Prague

Prague is one of the most beautiful cities ive ever seen. The buildings go on forever and are so repetitive...it makes the city seem so unified. The other thing that is awesome about Prague is that it's fucking cheap. Compared to Amsterdam, where we were paying 5 euro for a beer, now we're getting a big stein full of pilsner urquel for 120 crowns...heaven!


We arrived in Prague pretty late the first night, but the bar was open and we decided to celebrate with a pilsner. With a good night cap, we were up early and out to see some of the sights. Our plan was to head out and see St. Vitus's cathedral and the Charles bridge (basically be the tourists we so obviously stand out as being...the people here will talk to one another in czech and immediately start talking to us in English when we step up, we dont have to uder a word), however, we ran into one of the girls from our hostel outside and she was doing a day trip to a "bone church". Sounding like something you don't see everyday, we changed our plans to accompany her. She was traveling by herself, so I'm sure she appreciates the company from time to time. When we got there, it was creepy. The church looked normal from the outside, but was decorated by a monk with the thousands of bones from victims of the plague. Not quite the way I would want to be remembered, but to him his own apparently. Anyway, when we got back we were starving and our hostel friend recommended a traditional czech restaurant not far from our hostel. We all ordered the goulash and it was to die for. I think we paid around 10 dollars, but got a full meal and were completely satisfied. Later that evening we tried to go out for a couple beers, but most of the places we kept going to were pretty empty. We were bar hopping all night until we got caught on the opposite side of the Charles bridge when the sky opened up and the rain came down. This is nothing like the drizzle that we see in Seattle, this was like the flood was coming and we forgot to build our arc. The bridge is no easy feat to cross either...it seemed like we were sprinting for almost 5 minutes before finally seeking refuge beneath the large stone overhang at the end of the bridge. All of the restaurants were closing, and they wouldnt even let us use their verandas to stand under, so we had to venture back out into the torrential downpour to hail a cab back to the hostel. Needless to say, we needed a beer after one hell of a night.

The next day was more of the usual as far as the weather was concerned, however, this time it was only a light sprinkle. We made our way up to St. Vitus´s cathedral and what we kept calling the miniature eifel tower. The cathedral was cool, but since we didnt pay for a guide, we knew nothing about what we were seeing, and most of the pieces seemed pretty insignificant...more medieval artwork. I can appreciate art, but it means a lot more when I can engage myself in the piece. On the other hand, we all got a kick out of the tower. It is made of steel and it sits atop the hill leading down into the old part of the city where a lot of wind runs over into the valley. You could feel the tower swaying when you walked up the steps (which were on the outside of the tower, completely exposing you to the elements). It was a little unnerving, and we quickly made our way back down after taking a couple obligatory skyline photos. That sites didnt seem to take long, so the rest of the day we spent walking around the old part of town, taking in the city with what time we had left...again, the city is beautiful. I dont really remember what we did that night, but I think that we took it pretty easy...just a couple steins before hitting the sack earlier than usual.

The next morning we checked out and made our way back to the airport to fly out to Dortmund, Germany and take our first train to Bacharach.

Amsterdam

Amsterdam...wow. It's been a long couple days, filled with touring, walking, museums, coffee shops, and cheap hostel beer. The first day we got in around 1:00 in the afternoon and had a pub crawl planned for later on in the evening. Saving ourselves for the pub crawl, we tried to walk around and get our bearings in the city before setting out on a binge likely to confuse and frusterate each of us trying to return to our nice, warm beds. It was a fun night, unfortunately, Tyler set down his jacket and camera and within a few minutes it was gone. Everyone is really to blame: Tyler set it down and we didn't think anything of it.
The next day we wanted to get to know the city on a little deeper level. We dabbled in a few of the local coffee shops (Greenhouse was a favorite, apparently a lot of celebrities have gone there). We ate pizza for lunch and headed back to the hostel. Tyler wasn't feeling too hot, so we dropped him off and left for a few beers at some of the less touristy bars. The lady working at the hostel gave Gruby, Windus, and I a few suggestions and we set off on a leisurely journey to intoxication. It was completely gradual, but by the end of the night when we were ready for bed, it was nearing five in the morning and we had gone through countless pitchers before finaling retiring for the night.
Saturday, we tried to be a little productive and see things in the city that we'd be ashamed to not have seen. Anne Frank house was our first visit, a somber and sobering experience. Her struggles and that of the seven additional inhabitants hiding from the nazis makes you realize how good we've really got it. That may sound cliche, but it's the truth. I mean, right now I'm sitting in the hostel using free internet, reading a good book, and spending money that I saved for the last few months. Anyway, after the history lesson we took off to sit in a coffee shop for a little while and relax before embarking upon the Van Gogh museum. The area of the city housing all of the museums is spectacular. There's a huge grassy area, with the "I am amsterdam" sign surrounded by cobble stone pathways and towering gothic architecture. The museum itself was very modern, encased in glass and was three stories tall. The space within the gallery was used extremely inefficiently, with crowding around partiular pieces of importance and popularity. The second floor was dedicated to Van Gogh's influence at the time when he was transition from traditional impressionistic painting, and his experimenting with pointalism and aspects of color. Many of the artists given mention I'd never heard of, and found that part of the museum a quick walk through. Really only the third floor was dedicated to Van Gogh's work; I wish it would've been the entire museum...but it was fun. Realizing there's not much to do in the city besides walk around, check out shops, and spend money, we just decided to take the walk through the red light district and the "alleyways of filth"...mom, don't be mad. The girls were everywhere and were really hot. We had gone through during the day when they have the "C" list selection in the windows and were not impressed, but at night is when they make they're real money, and I can see why.
Today has been a completely lax day. We woke up way too early for our liking (apparently there were mice in our room) and couldn't fall back asleep. We waited around for breakfast, gathered our things together, and set off to rent bikes and tour Vondel Park that occupies an expansive amount of area right next to our hostel. On bikes, we made good time and conquered all the park had to offer in less than two hours and were faced with the decision of "what to do next?" We had already gotten to know the city pretty much inside and out, went to quite a few local bars and coffee shops, and saw a few of the tourist attractions. Basically, we ended up sitting around most of the afternoon reading. If the weather had been nice (it's rained everyday), we could've sat in the park and enjoyed a good book and occasional nap, but instead we were forced to scower the town searching for covered areas where we could buy a quick beer and milk it while reading.
Spending hasn't been a problem, but conserving is a quality that I'm going to need to acquire here if I want to come home with any money at all. Hopefully the weather changes and we aren't forced to seek refuge inside.