my skin to see that 3 Czech guards were about to run me over if I didn't get out of the way and quick! It was actually quite scary when it happened (I literally thought that if I didn't leap out of the way they would skewer me with their bayonets or trample me. Although part of me wonders what would happen if someone didn't get out of the way, but I didn't want to find out the hard way! These guys are serious!) but we both laughed after it was over.

We then walked back and tried to find some lunch (were drooling over those salads!) but had the hardest time finding decent not overly priced food (markets are also hard to come by, the only decent one I have found has been inside the train station!) we finally found a Greek place that had some veggie mezes that weren’t too expensive and ordered those.
We were both tired so we went back to the hostel and took a nap and I got online to wish Dad a Happy Birthday! He might be getting old but he is so young at heart and that is what counts! The internet at the hostel was being weird and at one point it was down all over the place, oh well so much for getting a lot done for my next destination. I like the beauty of Prague but I think the city knows I overall don’t like it very much and it reciprocates that feeling. The city just doesn’t have the whole package for me, it has the beautiful buildings and the river, and the castle, but that is it. The people aren’t the nicest (you get good ones and bad ones along the way, but this is even worse than Hungry and those people could care less if you were dying in the street), the food isn’t the greatest, and the city isn’t the cleanest (although it is better than Hungary), and I don’t get the safest feel.

So far in Europe Prague is the highest ranked in the terms of the impressiveness of the city structures, but lowest overall. Vienna so far has been my favorite, from the old city, to the new city, to the small towns surrounding it, to the Viennese people (for the most part), to the Turkish people, it just had it all for me.

I called it another early night as everyone in my dorm was going out to the pub crawl, which ended at the 5 story club I had been to a couple nights earlier so I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything.
B

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Photos

The church inside the Castle
This was fully zoomed out and backed up as far as I could, it was massive!

These guys almost ran me over during the changing of the guard
They are serious!