Day in Prague, Czech Repulic

Me in front of the National History Museum.
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I got up showered, checked out, stored my bags at reception, and was on the train by 8:30am. I first stopped at the National Musuem, which looked pretty cool and then I walked down Vaclavskenamesti, which was a pedrestrian walk way

that had some more boothes like in the Old Town Square. I then walked by the New Town Hall and the Emauzy, which was a Benedictine monastry that had two Baroque style spires on top. There was also a war memorial for World War I veterans. I then crossed the river on the metro and took a tram upto the Prague Castle. According to Guinness Book of World Records the Prague Castle is the largest continuous castle complex in the world. The St. Vitus is Gothic cathedral inside the castle that can be seen from a distance with two 100 meter towers. I bought the short tour, since I didn't have much time to visit the castle. It included the Old Royal Palace, which was the seat of the Czech rulers and is distingished by Vladislav Hall, the largest high-Gothic vaulted space in Central Europe. The other church inside the castle, St. George's Basilica, was also part of the short tour. It was much smaller and more plain, but the inside was still pretty neat. Another part of the short tour was the Golden Lane, which is an alley with 16th century houses that were incorporated into the arcs of the fortifications and housed the riflemen and then the goldsmiths. In the white tower and the upper part of the fortification was an museum of armour and weapons. There was one part where you could shot a cross-bow at a target, but there was too long of a line for me to give it a try. The last part of the tour was the Daliborka Tower, which gets its name from the first prisoner held there, Dalibor of Kozojedy. The tower was originally a cannon tower, but later turned into a prison and torture chamber. The tower had lots of old torture devices and there was a pit where the worst criminal were just lowered into it through a small opening. I then headed back to the Old Town Square to grab some lunch before I went back to the hostel. The Old Town Square looked about the same as the evening before except it was much more busy and all the shops were open. I then took the train back to the hostel, looked for a hostel in Berlin on the Internet at the hostel, grabbed my bags, and headed for the train station. I had to buy another ticket from Prague to the border, but this on only cost $270 Crown ($13 US). The train was about 20 minutes late, so I got into Berlin late at around 7:30pm. I had the addresses and the general area of a bunch of hostels, but I need a map, so I found a book store that had some Berlin maps. I got one for about $3.50 Euro and found the Friedrichshain area on the map and there were about five different hostels in that area and I founds streets for two of them on the map. It was only about six stops away on the S-Bahn, the Germany metro. There was the A&O Hostel Friedrichshain that was not Boxhagener Strasse No. 73 and that street started just near one of the S-Bahn stops so I figured I would start there. I got to Boxhagener in about five minutes and started walking down the street and it started at No. 1 and went up as I walked. The thing I didn't know about Berlin and probably Germany is that street number only go up about three to five number per block and they increase on one side all the way to the end and cross the street and continue on the other side. I looked across the street and it was at No. 115, so which ever side it was on it was going to be quite a walk. After about fifteen minutes of walking I finally found the hostel. I was sure there had to be a much closer metro station and there was one about two minutes away and it was the next stop on the line. I guess having directions and not just a map and an address is probably a better way to go. The hostel cost $17 Euro plus $3 Euro for linen and it was an eight share, but only two other people where checked into it. I meet the current occupants and they were a brother and sister from Brazil, well the brother was and the sister lived in Italy. He was in Europe visiting and travelling with her. He was pretty cool and his name was Daniel. I did get his sister's name, but she was already asleep when I got there. I talked to Daniel for awhile and he showed me some of the cool stuff to see in Berlin on my map. We then went and grabbed some food at a local pizzeria. I got a small pepperoni pizza and a large beer for $3.70 Euro, so it was a pretty good deal. We then went back to the room and ate the food and talked some more. A french kid showed up while we were eating and he spoke fairly good English, but kind of just did his own thing. I went to bed pretty much right after I finished dinner, because I wanted to get up early and see as much as I could before I had to leave for Frankfurt.

According to Guinness Book of World Records the Prague Castle is the largest continuous castle complex in the world.