Moving on to the further east- getting on the train was no problem but when we got on the train we entered into the part with reserved compartments instead of free seating so it took awhile to turn around and move through the masses of people to find seats. But we did and had our tickets checked and were most definitely on the right part of the train to Praha! The train ride in itself was all right. Long and with a bunch of chatty, annoying Irish girls behind us but it got us to Prague, albeit 30 minutes late.
When we got to the train station, we had a bit of trouble trying to get metro tickets. The ticket machine only took coins and all we had were 1000 crown bills. After a failed attempt to get change from buying a sandwich (the only coin we got back was a 5 crown coin), we went into a tobacco stand in the hopes that they would change the bill. Luckily, you could buy tickets at the stand so it was not any kind of problem. We got on the metro and a short ride/walk later we were at the hostel. Which seemed to be more like a hotel and quite nice. After we had settled in, we set off to see the Old Town square, passing through Wenseclas (of which Vicky cannot stop singing Good King Wenseclas) Square. Prague is very beautiful and as an energy to it that was very different that what I have experienced in Western Europe. We wandered around the square and stopped by Havelska Market to plan our souvenir buying. We returned to Old Town Square to watch the Astronomical Clock ring in the new hour with hundreds of other tourists. The whole thing was a bit silly; some figures moved and a window opened for the 12 apostles to parade by but it wasnt anything spectacular. Whatever, I suppose you have to see it once. We continued our tourist circuit by crossing the Charles Bridge, passing a Hare Krishna procession (I didnt know that they processed) and rubbed the base of one of the statues while making a wish (apparently rubbing the statue makes it come true). After that, our feet were killing us so we got some food and sat down. Yummy, traditional goulash and dumplings, beer and apple strudel for about $10? Yes, please. Gotta love Eastern Europe. I am not a huge fan of beer but it is big in Prague so I figured I might as well indulge. After dinner, we toddled back to the hostel and settled in for a solid sleep.
The next day we got up relatively early and headed out for a morning of museums. First stop, the Communist Museum which traced the rise of Communism, especially in the Czech Republic as well as showed daily life in communist Czechoslovakia. Not a really happy life. In theory, Marx and Engels had a good idea in communism, but you will never find a society that can actually support it. People are, I believe, always inherently selfish so this ¨everyone work for the greater good¨ thing is not going to pan out- and obviously did not. After the communist museum, we went to the Mucha museum. Vicky and I had read about this museum and didnt really want to go because we didnt know who this guy was. But when we got to our hostel there were prints all around of his and we realized we had actually had a coloring book of his stuff when we were younger and actually really liked his work, so we obviously went to the museum. His pieces were really quite lovely and I wanted to buy a poster but they were a tad overpriced so I will probably just order one off allposters.com when I get back home.
After the museum we stopped at this place called ¨Czech Kitchen¨ for lunch. Once again, inexpensive and delicious. I am starting to really like goulash and especially like the potato dumplings. I will have to figure out how to make these when I get back to a proper kitchen. After lunch we wandered up to the Jewish quarter but did not go in anything because it was Saturday and everything was closed, but the area was cute and interesting. We then walked down the river to our hostel for an afternoon nap, going past this Frank Gehry designed building that has been nicknamed the Fred and Ginger building because it supposedly looks like the two of them dancing. I suppose it does, but it is a stretch of the imagination. After our rest, we wanted to go up in the clock tower so we walked down to Old Town Square. As we passed through Wenseclas Square and Old Town Square, we noticed these massive television screens erected to televise the Czech v. Switzerland Euro match to the large masses. It was madness. We then realized the clock tower closed at 6 so we had run out of time to go up. So we squeezed back past the crowds and returned home.
Our last morning in Prague was pretty basic, mostly consisted of souvenir shopping. Prague turned out to be quite the place for souvenirs and we managed to find a number of things both for ourselves and for others. I also finally managed to find a paperweight to my liking for my mother. We also achieved our goal of ascending the clock tower for views of Prague. Now this was actually a city with nice enough roofs to merit looking at them. We also were up there close enough to the hour that we watched all the people gather to watch it chime. It was rather amusing because from up top they all looked like ants and it was funny to hear them gasp and applause (and laugh when they realized how silly it all was) when the clock went into action. After a brief lunch, we hopped on the tram to get to Castle Quarter to see St. Vitus Cathedral. It was free to get in which was nice because, hey free, but also tragic because of the massive amounts of people/tour groups (bah! hate tour groups!) inside. The cathedral was typical and not the most impressive I have seen, but it had two key points to it- a stained glass window designed by Mucha, which was absolutely beautiful, and the tomb of good St. Wenceslas which was, well, tomby. We descended back down the mountain, spent the rest of our Czech money on food (and other souvenir for Vicky when she realized how many crowns she had left) and carried it all the way back to the hostel, calling it a day.
Reflection on Prague: A little too crowded for my taste. But it was still incredible to be in Eastern Europe in a country that was, not long ago, dominated by the Soviet communists. And even though Prague is getting very touristy, I bet in less than 5 years it will be ridiculously so. But for now, it was okay. The buildings were pretty, the food delicious and it kept us busy. The language barrier was worse than it has been anywhere else, but not unbearably so. The worst part was trying to pronounce things like food and street names. It will be nice to go back where some things are familiar, though still in German. Oh and success in not getting pickpocketed, cheated or otherwise taken advantage of as people had warned us about! Moving on to Vienna!
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