Friday 5 March 2010

Praha 26 Feb - 1 March 2010

So for those just joining us, last weekend was Edinburgh. Spent 4 nights back in Leeds before we jetted off to the Czech Republic. Joining me was Chris, Evan, Amber, Anastasia, Jenna and Chris’ friend from Germany, Richard.

Day 1

The excitement began at Leeds airport going through security. Chris got stopped and couldn’t understand why. After a thorough search of his bag he found 2 cans of beer that he forgot to take out the night before.

Once in Prague, getting to the hostel proved quite a mission but we did it and were pleasantly surprised to see how nice it was. We had a room to ourselves which was great. We settled in and went to a restaurant in Wenceslas Square called the Beer Factory. In the middle of our table was our own beer tap. It was really expensive but the food was so good and quite a unique experience.

Day 2

We woke up relatively early and meandered into the city, looked around Old Town Square before our free tour began. The tour took us to the Church of our Lady Before Tyn, the Astronomical Clock, Wenceslas Square, the Jewish Quarter (Josefov) and finished near the Charles Bridge. Now something I am noticing in my time here is people from the Middle Ages really loved their clocks, they are everwhere. But no clock will ever compare to the Astronomical Clock in Old Town Square. It tells – among many things - old Bohemian Time, Roman (normal) time, what sign of the zodiac it is currently and whether it is day or night. They thought it was so good that they burned out his eyes and tongue so he couldn’t make a clock for any other city.

After the free tour we took a much less free tour of Prague Castle. Apparently the tour meeting point was a bit too obvious for us, so Amber and I walked past the group of people hanging around the tour guides and just assumed that wasn’t it, so we walked another 10 mins past looking for it. We saw the changing of the guards...They march really slow. The tour covered St George’s Basilica, Powder Tower, Strahov Monastery/Brewery, and climaxed at St Vitus’ Cathedral which was absolutely gorgeous. However it has buildings built really close around it and was impossible to fit it all in one photo.

By the end of the day we were exhausted (a common theme I am noticing) and everyone insisted we go on the New Europe bar crawl. We seemed to stay at places a long time which meant we only went to 2 places before we called it a night...I was ok with this decision.

Day 3

The tour we went on yesterday walked us through the Jewish Quarter but we didn’t go in anywhere and it seemed really interesting so we headed back there this morning. It is really significant in Prague because from 1938 to 1945 (yes, a year before WWII) the Nazi’s occupied it and many Jews were killed and exiled. We visited the Jewish Museum which had all the names of the Jews killed and paintings children painted to express themselves during the Nazi regime. Outside there was the Jewish Cemetery where for about the 300 years from 1478 Jews had to be buried on top of one another due to lack of space, up to 12 layers deep. As a result it is now several metres above street level.

After the Jewish stuff we walked across the Charles Bridge which you can just tell is now set up for tourists. It was packed and along the sides of it there were vendors with stalls selling little souveniry things...I bought one. Just over the bridge was the John Lennon wall (right), I have no idea why it was there and until we got there I didn’t even know it existed. After lunch we left Ana and Amber, and Evan, Richard and I walked up Nerudova Street (a very picturesque street. Some of the houses have pictures above the doors instead of house numbers as they weren’t invented until 1770. ) and went back to the Castle to see inside the Cathedral as we didn’t get to the day before. Unfortunately because it was Sunday it was closed. On the way back we stopped at the Rudolfinium on the Old Town side of the River to where the line for the Louvre in Paris was filmed - They'll have us believe anything won't they. So of course we took our own robot fight photos and looked very silly in the process...worth it.

Went back to the hostel for a nap and headed out for a late dinner. We found an Aussie pub showing the Canada – US ice hockey gold medal match. We also met Norm, the owner of the bar who is Australian who moved to Prague when he a Czech woman in Sydney.

Day 4

Getting home took a long time. Our plane got in to Birmingham at about 3:30 and our connecting train to Leeds didn’t leave until 8. We got a train in to the city, had lunch at the big shopping centre there and played some cards in a pub.

Then I went home.

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