Prague: Where Beer is Cheaper than Bottled Water

Getting to Prague turned out to be quite a mission. It was originally supposed to be fairly simple with only 1 stop and change over needed. However, for some reason known only to the creator, our train just stood at a station somewhere between Munich and our destination for about half an hour. This inevitably meant that our connection was missed at a place called Schwandorf. So we had to figure out how to get from Schwandorf across the border into Czech Republic and eventually to Prague itself. We managed to smell our way there by heading first to a semi-border town called Firth (on a 'train' that was the size of a bus and required that the driver change gears audibly while going uphill, and composed of seats which were little more than padded wooden benches), and then changing at Plzen (the home of the worlds first Lager :D) before FINALLY arriving in Vienna a full 3 hours later than expected. That all didnt matter though. We got there eventually. Unfortunately, this resulted in us trying to find a place to eat at almost midnight, a task that proved more difficult than expected.

Well after that experience, we decided to sleep in a little bit and woke up fairly late, intending to leave the morning to relaxing and doing internet like chores. That afternoon we decided to go on a walking tour of the Western side of the river running though the middle of Prague. We have found throughout our travels that a walking tour is a perfect and inexpensive way at introducing yourself to the layout, major sights and history of the city. This particular tour was not quite as well done as some of the others we have been on, but it still served its purpose. We met 3 other travellers on this tour, Nathan and Sally who were both from Australia and Alice from the States. We decided to go out to dinner after the tour as we were all practically dying of hypothermia. It is actually ridiculous in Central Europe right now (although not as bad as the States from what I can gather) Prague, Munich and Berlin were all MUCH colder than Scandinavia. We were easily tipping -15 degrees at some points, even perhaps -20 at night. Needless to say that after a 3 hours of walking around we were well due for a warm up. After much searching, we found a fairly nice restaurant and sat down for a fantastic traditional Czech meal of dumplings and sausages. We didnt even pay much, as most things (especially food) is very cheap in Czech Republic. Beer itself is actually the budget option (yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!) and is much cheaper than soft drinks or in some cases, bottled water. I dont think I need to stress that Prague was FILLED with Australians. Following dinner, we all split up and went to our seperate hostels. We met up with Nathan later, however, and proceeded to explore the pubs around our hostel making full use of the curious price of our favourite beverage. We tried multiple brews that night, but highlights included the famous Pilsner Urquell (the original lager, and one of the best) and Pragues very own Staropramen (which I became very familiar with, selling it in England). We also managed to try our hand at the original Absynth, best taken by lighting it on fire and caramalising a suger cube into the spirit. Very strong but very nice, and quite exotic! Its a far cry from what it used to be 50 years ago parents, so dont worry. We wont be cutting off each others ears in an attempt to emulate Mr. Van Gogh. However, one of the more unpleasant things happened to us on our way back to our hostel, which to be honest was only about 50 metres away. A girl came out of nowwhere and collapsed into Rishis arms drunkenly asking for a cigarette. Rishi tried to help her up but she was as limp as can be and leaning completely against him. Rishi tried to push her away but it wasnt much use, but then she just kind of disappeared. We didnt think much of it at the time, but in the morning when we were bout to get a bagel for breakfast, Rishi realised that all his cash was gone from his wallet. Nasty surprise to say the least and it really did sour the rest of our experiences in Prague. However, looking on the bright side, at least she took the trouble to pickpocket him, rifle through his wallet and grab his notes, and then put his wallet back in his jeans leaving his cards intact. So polite!

The next day we decided to do some sightseeing of our own and explore the architectually arrogant city that is Prague. We mainly walked around the Eastern Bank of the river and Old Town. We saw the fairy tale Tyn Cathedral with its Disney like castle spires and the Old Town hall with the most over rated town clock extravaganza in all of Europe (seriously. Its actually official, just in front of Munich's Glockenspiel) which consisted of a skeleton ringing a tiny bell and a parade of the 12 apostles in front of a window while the clock chimed the hour. With the crowds that gather every hour to watch the show, and with the amount of souvenirs available, one would think that the Pope himself was appearing in the window. Quite ridiculous although the skeleton was pretty cool. Acting on the heady adrenalin that was now flowing through our veins, we managed to make our way to two seperate St. Nicholas' churches. The second one was across the river and was Pragues premier Baroque building. This thing was so ostentatious it was threatening to collapse around our ankles. There was gold gilding everywhere, and elaborate columns, domes, and statues. It was very impressive of course, but both me and Rishi have had our fill of baroque arrogance. There is such a thing as less is more, but I dont think any of the artists of the Baroque period ever took it to heart. Maybe they were the reason for coining the expression!

The next day we woke up early. We do have a confession to make though. We weren't being enthusiastic sightseers. We were acting the part of deprived cricket tragics, and we were making use of the free internet at the hostel to watch the Twenty20 cricket match between SA and Australia via text commentary. This may sound boring, but we don't really care what you think. We made up for lost sightseeing time in the early afternoon though, and made our way to the jewel of Prague, the Prague Castle. Now to be honest, this whole Castel complex had been completely built up for us. We had HUGE expectations and were quite dissapointed when we saw the facade. It really jsut looked like a huge mansion, and not like a castle at all! the grounds were very big though and contained a giant Neo-Gothic Catheral, multiple churches and an entire mini town inside its walls. The Cathedral was the most impressive part of the complex. It was the Cathedral of Saint Vitus and it contained our favourite stained glass by FAR. It really was extremely majestic both inside and out and was definitly worth the hour or so we spent oggling. This was definitly the highlight of the day and worht the entrance fee we paid to the other attractions inside the castle. That was it for the day and after finding a bite to eat we went back to the hostel and prepared our packs for the next city. We ended up spending the night chatting with the charming Swedish girls we were rooming with. They were ridiculously crazy. They could speak upwards of 6 languages, paint, sing and were getting ready to go back to university to study medicine after spending some time in Ireland working on a farm! Charming. But CRAAAZY! :p It seems that we can't escape the Swedish no matter what we do.

Chris