Czech Republic: Prague

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Tuesday 23rd May

The big beautiful city of Prague awaits us today. It's the place we've been waiting for... Another overcast day as we made our way to the bus station. Cheaper by far than taking train and more scenic. As anticipated, we took a route through some wonderful Czech countryside and wound our way through the narrow village lanes. After 3hours or so, Prague appeared and we could see the skyline of the old city with all it's spires. After an effortless change to the Metro underground, we arrived. What an excellent underground system. Exactly like London, but on a smaller scale and much easier to negotiate - even if it's your first time. We checked into our hostel - another Travellers Hostel - part of the same group as the Cesky Krumlov one. This one however, is a typical 'city hostel'. Big, sprawling and busy. Our dorm tho' was pretty good. Spacious and airy. We sought our the supermarket and bought some goodies to cook up a storm in the hostel kitchen. Pasta, veggies, garlic, rolls and beer to wash it all down. the reason we are drinking so much beer in Czech, is 'cos it's so damn cheap!! Cheaper than coffee and bottled water!We are paying about R3 for a 500ml bottle! You pay a deposit on the bottles which you get back - so you can buy more... the varieties available are astounding and endless. Each and every place we go, has at least 2 brands that are new to us. What's even greater, is that the 'after effects' of a few are almost zero!!

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Wed 24th May

Took my camera to a Canon dealer today. They said the power supply has gone and it was going to cost way too much to fix!! So, will just have to continue with Davids camera. Pics are still great with it and am geting used to using it. We walked to a local market that someone had told us about. It was huge but actually just filled with cheap Eastern imitations, run by the Vietnamese. The fruit and veg section was good local stuff. Overall, nothing much to write home about. We walked back along the river towards the Charles Bridge, the bridge that is swarming with tourists. Decided to 'do' that tomorrow, together with Prague Castle.

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Thursday 25th May

Early start today to visit the castle but not early enough it seemed. We walked across Pragues biggest tourist attraction, 2nd to the Castle, The Charles Bridge. A beautiful stone bridge built in 1357 on which there are 30 18th century statues. As wonderful as it is, the bridge is literally swarming with tourists, which somehow takes away all the magic of it. Bashing and bumping our way through the crowds [it's that bad], we arrived in the district of Mala Strana. This windy, cobbled route leads directly up to the castle, where not unexpectedly, we were confronted once again with hordes of humanity. Quite ridiculous actually. Talk about mass tourism!! We hung around for 12noon when the changing of the guards happens but on entering the castle courtyards, we did a total turnaround and said we'd come back tomorrow - early - before the masses and masses and masses of tour groups descend on the place. the numbers of tourists just has to be seen to be believed!! It's really not any way to enjoy such a spectactular place like this. So, tomorrow we will be on a mission to get here as early as possible. We walked back down into the city and instead found ourselves in the middle of the small Jewish Quarter called Josefov. Interesting history here and some of the oldest synagogues in Europe.

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In the evening we went to visit a friend of David's called Ivan. Someone he'd met 13 years back on one of his trips and amazingly for only half an hour!! He's since been in contact with Davids sister and we just had to visit him. Ivan and his Misha were models of Czech hoospitality. We were offered a beer on arrival, then a local  'shot' called Slivovich and then a simple meal. They have 3 small children and all of them were highly entertaining. David and Ivan did a lot of reminising about their various travels and adventures after which he took us down to his local pub - a real Czech place without any tourist!! What a great evening. We planned to get together again on Monday, when another contact from 'way back when' will join us. Ivan is to cook us some Czech Bramboraks - a kind of potato pancake. Really great food.

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Friday 26th May

Very early start to attempt to avoid the tourist crowds at the Castle. Got there a 9.30am and managed to see the inside of St Vitus Cathedral, the centrepoint in the castle complex, before the hordes arrived. At about 10.30am it was again heaving with half the planet inside. Oh, how we hate mass tourism. St Vitus has been in existence from the year 929 and with various additions and alterations it was completed as we see it today, only in 1929!!! It also claims to be the biggest castle complex in the world, is the seat of the Czech government and holds the ancient bohemian crown jewels. Once we'd 'ooohed and aaahed' inside the cathedral, been up it's tower to get the views, down into the vaults and crypts and marvelled at the totally awesome stained glass windows, we wandered through the 4 courtyards to get a sense and feel of this enormous place. You'd think you were in a small town, not a castle. We visited the Golden Lane which is a row of really tiny 16th century homes, which are built into the castle walls. For the literary folk out there, this is where Franz Kafka lived and wrote. We then went inside the Old Royal Palace which has a huge vaulted hall - so very big that mounted horsemen used to enter it in order to carry out indoor jousts!! It really is huge. We spent about 6 hours up at the castle and still didn't see everything. As already mentioned, the tourist crowds here are scary stuff. Thank goodness we arrived early , so as least we experienced the cathedral in a relatively peaceful and serene way - as it should be. After our day in the castle we walked back to the hostel via the Mala Strana [little quarter] with it's 17th and 18th century  cobbled backstreets.

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Saturday 27th May

A bit of a chill out day. As my poor camera is non-functional, I thought I'd price a new one as Czech is not too expensive. Saw one, almost the same as what I have now, for half the price of what I originally paid back home! So... maybe!?? Talking about photos, for those wondering why there aren't any on the website yet... well, I'm having problems with internet cafe software and they don't make it too easy as the 'PC box' is hidden away somewhere so you can't plug the camera into it easily!! The joys of travelling.

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We popped into a Basillica called Jakoba Basillica. Wow!!What an ornate place. Over the top gold and silver decorated statues and frescoes! The organ, above the door, is magnificent. I just can't begin to describe it - so I won't!! Just believe me and wait for the pics one day....

Tonight we met up with Gemma, who had stayed at Endless Summer last year. She's studying in Prague so is able to show us the good, local and cheaper places to eat and drink. Her and her boyfriend took us to a wonderful pub/restaurant which was totally packed with locals. What a wonderful evening we had. Eating excellent food [not too expensive] and catching up on all the news, looking at pics etc... Back at the hostel at 1.30am!