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Published: August 24th 2006
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I had an ok sleep, and if Ginko snored I didn’t notice! There was a continental breakfast on offer, but after looking at what was on offer we decided to go to the supermarket. Everything was very cheap, particularly beer, but we managed to show strong will power. After buying our supplies we had breakfast back at the hostel.
We decided to take in the sights of Prague on foot. All the shops were very interesting, obviously designed for tourists, but the souvenirs were different to what we normally see, eg. marionettes and babushkas. As there was so many shops, we decided we would shop later, although the girls did tend to linger at times.
Our first touristy thing was to go up the clock tower. There was a lift in the middle of this amazing Old World building that took us to the top. I hadn’t tested my fear of heights for a while, but I was ok. The view of the city was fantastic. We timed our descent to coincide with the ringing of the bell at 11.00. A big crowd had congregated to see a skeleton pulling a chain to ring the bell and set off gold fatherly/ghostly
figures that revolved above like a wind-up toy. I’d never seen anything like it before, and it was really cool, but it didn’t last long, and the big crowd sighed when the shutters went up and then there was the tolling of the bells.
Our next destination was to head towards the castle. We were wary of pick pockets who are notorious for operating on the bridge. In transit we heard from Chriso who had arrived at the airport so we had to get a move on.
We timed it well to see the changing of the guards, and my finger was getting sore from taking so many photos of the pretty and amazing architecture. We oversaw a pretend sword fight and then we made our way down the walkway to a viewing area. From this vantage point I was really interested in a wall that you could see that looked like it was made out of skeletons.
On the way down back towards the town square, Ginko quickly rang Nance and Gez and then we found Chriso. It is hard to believe that it was only 6 days ago that we last saw Chriso.
We took Chriso back to
the hostel, dropped off his stuff, and then headed out for lunch. We found a genuine Czech restaurant, and as a starter I had goulash that came in a bowl made out of bread. For the main meal Ginko and I both had roasted pork hoc at the recommendation of the waiter. Combined with a couple of beers we were so full afterwards. To aid digestion the locals have shots of pear brandy, so we followed suit.
After lunch we walked around the city taking in the sights, but it was getting quite warm. We rang Rhino while the girls had a look at a market and we managed to have a sneaky one before they had finished looking. There was heaps of tourists in Prague with soccer tops on which gave away their nationality. The main nationality was German or English and there was plenty of friendly banter between both. We weren’t sure if it would remain friendly, so we headed to the town square to watch the German versus Sweden match on the big screen.
It was packed and hot so I headed back to the hostel to get changed, but I couldn’t find it. When I got
back to the square Ginko escorted me back to the hostel. Germany scored as we left. On returning it was 2-0, and it was too hot to stand in the sun. There didn’t seem to be any friction, despite an underlying vibe, so we left and went to a bar that was also uncomfortably hot.
One beer and we headed back to the hostel where we hoped it would be a bit cooler. Despite being careful Chriso managed to leave the key in the door on the other side. The locksmith had to be called, and 1000 Crowns (!) later we were right to head out again.
We found a deserted restaurant, and I had garlic soup followed by goulash dumplings. The Pilsner Urquell was nice, but we had plans for Absinthe, which fortunately didn’t eventuate.
We checked out from the restaurant, and walked around for a while looking for a suitable bar. We settled on one showing the Mexico versus Argentina match that went into extra time. There was no air conditioning in the bar. I was tired, hot and bloated. A lemonade later Beck and I retired for the night. The boys didn’t give me too much grief.
I was glad to get a chance for a decent night’s sleep.
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