Aug 20: Eric and I got up early to catch our train to Prague…. Mike and Scott were catching a later train. We met a couple from Argentina on the train. They were the nicest people and convinced us that we want to visit Argentina some time too! They were studying in Spain and were traveling with friends during their break. We were heading there earlier to meet up with Dan since he had an early flight in from Amsterdam. True to Dan form when we arrived he was sitting out on the terrace, sipping his tea and chatting it up with a couple of British ladies staying at our B&B. Once settled, we decided to walk down towards the city’s center (about 2 miles). We saw the Dancing House (Frank Gehry-designed modern building), but we turned around to walk back before we reached the heart of Old Town Prague. We soon learned how to take the 15-minute tram ride downtown. Dan, Eric and I had dinner at recommended restaurant down the street. Mike and Scott had a little trouble finding the Bed and Breakfast, and unfortunately it was pouring down rain! Needless to say, they were drenched once they finally found the place. Mike and Scott went to the same restaurant that we went to but the kitchen was closing and all they could get was fried cheese! Welcome to Prague. Leslie went to sleep fairly early and the rest of us ended up staying up BSing fairly late. Obviously about nothing too interesting but it was good to have the crew all together again and in Prague. Dan did manage to break down Mike’s timeline to prove he indeed found sightseeing in New York City to be a priority over emailing or contacting us waiting for him in Berlin, good laughs!
Aug 21: I wouldn’t necessarily say we got an early start today. Between everyone still adjusting to the time change and the fact that our ‘apartment’ contained one bath or shower or shower without a curtain that you can’t stand up in because the roof was in the way…whatever it was it didn’t help get everyone ready too quickly. Sometime after noon we headed toward the subway to get city transportation tickets for everyone for the week and then headed to Castle Quarter. Castle Quarter was filled with two main churches several streets and entrance gates manned by guards…probably mainly there for the tourists sake. We would learn the favorite picture taking technique developed by Mike and Dan during their last visit to Europe. Basically one person lies on the ground in front of a giant church, building, statue, something old…whatever and takes a picture looking up at the other person in front of the site. I’ll have to give it to them it actually makes for pretty cool pictures. After a few small group photos, Mike broke out one of his sandals, the camera timer and after several tries and few laughs from onlookers we had a perfect picture of the five of us in front of the St. Vitus Cathedral. After a fruitless search for a brewery tour, Mike and Scott headed down toward Little Quarter, and the rest of us stopped at a ritzy little café where Dan ordered a $20 soup and an $8 cappuccino…unfortunately it wouldn’t be the last one of those for him on this trip. The view was great though (as well as their ice cream) and we had a good time catching up some more.
After lunch we walked back down the hill into Prague’s Little Quarter. After stopping in some stores we came to the famous Charles Bridge. This definitely reminded me of something out of the mid-evil times. I am sure the thick layer of clouds rolling in helped with the mood as we were walked across taking pictures. Luckily we were meeting up with Mike and Scott as the winds started ripping through the streets like in a movie. Mike and Scott had bought some souvenirs (for Mike this was of course a T-shirt). Mike had mentioned that he doesn’t pack many shirts because he likes to buy at least one from every stop on his journey (he even had time to buy a New York T-Shirt when stuck there on the way to meet up with us in Europe). We jumped on a cable car back to our cozy little apartment. We stopped at a great little neighborhood restaurant called Josephine’s. At this restaurant we ate like kings and queen! I am being serious… Scot and Mike shared a mixed meat plate (made for two people) along with ordering their own meals! After we washed our meal down with two bottles of wine the check came to about 15 bucks a person (ok… maybe Mike and Scot paid a little more for their two meals each). Once again I went to bed before the guys so that they could have their manly time together (this usually consisted of Dan giving Mike a hard time and talking investments).
Aug 22: OK another early start, post noon, we are off to complete Tour de Mike of ‘Old Town’. We make it to Old Town and our first site we only have 40% participation, Mike and I (E) forked over 2 bucks each to see Bethlehem Chapel, the church where Jan Hus had preached and began his movement for reform in the Catholic church, arguing for religious autonomy and that the word of God did not have to be spread solely through the Vatican. This was met with much adversity and he was eventually burned at the stake in 1415. His predecessor 100 years later, Martin Luther, finally ended up being successful although through much strife of his own in successfully breaking away from the Catholic ideals. Although the chapel was fairly plain inside, it was an interesting place to visit and had a lot of info on Hus’ life. We came out to find everyone sitting at an outdoor café although only Dan was enjoying a drink. Apparently the service was poor at best and Dan was enjoying his second $8 cappuccino in Prague, this is just bad luck by now. Once Dan forked over his Korunas we headed to a bar around the corner that Mike and Scott had found in the meantime. They had Budweiser there…sweet glorious Budweiser…well I believe we were ready to go after one or was that five and a couple of hours later. Leslie, Mike and I left there and tried to finish the major sites in Old Town. We raced to The Church of St. James where they had hung the arm of a thief hundreds of years ago above the entrance and its crusty remains hang still today. The story goes that a thief tried to steal the Madonna Pietatis from the inside of the church, when his arm was frozen as soon as he touched the statue. His arm had to be cut off to release his grip from the Madonna; it was then hung above to stand forever as a warning. We didn’t quite make it so we rushed to the Old Town Square to see the ringing of the Astronomical Clock at the top of the hour…once again we missed this because we were trying to see the arm. Well we did see the Old Town Square, which couldn’t close on us and we found out the ringing of the Astronomical Clock was kind of overrated. We met up with Scott and Dan later, grabbed a quick bite to eat and checked out a club. Leslie and I took off early and went back to the apartment.
Aug 23: Today we saw the arm in St James Church! This was our first task of the day that we completed without getting distracted by the many pubs we passed along the way. We left and headed for Old Town Square once Mike was finished taking pictures inside the church. We walked through the Jewish Quarter and saw the huge metronome perched above on the hill created to send the message that for every power there’s a time to go. The metronome was erected during Prague’s centennial exhibition. Mike and Scott went into the old Jewish Quarter, including the old Jewish Cemetery (there were many deaths with only a small plot of land to bury their dead resulting in so many old stones sticking out of everywhere.). Dan, Eric and I were in search of a painting that we had seen a couple days before. Dan bought a colorful abstract oil painting of a naked woman (it was very nice). We met up with Mike and Scott a little early since Mike’s train was leaving around 9 PM. We all went to our favorite restaurant and ordered another feast of Pork Ribs and desert! As the waiter brought our desert, Dan said “Mike what time does your train leave because it’s 8:15PM”! As much as Dan just wanted to sit there with his mouth shut waiting to see if Mike would realize on his own the time, he didn’t! The problem was that Mike had to walk back to the Bed and Breakfast, pack his belongings, walk to the subway, take the subway about 7 stops and catch an overnight train to Poland! Amazingly enough he finished his desert in a couple of bites and made his train (I can only guess with no time to lose). The rest of us went back to the apartment (wondering if Mike was going to show up later:-)
Aug 24: This morning Eric and I went back to Castle Hill and toured the inside of the St. Vitus Cathedral. We also climbed up the 250 stairs to the top of the bell tower for some magnificent views of the whole city. Next we visited the Little Quarter in search of the John Lennon wall. This was a wall that was covered with peace sayings inspired by John Lennon himself during the communist era! You can imagine that the government did not like it and covered it up every day because when they cleaned it the next day it was back as if they hadn’t cleaned it. After the fall of communism it has been left here as is so that anyone can add his or her graffiti. The next place we visited was the Monument to Victims of Communism Who Survived (long name, but very interesting). This monument started from a far with parts of a man, but as the image of the man got closer the more there was of him (hard to explain but check out the pic). This just resembled all thought people who had to recreate who they were after such a repressive governing body.
At 6 PM Eric and I met up with Scott and Dan to attend an orchestra concert at the Basilica of St. George in the Castle Quarter. It was very cool, they nine member orchestra played classics from Mozart and Bach (there were other composers to). Later in the evening we went out to a club (once we found it)! About 1 hour later and asking 3 different people directions, we finally made it! The club scene wasn’t very crowded but it was pretty cool. The club had a roof top deck overlooking part of the New Town area. After a few drinks, Eric and I headed back to the apartment for some shuteye!
Aug 25: Eric and I went to New Town today to do some shopping. This is the only place that the currency is about at the same level as the dollar. The Euro has continued to climb (as the dollar has fallen) while we have been here in Europe. So Eric found some white pants (very Euro) from Energy. I wasn’t really able to find anything so we headed back to Old Town for a little while. I bought a sketch of a ballet dancer that was done by a Russian artist (it is very good, no so cute looking like in the States, but really technically good). It seemed like the last day here went so fast! This has been such a great trip hanging out with friends! We hate to see it end…
Aug 26: Eric and I caught our train this morning after saying goodbye to the guys! We were sad but can’t wait to see everyone again back in California. Scott and Dan were meeting Mike in Budapest later today. Just another ordinary travel day, but I do love traveling by train!
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