Long Awaited, The Spring Break Posts: Part 3

Prague, Czech Republic: 4 April to 7 April
Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic: 7 April to 8 April

Though we flew from Glasgow to London and London to Berlin, the majority of the time we traveled by train and/or bus. Catching the train from Berlin to Prague was one of the least harrowing of our train travel experiences; it went off without a hitch.

We arrived in Prague on a gloriously sunny day. It was very hot and everyone was outside riding bikes/walking/sitting in parks/etc. Language barriers and bad directions meant we got lost trying to find out hostel, but a nice couple who were walking into the city gave us a hand and we eventually made it. There wasn't much time (or energy!) to do much on the first day we were in Prague, which was unfortunate because the weather was so great. We managed to find a grocery store to pick up some food, wandered around the neighborhood where our hostel was located (outside of the main areas of the city by a fair bit) and then headed back to the hostel which had a restaurant/bar where we spent the rest of the evening listening to a guy playing acoustic guitar and singing. We met a bunch of really friendly people (one of whom we actually ran into again in Cesky Krumlov, without planning it) so it was a pretty good, if tame, night.

Our room in the hostel had 2 rooms within it and a bathroom (so nice to not have to go down the hall to take a shower!). Since there were five of us, we stayed in the five person room and left the three person room to the three boys visiting from Florence. They were pretty nice but we didn't talk much since they were leaving the next morning (well, 2 of them left. They actually lost one going out the night before they left and we have no idea if he was ever recovered...).

Prague was pretty crazy while we were there because Obama was in town to give a speech. This meant that not only were there a LOT of tourists in the city, there were also policemen every 3 feet decked out in full armour and carrying machine guns. Kind of freaky, but cool that he was there when we were. Though we didn't go and see the speech, we did see Michelle Obama's motorcade taking her to visit the Jewish Quarter!

The coolest thing about Prague was all the markets. Though they were pretty touristy and many items were repeated in stall after stall, it was still fun to see all the things they had for sale. We got some really tasty donut-y things that they were baking right there in the market. Very tasty but messy! Additionally, the city was decked out for Easter so that was cool.

We went on a walking tour the first full day we were there, which took us from Old Town Square to the Jewish Quarter, Wenceslas Square, and a few other places. It wasn't one of the New Europe tours that we'd taken in other cities and it was not anywhere near as good. But it was still a good way to explore a bit of the city, at least the part that surrounded Old Town Square. Most of the exploration further afield was left up to us.
Atomic Clock in Old Town Square. Cool. But I don't really get how it works and our tour guide couldn't explain it.

What? You don't have an upside down horse with a right side up rider hanging in YOUR local mall? Peasant.

The Charles Bridge is supposed to be really beautiful at sunset, so we headed up there to see it. Unfortunately, it was really hazy the entire time we were in Prague so the photos I got weren't as good as some I have seen. Oh well, it was still fun. But touristy (as is everything in the center of Prague). There are statues (some rather violent) lining the bridge, and at one of them everyone was stopping to rub part of the statue, so of course I did so as well (lemming). I wonder what it meant....

Prague Castle was nice, though it's a pretty steep climb to get there! I honestly must have gotten pretty jaded about castles and cathedrals on this trip, because I wasn't as impressed with these as with some of the ones I've seen. There was a cool museum about the history of Prague and that was really interesting, but the Castle itself was definitely not as ornate as the ones we saw in London or Vienna. It has its own type of charm, though, which I saw again at the castle in Cesky Krumlov (must be a Czech thing!).

After wandering through the Jewish Quarter (which we had passed, but were unable to visit because the police had it blocked off in anticipation of Michelle Obama) we decided to splurge a little and spent the evening drinking cocktails from a restaurant near Charles Bridge. Yum.

The next day we traveled the 3 hours (by bus) to Cesky Krumlov, a small town in the Czech Republic that Shauna's older sister had visited when she was studying in Europe. It was super cute and is home to the second largest castle in the Czech Republic (after Prague Castle) so it offered some fun history as well as quaintness.

Our tour guide through the castle was HILARIOUS. She probably spoke very little English and had just memorized the spiel that they're supposed to give on the English tour, and you could tell. We would enter a room with a dining table in it, and she would say "There are tin plates on the tables. They use this for eating," or "On the left is a portrait of a young girl. On the right is a portrait of an old woman," and then move to the next room. It was a little creepy because she would lock every door behind us and then unlock the next door, so we were kind of trapped in each room.

The castle at Cesky Krumlov also houses several bears. We saw one as we were leaving after the tour and I took about 400 photos of it. It was a little sad because there was litter in its little area and I'm sure it wasn't the happiest bear in the world, but it was fun to see some wildlife after spending so much time in cities.


Getting to Cesky Krumlov was easy enough, but getting from Cesky Krumlov to Vienna was RIDICULOUS. We had to take an hour long bus ride to get to Ceske Budejovice where we could get on a train, and then had to take a train, another bus, a (really creepy one car) train, bus, train, then a tram ride and a metro ride and we were finally at the hostel in Vienna. It was insane and I am not exaggerating.

Hardly anyone spoke English, but a lot of people helped us out which we were so thankful for (because otherwise we'd probably still be lost in the Czech Republic somewhere). One of the ticket checkers on the first train actually rode with us until the last train and directed us where we needed to go. The trip also invovled a mad dash to a train because we thought it was about to leave, but then we sat on it for 45 minutes. We were misinformed.

By the end of the day we were exhausted so it was a real pain when we arrived at the hostel and they tried to charge us for an extra bed. Once we got that worked out, it was clearly time for dinner. We headed down to a main street near our hostel and found the most delicious ice cream place in the world, where we ate almost every night we were in Vienna (most nights we had a real dinner, too). You could mix and match flavors, so the possibilities were endless. Delicious.

I just realized that I've begun talking about Vienna in my post about the Czech Republic! Oops. Well, I guess you'll just have to wait a bit to hear about the rest of Vienna, as I have my last final tomorrow (unconcerned....). Or maybe I'll get bored later and finish what I've started.