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.
